We have reached another milestone in our horse life: we rode Cletus, our four year old buckskin gelding! If you remember, we bought him as a baby alongside his mother, Penny, in the fall of 2011.
About Us
Welcome to Lyford Stud
Home of the Starkey family.
Carol has been riding since before she could walk, receiving her first pony on her first birthday. During her childhood Carol competed in show jumping and after leaving school she went to work in a dressage and showing yard. Whilst there she trained with a junior and young event rider and trainer and at age 16 years Carol started eventing and went on to compete up to Intermediate level. She attended Warwickshire Agricultural College where she gained the National Equine Diploma (the highest equine qualification at the time). Before her third year at college Carol was keen to improve her show jumping phase in eventing and took the opportunity to go to Germany to train with top level show jumpers there. During her time in Germany Carol would bring on young horses jumping up to 130cm level and by the time Carol returned the UK she was bitten by the show jumping bug and her focus changed to pure show jumping. She has competed successfully in BSJA on her own horses, trained students, taken in horses for veterinary rehabilitation and re-schooled difficult horses.
Scarlett & Lily
Carol's two daughters are both involved in day to day operations at Lyford Stud and are keen and committed equestrians themselves. In addition to their home training, both have been members of the Old Berkshire Hunt branch of the Pony Club since they first learnt to ride. They have taken advantage of the training opportunities available, both on and off horses. Working their way through the test programmes, Scarlett holds the AH Standard achievement, Lily has passed the B test, and both are following in her mother's footsteps as they work their way through the Coaching levels. Both girls regularly represent the branch at Area, Regional and National competitions with great success - notably Scarlett won the Novice Dressage competition at the National Championships 2025.
Our Stories
Building lifetime memories
You can never have too many horses, right? My sister from Idaho called me the other day and offered me her beautiful blue roan mare. I didn’t know what to say, other than, “Please and thank you.”
We got a phone call last weekend out of the blue. The girl had been searching online for horse trainers in the area and found an ad we had placed probably eight years ago when we were looking for outside horses.
meet our sponsors
Tourner’s commitment to supporting and adding value for their clients drives everything they do. They supply horse clubs and racing teams with apparel and gear and also invest into development of riding schools.
Tourner
www.demolink.orgOwned by Frank Smith, this company manufactures and sells high-quality vintage clothing all over the world. They also help us with the promotion of horse shows and horse riding education.
Frank’s Co.
www.demolink.orgRetro Press is our No. 1 partner when it comes to advertising our services and riding school programs. They also help us a lot with promotion, purchase of new horses, and events organization.
