Raven Sky - Thoroughbred Stallion

05/08/2026

This lovely stallion is the perfect go-to for adding more Thoroughbred to your favorite mare’s pedigree!

🎉 HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Raven Sky - Thoroughbred Stallion! He is the big 🔟‼️ His eldest offspring are 6 years old this year and thriving. Please check out Raven Sky Offspring Group.
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In 2025, this Jockey Club stallion completed his Stallion Sport Test and was awarded his Lifetime Breeding license 🏆 with ISR/Oldenburg N.A., which means all offspring can be registered with them.
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"Raven" does hunters, jumpers, eventing, dressage, and dabbles in foxhunting. He is extremely athletic and quiet. His offspring are going and doing all sorts of things with their owners.
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👉 Notable eventing son is Tanyderi All In "Teddy," who has been eventing with Margo Goldfarb and is currently competing in the 5yo Young Event Horse and The US Event Horse Futurity.
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Raven is a great outcross for any mare. He has offspring out of Irish Draughts, Quarter Horses, Connemara Ponies, Arabians, Holsteiners, Trakehners, Clydesdales, and various crosses. He adds type, flowing gaits, and scope.
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Available with fresh or frozen. No live cover.
💌 Message or Email
[email protected]
www.merlesmithsporthorses.com/raven-sky
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Tamarack Hill Farm

04/16/2026

Some history on our breeding program!

Nicolette Merle-Smith has always had a place in the saddle. As the daughter of well-known horsemen Grosvenor and Rosemarie Merle-Smith, the Mongol Derby veteran developed a strong foundation with horses at a young age. Her first love has always been foxhunting, but she also rides and trains for eventing, hunters, jumpers, and dressage.

“As a kid and young teen, my mom would have me ride the sale horses because people were more likely to buy horses a kid could ride, but it was a really great experience for me. I rode loads of horses,” Merle-Smith tells The Plaid Horse.

Her parents were importing horses from Ireland as well as PMU babies from Canada. Merle-Smith found her first big success on the offspring of a PMU mare named M-S Reddy Fox. She and the Appaloosa/Thoroughbred cross rode and competed in several disciplines including first level dressage, preliminary eventing, hunter derbies, and foxhunting first flight.

“He wasn’t the type that was going to be an upper-level horse, but he put my name on the map,” says Merle-Smith of the gelding. “Together, we got my lowest dressage score to date, a 20.5.” M-S Reddy Fox went on to inspire the annual Safe Harbor Award, which is given to the most amateur-friendly horse in the Young Event Horse Series, before being sold to the UK in 2009.

Following her success on M-S Reddy Fox, Merle-Smith purchased the large pony Ganymede as a six-year-old. The Connemara/Thoroughbred cross took her to the CCI* Eventing level, and in 2012 they competed together in their first Intermediate.

“She is only 14.2 hands, but she would jump anything I pointed her at,” she says. Produced by Merle-Smith, Ganymede went on to win the Theodore O’Connor Trophy for the USEA Pony of the Year title twice with her new Junior/Young Rider owner, and the Tre Awain Halfbred Hall of Fame Award (American Connemara Pony Society), for a lifetime of competition achievement in the United States Equestrian Federation. “It took me a long time, but that pony made me believe in myself,” she says. “I truly believe now that I can produce one heck of a horse.” And now, she’s added breeding them to her resume.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2024/04/18/how-nicolette-merle-smith-is-carrying-on-the-legacy-of-her-family-farm-by-producing-top-quality-amateur-friendly-horses/
📸 © Xpress Foto

11/28/2025

BLACK FRIDAY
850 per contract
Every Stallion
Contact Nicolette
434.953.7980

09/17/2025

Approved and Licensed for LIFE!!

I am emotionally exhausted from the months and honestly YEARS of preparation for this day, but WE DID IT!!!
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Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to ISR/Oldenburg NA judges Helmut Schrant and Gary Lawrence for traveling all the way to Sunny View to test my boys for the last two days.
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*EDIT* One of my favorite aspects of this accomplishment is that Helmut was a test rider for the 100 day test that approved Chinggis’ sire Concerto Grosso in the early 2000s. 🥹
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I am thrilled to announce that I have two ISR/Old NA Approved and Licensed stallions in Chinggis Khan and Raven Sky 🥹🤩🥰
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Now, let’s get your babies registered!!
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08/16/2025

I haven’t competed this stallion in YEARS— He’s honestly been on the back burner through no fault of his own!
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People ask me what he’s been up to— Not much until this summer! We had to knock off the cobwebs, but he was a superstar last weekend at WindRidge Farm Summer HT in NC.
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He finished on his dressage score of 36.5. Poor guy had to deal with a big bomber horse fly for the first minute of our dressage test! Thankfully, the judge didn’t penalize me for stopping to try to kill it! He settled for a lovely test after the fly was dispatched. 😅
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Did you notice he’s barefoot in front? People love to tell me he’s lost a shoe. 🤣 But he didn’t start with them.
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📸 : Griffith Photography

Tamarack Hill Farm

08/09/2025

07/18/2025

😍

05/19/2025

🏊‍♂️🏊‍♂️🏊‍♂️🏊‍♂️🏊‍♂️🏊‍♂️🏊‍♂️ are swimming!