United States Eventing Association

There is a United States breeder that has an astounding four homebred horses qualified and entered at the 2016 Nutrena USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Land Rover (AEC) this week. Elizabeth “Didi” Callahan, from Oxford, Maryland, will not only be riding her own homebred event horse, Merlin, (Master Amateur Novice) but she’ll have the fun of watching Doug Payne ride Lysander (Open Intermediate) and Quantum Leap (Professional's Choice Training Horse) and Coti Hausman ride Quantico (Preliminary Horse). All were bred by Didi at her Cool Na Grena Sporthorses farm on the eastern shore of Maryland.

And all four are out of different mares by different stallions and come from the Cool N Grena Sporthorses’ small program producing only an average of two foals a year. How does she do it?

First, Didi rides and has evented since 1994, competing up to Intermediate on her mare Leia, who also qualified for and competed at the AECs a few years ago. Didi and her husband Robert Drysdale ride all of the mares regularly; Didi competes them in eventing and dressage, while Robert enjoys trail riding. Another factor in her success: her expertise in reproduction. She practices full time at Veterinary Medical Associates of Easton, MD. As an equine veterinarian, she does breed her own mares – and that has helped her select and ship semen from stallions available all over the world.

Merlin (Mighty Magic – Leia by Le Champion). Owned, ridden and bred by Didi Callahan. Photo courtesy of Callahan.

And the third factor has to be her eye for a good horse and a good mating. She picks her sires basically from videos, looking for warmbloods with good movement and a good jump. They have to have both qualities for the Cool Na Grena mares. “Not just an ‘up and down’ jump,” she cautions. “I want to breed a horse that will get to the other side of a cross-country jump.”

She registers all the foals. “I believe in registering the foals, even the geldings; it’s very important to me that they are all registered and recorded.” She takes them to inspections, utilizing the RPSI (Rhineland-Phaltz-Sahr) and NA Oldenburg registries and has had a record of excellent success with mostly event bred foals at the primarily dressage inspections. Last year one of her foals, Quiberon, won his inspection with highest score locally, and the ended third overall in the nation.

Her off the track purchase AheadoftheBest, a thoroughbred mare, scored very impressively at the RPSI inspection in 2015 gaining the highest scores of any mare presented in the US. And her homebred mare Rehoboth (named for a local beach) has been awarded Elite status with the ISR/Oldenburg NA registry, a rare honor only a few mares in the nation have attained. Her most valuable mare she feels is Report to Sloopy, (currently leased) who is a half sister to Sloopy, the former four star event horse ridden by USET team member John Williams.

Quantum Leap (Quite Capitol – Report To Sloopy) at the YEH Championships. Ridden by Doug Payne. USEA/Leslie Mintz Photo.

But she still only produces an average of two foals a year, so it is all the more impressive that not only four of riding age are qualified and attending the national eventing championship competition this year, but there are actually two more of her homebreds competing in eventing not at the AEC’s; Wailea has completed a CCI* and Graf Bobby just completed his first recognized event this month. And Didi has bred a four-star horse, Slate River, (Riverman – Etoile by Bonjour) ridden by Heather Morris at Rolex.

Those results led to her win in 2009 as the USEF’s leading eventing breeder. Last year she finished in third place in the nation, and she’s on track to repeat the win again this year. Here’s the Cool Na Grena-bred 2016 lineup at the AECs:

Merlin (Mighty Magic – Leia by Le Champion). Didi rode Leia to Intermediate and also previously competed her at the AECs. Owned and ridden by Didi Callahan.

Lysander (Lordship – Just For Terry) - owned by Kristin Michaloski and Doug Payne, and ridden by Doug Payne

Quantum Leap (Quite Capitol – Report To Sloopy) owned by Susan and Dave Drillock and Doug Payne, and ridden by Doug Payne

Quantico (Quite Easy – Little Black) owned and ridden by Coti Hausman

To see more about Didi’s horses and breeding, her website is www.cngsporthorses.com.