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Margot Maitland - Equestrian Legend

This article is from the February 2019 Horse Deals magazine.

Margot as a teenager riding Manitoba at Adelaide Royal.

Margot as a teenager riding Manitoba at Adelaide Royal.

Margot Maitland took over the running of Willowcroft Stud from her mother, Anne Bailey in the early 1980s and transformed the already successful Riding Pony Stud in to one of top studs in the country, producing beautiful, modern ponies and galloways that were sought after world wide. Such success does not come without a lot of blood, sweat and tears and Margot has shed plenty of all three in her successful stewardship of Willowcroft, but what to do when there is not family to continue? Whilst the Maitland family fully appreciated what Willowcroft had done for them, none were able to take the stud on. A good business woman as well as horse lover, Margot knew she had a great product and was delighted to find the Jefferys family, now from Gunnedah, who had a love of Willowcroft ponies and a desire to purchase the stud and continue the Willowcroft name well in to the twenty first century.


“There is a thread of horse loving that goes through both the Bailey and Maitland families”, says Margot. “The Maitlands were practical horse breeders producing working and show quality Clydesdales and Thoroughbreds, whereas Mum was a true show horse lover. She used to hunt and always had a passion for horses, but marriage to a doctor put a brake on her horse activity. However, she had two horse crazy daughters, my sister Shylie and myself. When we were children, we lived on the very busy corner of Portrush and Magill Roads in Adelaide, and early on we would take Colonel the Labrador and go two blocks away to sit on the Parker Brothers’ Bakery Clydesdales and incredibly no one seemed to mind. Then we got our own horses. We had stables and a tennis court at home and Shylie and I used the tennis court as our dressage arena. We would come home from school and regularly ride three miles to a place called The Gums. It was a beautiful park like setting and it was great fun but occasionally Shylie’s mare would tie up and I would have to ride home to get Mum and the horse float.

Margot with mother and sister Shylie. Pony club days at Meningie.

Margot with mother and sister Shylie. Pony club days at Meningie.

“We were fortunate enough to have a property at Meningie in the south east and we would take the horses there for the holidays. Pony club and cattle work and plenty of horseback hilarity including having fights with “blackboys” or yucca’s we had collected from the scrub to use as lances trying to knock each other off our mounts. As time progressed, we did lots of dressage and shows and we used to do all the hack classes. I had a galloway called Manitoba that Mum bought from Laurie Evans, Jeff Evans’ father. I can remember going to his place in Adelaide and riding some of Jeff’s show jumpers over some pretty huge jumps surrounded by galvanized iron. The thought of being thrown off onto the very sharp edges was enough to make anyone hang on. Manitoba was very smart and very naughty, and he used to rear badly. Laurie had said to Mum “he will be what you make him!” I have vivid memories of riding around the Adelaide parklands with Mum following on a bicycle carrying a lunge whip to encourage him whenever he wouldn’t go forward. We had help from Tom Roberts and Prue Harvey and he finally came good. When I took him to his first Adelaide Royal, he was measured into the small hack class. If only we had thought of thin shoes! He did however hold his own in very good company and I remember my excitement when he came third to Helen Cherry’s (Heagney) top hack at his first Royal. He served me well during my teenage years and I won rider classes, medium dressage and the Intermediate Equestrian Turnout. Funnily enough my fondest memories include being asked to ride Helen’s Galloway Kingstol when she had two in for Champion and competing in junior dressage on Astrid Tong’s brilliant moving grey Galloway.

Margot riding Manitoba in her teenage years at the hunt at Buckland Park north of Adelaide.

Margot riding Manitoba in her teenage years at the hunt at Buckland Park north of Adelaide.

Margot as a teenager riding Manitoba at Adelaide Royal.

Margot as a teenager riding Manitoba at Adelaide Royal.

“As Mum was married to a medical practioner she could not indulge her passion for breeding until they moved to 90 acres at Oakbank in the Adelaide Hills. Mum had a burning desire to breed beautiful show ponies. She had done a lot of research on the English Riding Pony and got in touch with an agent in the UK, Anne Hammond. When Mum went to the UK in 1976 Anne took her to Wembley and in the huge go rounds of ponies in the morning, she asked Mum to point out what style of pony she was looking for. From the hundreds of ponies, Mum pointed to one particular chestnut mare and said, “I’d like two or three mares like that. She was in fact pointing to Holly of Spring, one of the most successful ponies in the UK at the time, so Mum got the tick of approval from Anne Hammond and was on her way to fulfilling her dream. Anne was able to procure the beautiful mare, Towy Valley Hawthorne, from Margret Rodger’s Stables as she had just measured over 13.2hh putting her in the bigger class up to 14.2hh. Luckily, Hawthorn had just been put in foal to Cygnet of Spring, Holly of Spring’s full brother, and she gave us a filly once she was back at in Oz. Mum also imported two well-bred yearlings both producing well for us. The bigger one, a grey by Heathrose Henry, was the grand dam of Regal Ensign and Regal Secret both Ridden Champions and HOTY winners.

