Ranfurly was a half Cleveland Bay and half Thoroughbred. Born in 1983 and passed away 11 May 2010, there is no denying that he was a very handsome horse that oozed presence, and standing at 17.1hh he was hard to overlook.

His sire, the Purebred Harrington Matchmaker, imported to NZ from the UK in the 80s, was also a horse of great presence, being campaigned lightly before retiring to stud. Ranfurlys dam, Wairewa Lass, provides some exceptional TB bloodlines, going back through Mainbrace to Precipitation, who has been a most influential sire.

Ranfurly had a successful dressage career competing to Open Medium in Australia and after returning to NZ in 1994, spent a season show jumping with David Goodin. He always competed as a working stallion, demonstrating his laid back temperament.

Ranfurly has sired numerous winning competition horses in all disciplines in both Australia and NZ, and the versatility of this breed sees them performing as great all-rounders, capable of hunting one day and show jumping 1.40m the next or producing a winning dressage test.

He was a superb cross over TB mares introducing bone, height and trainability but crossed equally as well with other breeds. The ability of the Cleveland Bay to reproduce itself, takes the gamble out of breeding as you know exactly what type of foal you are going to get.

The Cleveland Bay sporthorse is a good mate and personality that once you have experienced, you wont want to be without. They are less complicated then many of the purpose-bred warmbloods and are very forgiving. As an endangered breed, statistically their performance record is phenomenal. Small on numbers big on results!