Billy Stud - William Funnell, Donal Barnwell, Pippa Funnell Description The Billy Stud is a unique joint venture between William Funnell, Pippa Funnell and Donal Barnwell that brings together all their experience in showjumping, eventing and breeding. Their knowledge has created a winning formula for consistently breeding and producing champion sports horses for the future. Their aim is to be the source of the best British bred competition horses in volumes adequate to satisfy the market. General Information William Funnell is a world-renowned show jumping rider with over 20 years experience at the top of his sport. He has won over 20 International titles and has represented his country all over the world at the highest levels. Donal Barnwell has over 20 years experience in breeding horses and, in addition to his own unique philosophy and outlook on selection, breeding and training, is recognised as having one of the best eyes in the business. Together they have created The Billy Stud and have developed a successful production program of young homebred horses where their individual philosophy’s and approach are reaping rewards in producing successful sport horses. They both have a firm belief that the Irish bloodlines have a lot to offer and give advantages over Continental breeding. The Irish bloodlines have been under-estimated in the past and they believe that their investment to date has given them an advantage in the market. The Billy Stud is now in its 17th year but it all started from small beginings… William and Donal have been great friends for many years since back when William was based with the late Cyril Light at the Brendon Stud. They have always bought and sold a few horses together. With William’s talent as a jockey and Donal’s knowledge and eye for a horse, led them to some successful purchases, one of them being a mare called Tatum. Little did they realize at the time that Tatum would go on to become the foundation mare of the Billy Stud. Tatum was an Irish bred mare Clover hill/ Sky Boy. From the offset William & Donal thought that by crossing great Irish blood lines with some top European stallions had the potential to produce some fantastic sport horses for both Showjumping and Eventing. William states, ‘ to be a great jumper in todays classes, the horses have to not only have great technique and ability they also need to have a lot of blood’. At the time a good friend of Williams, Morten Aasen owned the top Dutch warmblood jumping stallion Animo. Animo had competed in 48 world cup qualifiers and had been to the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona. William had always liked Animo and as seen with many of his progeny he gives them great confirmation, a powerful hind leg and extra blood. A stroke of luck maybe but because Morten was local to William he decided to cover Tatum with Animo, this proved to be a perfect combination. The first foal was born Chestnut and Donal referred to him as Orange, but at the age of 4 when he went to Williams yard he was known as Billy, and from there came his show name Billy Orange. This would eventually lead onto become the ‘Billy’ prefix for all the horses from the Stud. Billy Orange was very Successful with William before being sold onto Roelof Bril where he went onto compete up to super league level.