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Garland Poil and her mother Dejané own the Bridgewater Stud, one of South Africa’s most renowned Saddlebred studs. Poil, who runs the stud, says that over the years, the Bridgewater Stud has built on the legacy of her father Harold, a stalwart and legend in the South African Saddlebred community.
In his younger years, Harold, originally from Montana in the US, worked under his mentor Garland Bradshaw, a prominent and highly respected American Saddlebred trainer in the US.
In the 1970s, however, Harold emigrated to South Africa, bringing with him American Saddlebred horses. According to Poil, Harold’s daughter with Dejané, a significant equestrian in her own right having earned the title of being one of the youngest riders ever to be accepted into the South African Lipizzaners, her father fell in love with the country and decided to stay.
“He ran his own training stables for some time for outside clients, and worked for private owners and breeders over the years,” says Poil.
However, Harold eventually established his own stud on Bridgewater Farm in Hekpoort, near the Magaliesberg mountain range in Gauteng, where the Poils have now been living for around 40 years.
With the launch of his own stud, Harold cemented his legacy as one of the most important figures in the South African Saddlebred community, a reputation that Bridgewater still carries. Harold sadly passed away in January 2018, and Poil completely took over the reins of running the stud.
The Nite Legacy
Bridgewater Stud is perhaps best known for the ‘Nite Legacy’, which has dominated the South African show ring and accompanying sire ranking for the past two decades. This is a phenomenal feat, which has propelled Bridgewater Stud into becoming
one of the top Saddlebred studs in the country.
The father-and-son duo, Enja Hell-Of-A-Nite and Bridgewater’s Stake Nite, has made history by achieving what no other father-son duo achieved before: Enja Hell-Of-A-Nite held the General Sire of the Year title for a total of nine years, before conceding the title to his son Bridgewater’s Stake Nite, who has in turn secured the title for the sixth consecutive year. These two sires are the cornerstone of the stud’s breeding philosophy.
Both stallions have also secured consecutive wins as Senior Sire of the Year and Living Sire of the Year, amongst other notable accolades (see table).
In 2005, three of Enja Hell-Of-A-Nite’s offspring took first, second and third place in the Five-Gaited Three-year-old Division, with Bat out of Hell coming first, King of Clubs coming second, and Lite of the Nite coming third.
In 2010, Enja Hell-Of-A-Nite repeated this hat-trick for the Five-Gaited Four-year-old Division with Royal Nite coming first, Nite after Nite coming second and Sultry Nite coming third.
In 2022, Bridgewater’s Stake Nite became the first sire with offspring to win three South African Grand Champion titles in a single year with Regal Nite, Unstoppable Nite and, Noble Admiral claiming the honours.
While both Enja Hell-Of-A-Nite and Bridgewater’s Stake Nite had short careers as show horses, they were very successful, with both winning the South African Champion Five-Gaited Three-year-old title. Offspring from both sires have dominated this division over the years, as well as the South African Champion Five-Gaited Four-year-old Division.
Breeding
Poil, named after her father’s mentor Garland Bradshaw, is a lawyer by profession and runs various other businesses, while also running the stud.
“I wake up very early in the morning to do all my contract work [aside from the stud], before it’s warm enough for the horses to come out of their stables,” she says.
“We generally start with the breeding aspects of the stud in the morning.” Fortunately, Poil adds, professional trainer Nicolene Venter is able to handle much of the duties on her own with a very capable and long-standing team, freeing up some of Poil’s time to handle other aspects of the business and her professional career throughout the day.
“We have a rare set-up here in that we do everything. Most studs or stables focus either on training or breeding. At Bridgewater, we focus on breeding, the raising of foals and starting of young horses, as well as showing,” she says.
With her father’s legacy and her mother’s background in dressage and equitation, it was not a surprise that Poil too became an accomplished equestrian.
“What I’ve taken most from my parents is the love of the breeding side and the genetics, and a passion to improve the breed over time. “I’m always looking to produce the next, more exceptional individual, and to refine the qualities that make Bridgewater’s horses great.”
Regal Nite is testament to Poil’s philosophy. This stallion is the son of Bridgewater’s Stake of the Nite, and is gearing up to follow in his sire’s and grandsire’s footsteps as a leading sire.
According to Poil, the Saddlebred is an intelligent and exceptionally athletic horse. It is also particularly versatile, and able to excel at all disciplines, including showjumping, dressage, saddle seat, harness work, and cross country. It is also a great horse for outrides, she says.
