CLEVELAND rider Joanne Tanfield is not only celebrating a cracking year with winnings around the £4,000 mark, but she has also started a breeding and stud yard.

Her seven-year-old chestnut gelding, Stainsby Sponeck, has paid dividends by being brought on very slowly and is now a Grade 7.

His most recent wins include classes at the Scottish Hoys championship - which is the qualifier for the Queens Cup at Hickstead - the national class for seven-year-olds, the Gary Gillespie memorial championship at the Royal Highland Show and the Voice of the Horse at Houghall College.

Her two top Grade A Hanoverian mares are now retired. Stainsby Geminess, out of Garibaldi II, is now 20 years old and had her first filly foal in October 2000, by the jumping stallion Graf Granno.

Her second foal, a colt, was born last year, sired by the German stallion Espri, and she is in foal again this year.

Donna Bonita, out of Don Juan, is in foal to Fly High, out of the classy show jumper For Pleasure, which is still on the World Cup circuit.

"Donna is due to foal later this year, so we are very excited about this one," she said. "So hopefully we are breeding show jumpers for our next generation."

Horses are very much a family affair and her daughter Yasmin, aged five, is now jumping in the tiny tots, while her niece Pippa Allen, aged eight, won a gold in Ireland. Another niece, Millie, is only four and in the lead rein classes.

"We all love show jumping, so at first I really missed putting my mares on the wagon for Hickstead and other top shows. But now I am getting a great deal of pleasure seeing them in the field with their foals - and in waiting - and they are now great friends.