04/16/2026
Some history on our breeding program
Nicolette Merle-Smith has always had a place in the saddle. As the daughter of well-known horsemen Grosvenor and Rosemarie Merle-Smith, the Mongol Derby veteran developed a strong foundation with horses at a young age. Her first love has always been foxhunting, but she also rides and trains for eventing, hunters, jumpers, and dressage.
“As a kid and young teen, my mom would have me ride the sale horses because people were more likely to buy horses a kid could ride, but it was a really great experience for me. I rode loads of horses,” Merle-Smith tells The Plaid Horse.
Her parents were importing horses from Ireland as well as PMU babies from Canada. Merle-Smith found her first big success on the offspring of a PMU mare named M-S Reddy Fox. She and the Appaloosa/Thoroughbred cross rode and competed in several disciplines including first level dressage, preliminary eventing, hunter derbies, and foxhunting first flight.
“He wasn’t the type that was going to be an upper-level horse, but he put my name on the map,” says Merle-Smith of the gelding. “Together, we got my lowest dressage score to date, a 20.5.” M-S Reddy Fox went on to inspire the annual Safe Harbor Award, which is given to the most amateur-friendly horse in the Young Event Horse Series, before being sold to the UK in 2009.
Following her success on M-S Reddy Fox, Merle-Smith purchased the large pony Ganymede as a six-year-old. The Connemara/Thoroughbred cross took her to the CCI* Eventing level, and in 2012 they competed together in their first Intermediate.
“She is only 14.2 hands, but she would jump anything I pointed her at,” she says. Produced by Merle-Smith, Ganymede went on to win the Theodore O’Connor Trophy for the USEA Pony of the Year title twice with her new Junior/Young Rider owner, and the Tre Awain Halfbred Hall of Fame Award (American Connemara Pony Society), for a lifetime of competition achievement in the United States Equestrian Federation. “It took me a long time, but that pony made me believe in myself,” she says. “I truly believe now that I can produce one heck of a horse.” And now, she’s added breeding them to her resume.
📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2024/04/18/how-nicolette-merle-smith-is-carrying-on-the-legacy-of-her-family-farm-by-producing-top-quality-amateur-friendly-horses/
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