Five Minutes With... Bev Edwards - Jaybee Farm

John and Bev Edwards purchased 300 acres at Mt Berryman in the Lockyer Valley in Queensland, in order to set up a stud operation, run some brood mares and the cattle they owned at the time they were lecturing at the Queensland Agricultural College, University of Queensland, Gatton Campus. Both Bev and John are very experienced animal breeders with a strong competition background. They are very aware that quality is not coincidence… it is governed by genetics!

Bev has had a very successful career covering many disciplines and says, “If you want to ride a horse with an aptitude for the work and the qualities to take you through the grades, then you must be uncompromising when it comes to conformation, soundness, athletic ability and temperament”.

Bev and John are ‘hands on’ horse people and their dedication and commitment to excellence has seen Jaybee Farm become acknowledged as arguably one of the most successful producer of dressage horses and showjumpers in Australia. Bev says “The position of Jaybee Farm today has totally exceeded our original plans and each new crop of foals brings us great joy and satisfaction – they just keep getting better”!

That is no hollow boast considering that Bev Edwards currently owns elite dressage horse Jaybee Alabaster (pictured left at WEG 2010) and only recently sold her share in the brilliant showjumping stallion, Vivant.  Both these horses represented Australia at WEG in 2010 in their respective disciplines – an accomplishment that no other stud in this country can claim.

In 2011 unfortunately things got off to a watery start, as the beautiful Lockyer Valley where Jaybee Stud is located, was right in the path of the devastating Queensland floods.  Horsezone caught up with Bev, who has been busy with clean up since the floods, to find out how they’re getting on following this terrible event...

Bev, Jaybee Farm is located in one of the worst flood affected areas of Queensland, how did this impact on you and your horses and how is the clean up going?

We are on 300 acres, 80 acres of creek flat with high country behind us.  The house is situated in a safe area, so we never really worried about water in the house, it is also a 100 year old queenslander, so is well clear of the ground.  However, the amount of water that ran off the hills was amazing.  We nearly lost our dam, indeed it looked like Niagara Falls coming over the top and it ran through our yards and foaling paddock and scoured deep holes in both.  We lost 1km of fencing along the creek and have not yet started to clear the debris to replace it.

The horses were safe, although landslides took away our fences and it took me a week to go round the neighbours’ places and find all the horses again!  Anyhow, we have a bulldozer in now working to repair the damage, and we will recover much better than a lot of other people on the flatter ground.

Our main problem was the creek which was 30ft over the crossing that we need to cross to get out of the property, however the power did not go off and I had a well stocked freezer.  We were isolated on the property for eight days.

 

What is the best thing people can do to help out flood affected members of the equestrian community?

The best thing is to just carry on supporting their local businesses so that they can recover.

 

On a more positive note, we see that Rachael Sanna and Jaybee Alabaster have been included in the 2011 Elite Dressage Squad – you must be very proud of this horse and his achievements. What are the plans for his future?

Yes, we are very proud of Jaybee Alabaster (aka Bastie) especially with his achievements at WEG last year, but he did not travel very well on the way there.  The trip to Kentucky was supposed to be simple - Melbourne/ Auckland/Los Angeles/48hours quarantine/Cincinatti and then trucked to Lexington.  However, at the last minute, the plane was cancelled and we had a 40 plus hour horror trip Sydney/Hongkong/Anchorage(Alaska)/Los Angeles/48 hour quarantine.  Megan Jones’ champion eventer did not even get out of quarantine in LA, he was just too sick.  Bastie was only just well enough to complete the trip to Kentucky.  When he arrived, he laid down for a week and wasn’t able to work.  So for him to come out and score almost 69% in the Grand Prix and make the cut for the Grand Prix Special was an example of just what a very good horse he is.

Bastie again, did not travel all that well coming home, but is now recovered and back in work, so we have decided not to travel this year and will only do the Sydney CDI and the National Champs, both at SIEC.  From there, we are aiming for London 2012 and are looking at taking him to Europe in April for 3 months training and competition to actually qualify.  We already have MES scores.  Then, if we actually get a possie on the team, we are looking to just to move him from Germany to London - easy.  Nothing like having to travel from Australia to America before a competition.  We were really innocent about it then.  The Europe based horses had just a quick trip over, and then, on the day after the comp, they were home in their stables.  It took the Australian horses a long flight, 4 weeks in Auckland, and then another flight to get home.

 

Jaybee consistently produces quality young stock – what up and coming stars can we expect to see out and about?

At the moment Jaybee Angelina, a four year old mare by Jaybee Alabaster out of Jaybee Acacia by Aachimedes is doing very well.  She was Champion Mare, Supreme Champion and Champion Ridden at Melbourne Royal 2011, only a couple of weeks ago, and won the 4yo young horse at Werribee last weekend.  She is qualified for DWTS and that is our plan for her.

Then there’s Jaybee Alto.  A three year old colt, our next stallion, by Alabaster (Ger) out of Jaybee Desiree by Don Schufro (world champion dressage stallion) (Ger) and out of Gloria (imp).  He is a 3/4 brother to Jaybee Alabaster.  He is in work with Jayden Brown in Queensland and is being prepared for his colt licensing and AWHA approval on 4 April at SIEC.

We have lots more that are coming on and showing promise, but these are the two we are concentrating on right now.

 

Horsezone would like to thank Bev for her time and wish her all the best with cleaning up and repairs after the floods.  We are excited about following Jaybee Alabaster’s progress towards London 2012 and are sure we’ll see many other beautiful Jaybee horses gracing winners’ podiums in future!