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Our History
First a bit of history. Mike and I, Carlene, met in 2001.
Mike, now retired from an Assistant Fire Chief's position,
was a career firefighter. My career has been and still
is in Veterinary Medicine as a Licensed Veterinary
Technician. When we met, Mike had only been around and
ridden the horses in front of the G.C.Murphy store into
which a nickel was placed before you rode. I on the
other hand, since my first memories have always been drawn
to horses. As a teenager, my parents told me if I
wanted a horse it would be my responsibility as they would
not be offering financial assistance. Determined to have my
own horse, I found a job, saved the money and purchased my
first horse, Netami, who is currently 35 years of age.
Mike and I married in 2003, beginning our journey together.
Our farm,
established in 2005, is the result of my life-long dream to
have a horse farm and Mike's determination to make the dream
a reality.
In 2002, we saw Cleveland Bay
Horses for the first time at the Cleveland Bay Affair held
at Montpelier in Orange, Virginia. At the time, I was
beginning the search for a new horse for myself. My
long time trusted companion and friend, a Quarter Horse,
named Netami, was then in his late 20's. Although I was
still riding him occasionally, I knew that he would need to
be retired in the near future. At the Cleveland Bay
Affair, we were impressed by the Cleveland Bay temperament,
conformation and athletic ability. We began to research and
learn more about Cleveland Bay Horses, finding that they
were a heritage breed and critically endangered
with less than 500 purebreds in the world at that time.
The more we
learned about Cleveland Bay Horses, the more we felt a
calling to assist in preventing the loss of this breed. Thus
the decision was made to develop a farm with the goal of
breeding the purebred Cleveland Bay Horse. We bought
the land, which was old farm land requiring clearing of old
barbwire fence lines, overgrown brush areas, long forgotten
farm machinery and dilapidated farm buildings. For
nearly two years as we worked on clearing and cleaning
up the land, we looked at barn designs, barn builders, went
on the Stable Tour in Upperville, Virginia and finally found
a builder, Miller Brothers, who would build our custom
designed barn within our budget.
As the
new barn, hay barn, and run-in sheds were being built in
2005, we started on the fencing. To completely finish
the fencing of all of the fields, took us over three years
working on the weekends and in the evenings. In 2006,
we purchased our first purebred Cleveland Bay filly,
OldDominion Epona.
We had
 planned
on bringing her home when she was weaned. As it turned out,
we did not complete the fencing of the first pasture until
she was 10 months old. We brought her and Netami to
the farm on the same day in November of 2006. On my
birthday in January of 2007, we brought home our second
purebred Cleveland Bay filly,
Belladonna Mahogany.
The
two fillies are our foundation broodmares. We
continued to fence throughout the winter so we would have
more than one pasture available in the spring.
From this
beginning, we have grown exponentially. In 2008. we
added a separate broodmare barn to our facility as our
original broodmare stall plan in the main barn did not
function as we had hoped. As well, we purchased three
Thoroughbred mares, to use in our Embryo Transfer Program.
All were in foal to a Cleveland Bay Stallion for 2008 foals.
One foal was lost, yet we had two healthy colts born.
Also in 2008.
we optimistically, set out to breed Epona with the intent
that the three Thoroughbred mares would carry the purebred
Cleveland Bay foals. We were hoping for three purebred
foals to be transferred. In the end, we had one
Thoroughbred mare in foal with an embryo transfer foal,
Epona was in foal and would carry the foal and one
Thoroughbred mare was bred back to a Cleveland Bay Stallion.
In July 2009,
we had three healthy fillies born. Two purebred
Cleveland Bays, who are full siblings, and a Cleveland Bay x
Thoroughbred. We will be adding our two purebred
Cleveland Bay fillies,
Epiphanybay Independence
and
Epiphanybay Constance to
our broodmare line. Our primary goal remains to breed
purebred Cleveland Bay Horses. In addition, we will also be
breeding Cleveland Bay Sport Horses.
 Currently,
purebred Cleveland Bay Horses remain a
critically endangered heritage breed
with the worldwide number of active adult breeding
mares between 100 and 300 according to the American
Livestock Breed Conservancy. The total number of
purebred Cleveland Bay Horses is currently, just below 700
in the world. Despite their low numbers,
Cleveland Bay Horses are quite versatile with successes in eventing,
fox hunting, driving, dressage and jumping. Cleveland
Bay Horses are known for their steady temperament and solid
bone conformation. They are often crossed with other
breeds, primarily Thoroughbreds, to produce the Cleveland
Bay Sport Horse. Currently, we have three
Cleveland
Bay Sport Horses
for sale.
In
addition to breeding Cleveland Bay Horses and Sport Horses, One of the goals of our farm is
to provide the opportunity for others to be introduced to
Cleveland Bay Horses, both purebred and sport horses. Individual farm tours can be
scheduled by appointment. Educational Group Tours, such as
4-H groups, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and school groups can be
arranged by appointment. Please contact us by email at
info@epiphanybayfarm.com. Our hope is
that you learn more about Cleveland Bay Horses, enjoy your
visit to our website and perhaps become an owner of one or
more of these amazing horses.
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