“Mum could not find a stallion with the specific bloodlines she wanted on that trip, so the next year, aged 20, I was fortunate enough go to the UK to look at several stallions that were available for sale. Mum was keen to find a stallion by Bwlch Valentino considered to be the progenitor of the modern show pony in England at the time. I had just travelled overland from Nairobi to Cairo in the back of a troop carrier so the task of looking at famous studs in England and Wales was a dream come true.

“Among others I was taken to Patsy Drake’s stud where I was shown a Valentino colt called The Laird bred by an elderly Scottish gentleman. Patsy had bought him and his three full sisters, so when I went there, I was not only able to see the whole family, but several foals by The Laird too. At four years old, he was a bit immature looking, but his sisters were beautiful as were the foals. I was very impressed and his pedigree was perfect especially as he was out of the mare called Easter Star that was in turn out of a mare by the Arabian, Naseel, the sire of the famous, Pretty Polly. The Laird was only the third Riding Pony stallion to be imported to Australia after the Redpath’s Treharn Talisman and Aristocrat of Flawforth imported by Helen Clift from Gunnedah in NSW.

“With a stallion and some mares, the stud was up and running and Mum and Dad called it Willowcroft. Croft being the name for a Scottish small holding and Willow after the willows along the Onkaparinga River that ran through the property. Dad helped set everything up, stables, yards etc and my sister, Shylie and her husband Ian McFetridge were very involved in the running of the stud in those early days. Mum and Ian and then Shylie were also instrumental in setting up the South Australian Branch of the Riding Pony Society. I was at University and then married a farmer in 1979 and moved to his family property north of Clare so I wasn’t involved with the stud work at Oakbank after that. Mum, Shylie and Ian had that all ticking along very well and they also took outside mares to The Laird and managed to acquire several more imported mares along the way, including Snow Goose and Redmayne Primula, the dam of Vagabond.

Riding Willowcroft Vagabond by The Laird at Melbourne Royal.

Riding Willowcroft Vagabond by The Laird at Melbourne Royal.

“Because I lived on this beautiful family property, Anama Park, with paddocks and huge stables, all the young horses would come up to me where I would handle them, break them in and sell them.

“When my parents separated, Mum could not continue at Oakbank. I was fortunate to be able to purchase Shylie’s share of the stud and the whole operation moved up to Anama Park. I remember at the time discussing taking on Willowcroft with my husband, David. He was not really into horses at the time, so it was especially gratifying that he was so encouraging and supportive, even though we had two small children at the time.

“Before I took on the stud, Willowcroft ponies were out and doing well, but at Oakbank the stud was quite small. We had sold The Laird by that stage, but we had a son, Willowcroft Vagabond and a grandson, Willowcroft Wizard. They came up to Clare and away we went. David made the property work with laneways and yards. It was always a challenge getting help with the stud work and preparing youngsters for sale but everyone pitched in. When the stud came up to me, we really had a quality collection of Riding Pony mares, but as time went on the Riding Ponies evolved and became more and more refined. I had some classic Riding Pony mares with wonderful movement, but I needed a stallion that was a more refined Riding Pony type, and going back to the UK was not an option with two young boys needing to go to boarding school in the foreseeable future.

Willowcroft Wizard. Champion Riding Pony at Melbourne Royal. By Willowcroft Vagabond who was by The Laird imp.<br>
Photo: Gary.

Willowcroft Wizard. Champion Riding Pony at Melbourne Royal. By Willowcroft Vagabond who was by The Laird imp.
Photo: Gary.

“David and I went to Sydney Royal Show to watch the Riding Ponies in 1994, and I did notice a young colt that was giving Helen Clift a pretty hard time in the ring. We were walking through the stables on our way out of the old showgrounds, after watching the very well attended classes, and I will never forget this, I saw a beautiful dark brown head over a stable door. Hang on a minute, I said to David, who as always was patient and accommodating. I asked one of Helen’s helpers if we could see the rest of him out of the box. Here was this immature but gorgeous pony with a beautiful front, compact, a great length of rein, a good spot for the saddle, very strong in the hind quarters and what a huge mover. I rang Helen and when I found out he was by Rotherwood Footlight, out of one of Helen’s top English mares I asked if I could buy him. She would not sell him at that stage, but agreed to lease him to me for three years with the right to purchase him after that. Dear Helen, the consummate horse lover, wanted to make sure I would give him a good home. This was of course Urubula Regal Promise.

Urubula Regal Promise winning National Riding Pony of The Year.

Urubula Regal Promise winning National Riding Pony of The Year.

“She sent quite a few mares to him over the years and gave me a huge fronted Thoroughbred, Pentland Park Penelope, dam of a great line of galloways and park hacks including Miss Money Penny and Diamonds Forever.

“Urubula Regal Promise, in many ways, was the father of modern Willowcroft breeding and was the key to the success of Willowcroft moving forward. The Wizard mares like Willowcroft Sapphire crossed especially well. She produced a beautiful line of horses like Regal Emblem, and Regal Bronze who was exported to England to stand at Jerome Harforth’s Stanley Grange Stud. At that time, I think he was the first Riding Pony exported back to the UK with all those great English bloodlines.

