About Us

We’ve been involved in the Knabstrupper breed for around 20 years. In 2024, we acquired a farm in South West Scotland where SB Sporthorses was founded. The farm is undergoing extensive renovations, enabling us to house, breed, train and raise our horses as we focus on Sport-Type Knabstruppers who can, and will, do any “job” at affiliated levels.

SB is led by Jessica, whose love of spots began around 30 years ago. She’s seen photographed as a toddler here atop a spotted pony, Tiger Moth, with her Aunt Heidi guiding from the ground.

Jess’s first spotted horse was Ringo, a 14.2hh Appaloosa gelding who proved instrumental in instilling some true riding and training skills in a then early teenage girl.

Around the same time, the family owned and trained a number of Broomells’ British Spotted Ponies and shortly after that, welcomed their first Knabstrupper, Tresaison Gracie.

Tresaison Gracie was “the” horse. Not only was she an incredible mover, her personality was so bold, sweet and inquisitive; she was the “ideal” horse.

Our passion:

Pictured: Tresaison Gracie at her KNN grading, achieving a First Premium and Best in Show.

Grace returned to her breeder, Tresaison Stud, for life as a ridden horse and broodmare and a decade or so later, in 2024, she foaled Tresaison Confetti. Jess jumped at the opportunity to have a piece of Grace at home.

Now in their 30s, Jess and her husband have their own property to call home, and thus, this stud was formed.

Our philosophy:

There are too many horses for the amount of great homes available, and we will never add to this problem. At SB, we believe that any horse born into this world needs to be physically and mentally capable of doing a “job”, to safeguard their future and protect the status of our breed.

Our breeding philosophy focuses on type, functional ability, and temperament. We aim for sound and healthy horses capable of competing well at affiliated-level competition in any of the 3 main disciplines, Dressage, Show Jumping and Eventing.

Knabstruppers, of course, have the added bonus of colour. We do not, and will never, put colour ahead of physical capability and aim to improve the bloodlines in the UK by carefully selecting performance lines for our mares.

We believe in letting horses be horses and as such we aim for 24/7 turnout in summer, and a maximum of 8 hours per day indoors in winter, purely to ensure hooves have a drying out time in our exposed position.

It is normal, therefore, to see hairy horses adorned with some mud throughout the winter months. Where required we rug from weanlings upwards for outdoor periods, but as our climate is relatively mild and wet, rugging tends to be held for older or clipped horses, or when the weather forecast is both windy, cold and wet.

Our horses are provided 24/7 ad lib forage year round, including our own cuts of haylage throughout the colder months. Hard food is added on a case by case basis and, thankfully, our hilll paddocks provide ample enrichment for mental wellbeing, yet also providing varied ground for improved physical balance, strength and longevity.

Our Facilities:

  • Turnout

    We have 19 acres of grazing land, which consists of a mixture of lowland level pasture and rougher, undulating and rocky hill pasture. The mixture ensures our horses are both surefooted and well-muscled when field-fit.

  • Stabling

    We have a small set of custom-built IAE 14ft square internal loose boxes, alongside a separate 10m x 6m stone foaling barn, and various modern sheds which can be adapted for equine housing where and when required.

  • Hacking

    We can hack off-road for miles around the farm, and neighbours’ land with permission, utilising various tracks and trails that all include hill-work. The terrain throughout varies from soft stretches to rocky outcrops.

The Future:

Over the next decade, we aim to add the following facilities to the yard to ensure we can continue to meet our breeding goals.

  • We aim to shortly add stocks to assist our vets to safely carry out examinations and AI.

  • We will be adding a 20m×40m (minimum) outdoor school in one of the few flat areas on the site.

    This area is protected by steep rocky embankments on the east and north sides, sheltering schooling sessions from the worst of the cold winds.

    The south side is currently mature trees, which will be bolstered to provide an additional windbreak. The rest of the farm sits to the west.

  • We aim to add a round pen to the farm in the future to aid in backing young horses.

    In the winter of 2024/25, Velia [Jjays Phoenix] was backed using purely the stable and field areas. Although this shows it can be done, good footing and a secure area would help immeasurably!

  • Our fencing is currently temporary to allow for a 24-month learning period to see how the ground responds in all seasons.

    We are lucky to have areas suitable for summer and winter 24/7 turnout, and permanently fenced rotational grazing will be completed when our testing is complete.

Connie at 7 months old, on a 6 acre rough grazing paddock.