The stud farm of Valviejo is the third generation of the well-known stud of the Duke of Veragua, so the history of our stud begins in the early twenties with the first purchases of Cristobal Colon y Aguilera, XV duke of Veragua. . Its origins and foundation mares are the five Skowroneck daughters (Reyna, Namira, Jalila, Nasieda and Shelifa) together with nine other mares imported from England, such as Razada´s dam Rayna, Insilla, a daughter of Naseem and Ritla another important Crabbet mare. To this impressive group of mares he added those he bought in Spain, purchasing the whole stock of the stud of the Marquis de Domecq, with famous mares such as Fianza, Beni Amer, Cadiz and Caftan, plus those from other stud farms and from the Yeguada Militar where he acquired Raquel and daughters of Ursus and Wan Dick, and some the Duke bought in France like Sada Yama, this all added to a total of around 40 brood mares. . The stallions from those days, and that turn up in any classical Spanish Arabian pedigree, were the English import Razada, and Sirio III and Sirio IV and later Kashmir and Nana Sahib among others. To make an accurate account of those days could be enough for a book that has already been written. “A Glorious Task”, by Andrew K. Steen.
After the death of the Duke of Veragua, and as he was a bachelor and the only brother of my grand mother the Duchess of la Vega, his heritage passed on to his nephews and nieces, and from these the only one to continue breeding was my mother, Piedad Colon de Carvajal, Marchioness of Avella, who continued the tradition in the same stud farm as the Duke, Valjuanete. . At the end of the Spanish Civil War a great part of the stud was sold to the Yeguada Militar, except for those mares my mother choose and kept for herself in order to continue breeding, and for that purpose she always counted with the unconditional support of my father Manuel Valdes, who even after my mother was gone in 1993, he continued with the same enthusiasm he showed in 1936 when they married, in spite of his old age.. This very long period of breeding in Valjuanete, more than 60 years!, is also difficult to put in just a few lines, it is a basic and fundamental period for the breeding of Arabians in Spain, because the products of Valjuanete were the foundations for many of the now a days breeders and not only in Spain, Valjuanete also exported horses along those years to the Royal Stud of Jordan and that of Morocco, and to well known breeders in the USA, France, Germany, Netherlands, Philippines, Venezuela, Austria, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Cuba, Santo Domingo, England, Sweden, Switzerland, Mexico, Costa Rica etc. etc. During those years the horses of Valjuanete won a great number of prizes, they were supreme champions in the old Feria del Campo in Madrid in many occasions, as well as many prize winners in our National shows and in the International level, the four times they participated in the Nations Cup, they always won. They were also very successful in Sports, the winner of the first edition of the endurance race Madrid-Lisbon in the early 50´s was a horse from Valjuanete, and the absolute Spanish Champion for jumping several years in the 70´s was a Valjuanete part bred “Lobato”, whose offspring are still competing successfully in Spain. Valjuanete used the best stallions of Spain, not Only Nana-Sahib or Kashmir, that were born there, but also the best from the Yeguada Militar such as Maquillo, Talento, Garbo, Zancudo, or Zacateco, and with this origins starts the stud farm of Valviejo.
THE NEW STUD VALVIEJO
In 2005, my husband Javier Blanco-Cobaleda and I moved to Valviejo a beautiful farm in the “campo charro” of Salamanca with old magnificent oak trees and a wonderful pasture for the mares. There we have built stables with 52 boxes, an inside arena of 42 x 24 mts, an outside arena of 75 x 45 mts. Two round working arenas, a walker, a track for training horses for jumping. The barn is communicated with six paddocks of 6 Has. each, plus some 60 Has. in bigger paddocks. We have done all the necessary facilities not only for the proper feeding but also for sanitary care with a special place for inseminations, treatments etc.
Our basic breeding has started with ten Arabian mares from Valjuanete and 4 partbreds (2 Anglo-Arabs and 2 CDE-Spanish Sport Horse), following also Valjuanete tradition for sport horses. The Arabian mares are mainly of Zancudo and Zacateco origin, which have given us such good produce and transmit beauty and movement.
As stallions we are now using Val Luxor (Champion at Torre Pacheco-Murcia), is a beautiful, tall, easy to ride horse with a good disposition and that has already given us good colts and fillies. We have also brought from the UK two colts, Haisom and Estel P (this last on lease from Gerald P. Watson) a son and a grandson of El Perfecto which have in their pedigree World Champions all of pure Spanish lines, that I am sure will give us splendid results. And for the future and in order to try a refresh in part of our stock, we have two young colts by Gaspar (Polish National Champion – out of Gaskonia also Polish National Champion mare) both of them out of Val Nora one of our best mares that I am sure will be two magnificent stallions.
Valviejo wants to be a modern breeding farm with the aim of improving our horses, and is open to outside horses for breeding, resting or training.
