Ombreville A Growing Force

Matthieu Gouesnard is a self-proclaimed lifelong horseman–“I think I did my first foaling when I was four years old,” he said–and after growing up on his family's Haras d'Ombreville in the West of France, the 33-year-old is now making his way on his own farm of the same name in Normandy, just a 20-minute drive from the Arqana headquarters in Deauville.

“My father has been a breeder for 30 years and he had a stud farm in the West of France,” Gouesnard said. “I was born into horses and I've been into it my whole life. We closed that stud in 2001 and now we have a nice farm in Normandy. We bought the farm in December of 2011 and opened the stud for clients in October of 2012.”

In addition to gaining a very early education at the original Ombreville, Gouesnard did his formal studies at agriculture school and spent his teenage years working for some of France's leading studs like the Rothschild family's Haras du Mezeray and also Haras de la Louviere. After completing his studies Gouesnard headed to Ireland, where he spent a breeding season at Blue Gate Stud.

“It was breeding season so I was involved in the foaling, the matings and everything,” he said. “After six months I was supposed to go back to France but I stayed in Ireland and moved to Ballylinch Stud. John O'Connor was a mentor for me, he is really great and I learned a lot from him. Less than six months after starting on the farm I was put in charge of the yearling prep at Ballylinch and I spent 3 1/2 years there. I was in charge of the yearling prep and yearlings at the sale, and I was a stallion man for two years. I did foaling during the breeding season. John really trusted me and I learned a lot from him and had a chance to do a lot at Ballylinch.”

After 3 1/2 years in Ireland it was time for Gouesnard to return to France, and he spent six months at Haras de Bourgeauville before landing a job at Haras de Meautry. He soon graduated to the job of assistant manager of that nursery to Nick Bell, a post he stayed in more than three years until he struck out on his own and purchased the new Ombreville. The farm is 35 hectares, which includes 34 boxes in two barns. The resident herd still includes the family's mares, and a large percentage of the clientele is German.

“There are about 10 top stud farms in Germany and about seven of them are clients of our farm,” Gouesnard said. “When we opened the farm there were only one or two French stud farms working with Germany. We didn't go straight to Ireland or England because everyone already had those clients, and at that stage there were a lot of Germans looking for studs in France.”

Gouesnard explained that Gestut Wittkindshof was the stud's first German client, and that led to the likes of Gestut Fahrhof, Gestut Ammerland, Gestut Brummerhof and Gestut Schlenderhan sending mares. “We have really, really good clients. We're really happy,” he said. “Now we have plenty of international clients: German, American, English, Irish and some French, of course.”

Haras d'Ombreville appeared on the sales scene less than a year after it began accepting clients, with two yearlings at the 2013 v2 Yearling Sale in August. Its consignment at the following year's Arqana October yearling sale included Brownie (Fr) (Sunday Break {Jpn}), now a five-time group and listed winner in Scandinavia. Ombreville's sales graduates since have included this year's Listed Prix Saraca winner Sonjeu (Fr) (Intello {Ger}), the group-placed Holy Cat (Kitten's Joy) and Hong Kong's quirky but talented Group 1-placed Pakistan Star (Ger) (Shamardal). Pakistan Star was bred by Gestut Wittkindshof and sold by Ombreville for €180,000 to the Hong Kong Jockey Club at the Arqana August yearling sale in 2014.

While success has come quickly for Ombreville, Gouesnard is not sitting back to bask in it just yet. He said he has plans to grow Ombreville in space and quality, but wants to keep it a relatively boutique operation.

“The plan for the next five years is to grow a bit in land and space at the farm,” he said. “My objective is to have between 60 and 70 hectares, a few more boxes; I don't want to be too big, so 60 to 70 hectares would be perfect, and just keep on going with our clients and get new clients, of course. Everything is going well so we're really happy.”

“Our plan is to keep going towards having better quality at the sales,” he added. “Every year we get more mares and better mares so everything else follows 18 months to two years after that. I had only one yearling this year in the select sale in August, I had a few the year before so maybe I'll have more next year. It's important to keep the name of Ombreville at the sales to grow the farm, the clients and the consignment, but I don't want to be a big stud farm size-wise. It's not my plan to have 30, 40 yearlings in the sale. If we have 10 we have 10, if we have less we have less.”

Gouesnard said that with the rise of proven international sires in France and the entrance of some exciting young stallion prospects, it is an exciting time to be involved in the French industry.

“It's a really good thing for the French market,” he said. “For a couple of years we've started to have a real stallion market with proven sires and new really good stallions–Siyouni, Le Havre, Almanzor, Shalaa and Dabirsim–it's really good for France and I can see it with my clients, because usually we move the French mares to Ireland or England to be covered and now English and Irish breeders are coming to France to use our stallions. It's really good for our market and French breeding.”

Given the way it has started, Haras d'Ombreville looks poised to be part of a bright future for the French industry.