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2000 Sire Order of the Dragon & 2000 Award of Excellence

    *SLEIGHT OF HAND has won the first Order of the Dragon, the first Award of Excellence and the first Legion of Merit awarded by the WPCSA.

    Sleight of Hand’s sire, Mylncroft Spun Gold, is by Solway Master Bronze and out of a daughter of Brockwell Cobweb. His dam, Coed Coch Olwen, was by Coed Coch Berwynfa and out of the beautiful Sec. A Royal Welsh Champion, Coed Coch Pelydrog. Kathy Reese bought Olwen, her first Section B, at the 1978 Coed Coch dispersal in Wales and waited expectantly for the Metritis ban on importation of mares to be lifted. During the interim, which is now 22 years, Olwen produced some wonderful ponies including Sleight of Hand. As breeder, we have Kathy to thank for the impact Sleight has had on Section B in America.

    Sleight of Hand has 37,500 Sire points and 30 individual offspring with more than 300 individual points. Sleight has produced 145 WPCSA purebred foals, more than any stallion in the past thirty-one years. Ninety-six of those foals now have points from sanctioned shows. He has seven offspring with their own Individual Legion of Merits and six mares have won Dam Legion of Merit awards through his foals.

    Sleight himself had a successful show career. He is the only pony or cob to be Supreme Champion of an American National Show more than once and he has been so honored three times: in 1988, 1991 and 1997. Although not shown extensively he has won Supreme honors under U.K. judges such as Rosemary Phillipson-Stow, Robina Mills, Caroline Bachman, Gwyl Evans, Rosemary Russell-Allen and a good number of American and Canadian judges. His children account for many more Supreme Championships under well-known judges. His career in the performance ring was very brief as he has been busy with stud duties during the time of year that he needed to be in show condition. However, he was shown in Pleasure Driving for one year at Tulsa by Ron Schwartz and was Champion. Clay Clayton and Joanna Wilburn rode him once in a while in English and Western Pleasure and he seemed to enjoy the attention.

    Sleight’s strongest trait is his lovely, happy, outgoing disposition. There is no harm to man or beast in his nature…he will give up his food to any pushy mare or even to a foal. Once Pendock Masterpiece kicked down a fence to get to Sleight during early breeding season. They were out with Masterpiece’s mares for only twenty minutes and the only open mare had a three day old foal. Amidst the general melee Sleight apparently paid court to that one mare and bloodtesting the following year showed the new foal to be his. He knows his job.

    At twenty, Sleight of Hand no longer stands at public stud except for an occasional A.I. breeding. He retired from the show ring (for the last time) after winning the Supreme of the American National Show in 1997. His offspring out of many different mares and their offspring continue to win for owners all over the country. At one American National Show all four Sec. B Champions, stallion, mare, filly and colt, were Sleight children out of four different mares and belonging to four different owners from four different states, a testament to his prepotency. In 2000 four of his kids won a total of 67 Championships including 20 Supremes. Sleight’s sons and daughters are prominent in the Welsh show world and also in the AHSA hunter pony division and have won honors at ADS events.

    Recently Sleight was awarded the first AHSA Welsh Sire of the Year cup as part of AHSA’s new emphasis on the breeding of performance animals. With around 10 foals expected in spring of 2001, Sleight’s influence will be felt in the show ring and in the breeding pastures for many years to come.

    Sleight of Hand was imported as a foal by Joe and Gail Morris, Gayfields Welsh Ponies, was led into the house to meet Joe on arrival in Arkansas and is still at Gayfields today with Arthur and Gail Thomson.