Angela Crane

Angela and Brian Crane

As a small child, Angela Crane spent every spare moment mucking out in return for rides at her local riding school, joining in Pony Club activities and competing at her local Riding Club. Since getting a pony of her own at 11-years-old, horses have been a major part of her life.

Together with her husband Brian, himself a farmer whose family have been involved in breeding horses for many generations, she set out to build a stud which would gain international recognition for the quality of the stallions, mares and youngstock, paying attention to the world ranking status of the stud books, their competition achievements and the achievements of the offspring on a national and international scale. That stud is Holden Fold Stud (HFD).

In 2003, the first stallion to join the stud was nine-year-old Mooiman HFD (Flemmingh x Roemer). He was to be the only fully approved KWPN dressage stallion to stand in the UK. Angela set about training the stallion to develop his competition CV, while Brian went off to Europe to research and develop his stud managment skills and update the equipment for the breeding station.

In 2004, Mooiman made his international debut with Angela and the stud began to take shape, new highly technical equipment was introduced to the breeding station and the stud enjoyed a 100 per cent AI success rate in their first season.

Soon, two other stallions joined Mooiman HFD: eight-year-old Oliver HFD (Voltaire x Graff Grande), a fully approved KWPN multi-sport stallion, and five-year-old Santana HFD (Sandro Hit x Rohdiamant), a 30 day tested Oldenburger stallion. Santana HFD set Angela a new challenge. To remain approved with the Oldenburger stud book Santana had to either compete and win a Bundeschampionate qualifier in Germany or complete the 70 day stalllion test in Warendorf. Training began and Santana HFD successfully competed in the Bundeschampionate six-year-old competition to gain life approval with the Oldenburger stud book. Santana has since been sold.

Angela and Brian went on to found the now popular UKWPN gradings, held each summer at Myerscough College, which has an ever increasing membership.

In 2006, the stud was awarded the BQM (British Quality Mark) and given BEVA approval, at this point the semen freezing facility was also introduced.

The Stud is set to host its third annual foal inspection for the Oldenburger stud book with over 50 per cent Santana HFD offspring being awarded First Premiums and gaining the highest prices at the Brightwells foal auction in 2009.

In 2009 Mooiman HFD and Angela gained the first part of the qualification for the WEG 2010, which accompanied the first of his offspring making their international debut in Holland.

Oliver HFD offspring are also competing successfully worldwide. In the 2008 UKWPN foal inspections, Oliver x Ferro was awarded the highest scores throughout the UK.

Many of the services available at HFD are of such high quality that much of the client base consists of other established studs using the facilities ranging from phantom training to semen freezing and analysis to walk in collections and shipping.

In 2009 HFD became one of just 17 studs in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to be awarded the DEFRA approval to collect, process and ship semen to international states.

The stud remains isolated with its diverse achievements and continues to grow and develop. In 2010, following the sale of Santana, Angela acquired Spyder HFP, a coloured sports horse.