“The Saddlebred has an incredible temperament; these horses are fiery and hugely passionate. They love what they do, and are fun horses to ride.”
In terms of the stud’s breeding programme, Poil says planning is done years in advance.
“You have to choose the correct pairings and the correct genetics and bloodlines to achieve the ultimate horse. This can take years’ worth of planning in advance,” she explains. “But obviously, once your horse has conceived, you’ve got another year before she foals, which allows you to prepare for the next breeding season.”
Poil specifically selects horses that are highly intelligent and trainable. “This means that they will learn quickly, and the turnover time once they start learning is shorter,” she says.
“A successful breeding programme depends on breeding animals that are capable of learning quickly and getting to the point where they can do the job that is expected of them.”
But these are not the only qualities Poil looks for when choosing breeding pairs.
“We combine stallions and mares that will amplify each other’s best traits and cancel out any traits that are undesirable. We also look for conformation, athleticism and temperament. A lot of people overlook temperament when breeding animals.”
Poil says that selecting horses with the right temperament is part of their breeding philosophy, and explains that temperament is indeed inherited.
“We work our mares and stallions before they become members of the breeding herd, where they are assessed for mental temperament, whether they have that show horse quality, and whether they’ve got the heart [passion] for it. My dad always used to say: performance breeds performance. You can’t expect to breed an exceptional horse if you don’t start with exceptional parents,” she says.
Poil says that many studs turn their exceptional mares, for example, into show horses before selling them for a good price, while keeping the mares that are not particularly good in the show ring as broodmares.
“This doesn’t make any sense. How do you expect to improve your bloodline, improve your breeding qualities, and improve your genetics if you’re taking the weaker specimen and putting her into your breeding pool?
“This is why we work all our young horses and choose our breeding stock from our most exceptional horses.”
Bridgewater Stud currently houses four stallions, while there are 10 to 20 mares on the farm at any given time.
“We focus on quality over quantity,” says Poil. “From an ethical perspective, we’ve realised that as breeders, every animal we produce is a life we are responsible for. We have an ethical duty to ensure that every animal we produce has the potential to be an exceptional animal and find a good home.”
Mares are not covered every year, and visiting mares are brought to the farm during the breeding season. Bridgewater Stud also sells semen straws from their stallions to other studs. The stud’s breeding season runs from September to February. Both artificial insemination and live covering is used on the farm.
After weaning at six months, the foals are kept with a ‘nanny’ donkey in a herd for two years before the team at Bridgewater begins handling them.
“It is three to four years before you will see a horse come into the show ring and therefore requires patience, but is rewarding like nothing else if breeding is your passion,” says Poil.
Feed and healthcare
The horses are provided with a custom-made feed that was developed by Harold over the years. The feed is a meal (not a pellet), and delivered fresh every two weeks.
The horses receive the meal three times a day, and receive teff and Eragrostis ad lib. During summer, the horses graze during the day.
“We feed every horse, from the foals to the breeding stock, the same quality food. It’s important to feed your breeding stock a quality feed. Food is very, very important to a breeding programme,” Poil says.
Bridgewater Stud deworms their horses every three months, and uses a different product every time to prevent parasites building up resistance to any particular product.
“Deworming is a very important part of a horse’s health. You can feed the best-quality food in the world, but it doesn’t help if your horse is infested with parasites, and they’re not getting access to the actual feed,” Poil says.
In terms of African horse sickness, Poil says all show horses must be vaccinated as per industry guidelines. However, she says that it is not show horses that are at risk, but rather the studs’ breeding stock.
“The show horse is not at risk because he’s being controlled. He’s in a stable, and only goes out during certain hours of the day. He’s not really exposed to the vector that carries the disease.
“But because the vaccine has become so expensive, many breeders decide to not vaccinate their breeding stock, as they’re already obligated to vaccinate their show horses, and so the industry could lose a lot of genetic material that is important for future generations.”
Future plans
Bridgewater Stud is now focused on breeding exceptional individuals, which are then trained, shown and sold on to other professional training stables for their riders to love and enjoy.
With the foundation built by Harold over several decades, and the dedication and commitment of his daughter to continue and build on his legacy, it is no surprise that Bridgewater Stud is maintaining its reputation for being one of the foremost Saddlebred studs in South Africa.
