Take one large slice of a Welsh mountain. See that it is well covered with mountain grass and laced with ever fresh cascading streams. There must be dingles for shelter, here and there the aged thorn for shade. There must be long undulating slopes where exuberant young things may run, leap, and dance, developing limbs, muscle and bodies and perhaps lie sleeping in the summer sun. Hazards there must be - steep banks, rock strewn where feet must learn to tread cautiously and a bog here and there, for life is not always what it seems.Put upon your mountain in the springtime your herd of selected mares having first mated them with stallions of your choice. Send your stallion out with them in case of perhaps an intruder or the unmated mare.
Having obtained your mountain and mixed or mated mares and stallions with patience, many moons must you wait with faith, hope and charity. Faith in your own wise choice, hope of that elusive thing - the perfect foal! and charity in your heart before.
And for next year the mixture as before. Perhaps we will add a touch of colour, chestnut or gold, a dash of spice, a suspicion of pigment, something which will make your foal of the future the perfection we all dream about.
Dinah Griffiths
The Revel Stud.