Here at Chisum Lea Farm we are truly a family affair. Catherine was brought up with ponies from an early age, encouraged by her father a farmer through and through. He would take precious time off from the farm to take Catherine to the local shows where her love for competing evolved. A passion for horses followed on, never to be shook off! Nicole was discouraged at an early age as Catherine did not want to “force” a life of horses onto her. However some of Nicoles fondest memories are still of putting practice jumps up above her head when at away shows with her mum.
Heading off to an all girls grammar school Nicole was soon a regular on the school showjumping team, despite her mums pleas to get a “normal job” Nicole not only got great results at school, and a degree in Computer science but went onto secure a very good job in project management. However the lure was too much, Nicole informed her mum that she didn’t want to sit in an office 9-5 Monday to Friday, and proceeded to follow her passion into the horse industry.
And so Chisum Lea Farm as we know it now was born. Aside from the main players, we are very lucky to have Nicoles brothers who are there when needed to bring bales in, transport haylage, moved feeders, roll fields, spread fertiliser, fix fences etc. Nigel, Catherines husband an agricultural mechanic by trade is very useful, he now knows how to bruise corn in the winter, and is great at providing the odd tractor for arena levelling, and fixing those awful odds and ends that crop up; you know the broken doors…hay bars detaching themselves from the wall etc!
We are lucky to come from a farming background Catherine has qualifications in Agriculture, which is extremely important to ensure good grassland management, and a high level of animal husbandry. Having a qualification in Equestrian coaching, along side decades of experience competing up to and including home international level, and years of breeding/foaling mares it is a good basis for the business we are now running. Nicole as previously stated has a degree in computer science which is extremely useful for website design, marketing, and social media. She has also competed up to and including 1.20m while she was still working full time. Both of us love working with the young horses, getting inside their minds, educating them, and seeing their progress is very satisfying. We strive to provide the best customer service to our clients, and feel that we have made life long friends along the way.
Our main business plan is selling our foals each year, a few are kept which are nearly all sold before reaching the age of 4. We invested in the best mares we could source at the time, and are very happy with the selection we have. We added on extra mare to our portfolio this year, Capri. She has competed at 1.50m and has a string of relations on her dams side competing at 1.60m etc. Our mare total stands at 7 at the minute, but we will be retiring our eldest mare, by Caviler Royale, next year once she has weaned her foal, so that will take us down to 6.
Anything we can’t provide ourselves on the farm is sourced locally, again Nigel is very useful for this as he has such a large client base, he knows many farmers who can provide the extra straw etc that we may need to purchase.
We do a little bit of young horse livery if we have the space; this includes basic handling, and more advanced education. We work very much with the natural training system, including the use of voice aids, and lots of ground work to teach the horses slowly, and build a firm foundation. We also break and back our own horses if we have any at that age, the last one we did is now in USA and her owner is very pleased with her.
But back to the heading…really the whole joy of our business, and our passion for the horses, is our family, Catherine/Nicole, Nigel, Jake Shane and Zac. Team work really does make the dream work <3