H&H visits Lancer Stud in Suffolk *H&H Plus*

Russian genes and Suffolk grass are not a common alliance. Martha Terry visits the family-run stud to discover innovative ideas based on intense research

Marcus Craggs is something of a maverick. He may be new to sport horse breeding but he’s channelling the same approach that stood him in good stead in the city to bloodlines and super-sires.

“I spent my life in business not accepting the status quo,” says Marcus, over coffee and flapjacks in his Suffolk farmhouse. “I was always trying to do things people said couldn’t be done. I like to go off-piste.”

This is why, just three years into Lancer Stud’s breeding programme, he’s introduced the unusual Akhal-Teke (AT) breed, with the first foals landing this spring.

Back in 2015, Marcus and his wife Emma were on the hunt for an event horse for their daughter Martha, then 15, and found what they thought was the perfect one, by Canturo. It failed the vet, but sparked a family obsession with Canturo just as Marcus was winding up his business and had time to pursue what was rapidly becoming a passion.

Martha Terry

H&H features editor

Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.