The stud got to the stage where it was impossible to keep taking a show team to Adelaide Royal despite the help from Shylie and her family on the day. When I had judged Riding Ponies over two days at Melbourne Royal in 2002, when the entries were massive, I was impressed with the handler of the two youngstock Champions and the eventual Supreme Led Exhibit. Not long after I contacted Anthony Mountney to see if he would consider showing Emblem for me and this was the beginning of a very long and successful friendship. That summer Emblem went to Anthony’s Stables in NSW. A week later I got a telephone call. Margot, he’s going really well, but he has not had much education at the canter. Anthony, I said, he’s not broken in! Oh that would explain it. He just got on him and rode him. Emblem of course had had plenty of handling and I may have sat on him bareback in the yard, but he had never had a saddle on him. Six weeks later he wins the coverted Ridden Stallion or Colt from all the breeds at Sydney Royal.

Emblem winning at Sydney Royal with Anthony Mountney.

Emblem winning at Sydney Royal with Anthony Mountney.

“Over the years the stud continued to grow with Regal Promise, Regal Emblem and Mavis Dilley’s Oakvale Serenade standing at stud. Serenade, who I leased from WA for a few years, had a very laidback temperament and was a classical under 13hh Riding Pony with an exquisite head. So, with my own and outside visiting mares, it was nothing to put sixty plus mares in foal every year. Busy days especially as the height of the stud season coincided with full on harvest mode on the property. Serenade had a great influence on the Stud too, going beautifully over the Promise and Emblem mares. Pretty Woman and Prada for example, both winning Supreme Led Riding Ponies at Sydney Royal Show, both in the hands of Anthony Mountney.

Margot and Willowcroft Regal Secret by Urubula Regal Promise.<br>
Photo: Julie Wilson.

Margot and Willowcroft Regal Secret by Urubula Regal Promise.
Photo: Julie Wilson.

“The biggest challenge for me was that I did not have a horsey family. David and my two boys were supportive, but not interested in running a stud. The only person that enabled us to get away and have a family holiday for two weeks a year was my niece, Amelia (McFetridge) who came in and took over for that time. I had, in the back of my mind, been thinking of having to sell the stud one day, as I had no one who wanted to take it on and it had become a seven day a week a business, no one would work that hard just for the love of it. I started fine tuning the broodmare band as no one would be able to take on 25-30 mares unless they had a similar situation to us with big eight hundred-acre paddocks and export hay and grain on tap free of charge. I had a big reduction sale in 2000. So many people came and helped me with that and we sold 55 animals on the day all presented beautifully, even the foals were plaited. Over the next eight years I fine tuned the broodmare brand down to my top 12 mares which were breeding very well with Emblem. I thought it was a sure fire recipe for success going forward. I advertised the stud the same week that EI was announced in 2008, which was not great timing. However, the Jeffreys family were mad about Willowcroft stock, so I was lucky that I had one keen buyer who was able to take on the last thirty years breeding. Yes, there was some blood, sweat and tears but Willowcroft Stud had given me a massive amount of joy and a great sense of pride.

“It was still a very very sad day when Emblem and the last of the mares went on the truck, I can tell you, even David was crying. It was a pretty hard time for me, as I had sort of lost my identity and had just finished radiotherapy for breast cancer. The horses funded the boys education, built on to the house and paid for a very comfortable lifestyle, but I just could not go on with it into the future. A stud is something that is hard to get out of, but I was very fortunate to have the Jefferys family so keen.

“Mum was happy with the way the stud had progressed and we had a tremendous amount of fun, especially when Shylie could get away too, going to the shows together to watch the Willowcrofts. Mum loved it and it gave her a fantastic interest and her passion for horses never left her. She had a following in the horse world and everyone loved her and wanted to catch up with her whether it was at the Nationals or Royal Shows. There would always be a group of people standing around her wheelchair at these events.”

The Maitland family are fifth generation wheat farmers north of the Clare Valley. The former home of Willowcroft Stud has for generations been a wheat producer. Margot and David’s son, Jim and his wife Katherine wanted to capitalize on the family pulse and wheat production and created a “bolt on business”, Pangkarra Foods that is really a Maitland paddock to plate operation, creating wholegrain pasta, chickpea and bean snacks, chickpea puffs, lavosh and cooked chickpeas in a shelf-stable pouch. Margot is a Director of Pangkarra and because you can never keep her away from horses entirely, she has presented the Pangkarra Best Novice awards at the Royal Adelaide Show for more than a decade. Katherine also has a love of horses and has been a successful showjumper and three day event competitor for many years. And yes, there is and will probably be a foal or two at Anama Park. At the moment they are by Warmblood stallions but you never know when a Riding Pony may pop its head up as you drive past the shady horse paddocks.

Anne Bailey with youngsters by Urubula Regal Promise at Anama Park north of Clare, SA.

Anne Bailey with youngsters by Urubula Regal Promise at Anama Park north of Clare, SA.

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