yeguada

 juan díaz navarro

HOME

HISTORy

stallions

FOR SALE

VIDEOS

CONTACT

DEUTSCH

FRANÇAIS

ESPAÑOL

"El Ardón" is a beautiful and substantial estate mainly devoted to olive groves, that has been in my mother's family for many generations.

My late father D. Juan Diaz Criado created the brand for the mares and horses that nowadays I have. It shows the initials of my father's name: a J (Juan) whose stick is part of the D (Díaz) and everything is surrounded by a C (Criado) to create "Juan Díaz Criado".

Though "El Ardón" has had equines from times of the King Alhamar (born in Arjona in 1195, founder of the nazarí dynasty, king of Granada and builder of the Alhambra), in these days the horses and mares were used solely for agricultural works; in fact, with the mechanisation of the countryside these horses were on the point to disappearing. But my love of horses springs from my childhood, growing up on the farm, where there were still horses and I was always able to ride.

In 1970 I was fortunate to engage, my veterinarian D. Bartolomé Mateos Peral and my foreman D. Francisco  Casado Quero. They both had the enthusiasm and above all, the profound expertise that aided and guided me for nearly twenty years.

With these two friends, I bought our first fillies from Romero Benitez in Duchas Stud Farm in Jerez.

A few years later, I bought others fillies from de late D. José Bohórquez Ruiz (Paroja among them, which deserved a Guinness Award) at The Machorro Stud Farm, a fine estate in Medina Sidonia, near Jerez.

Starting with these two very old brands (established 150 years ago), I embarked on my journey of becoming a breeder of PUREBRED SPANISH HORSES.

As I have always felt quantity to be somewhat at odds with quality, I usually limit the number of brood mares to fifteen.

Thanks to the breeders who preceded us, the guidance of my two dear friends and my own qualifications  (I am an agricultural engineer, and I have lived and worked at Ardón since 1964), we made our way and further refined the selection with which we have started.

With such a small number of mares my approach has not been to participate in public contests. However, my horses serve as my ambassadors and are to be found throughout Spain, Europe and America.

Nowadays, I have changed my mind and I am going to submit to competition just to hear from the judges that my horses are as good as I believe (link in Jaen 2005 Morpho-functional Contest, where we got very good results).  Lately I am selling horses for Dressage to reputable horsemen to compete.

Our brand is now the oldest in the province of Jaén and must be roughly between the 20th and the 30th oldest brand in Spain.

I have always shunned consanguinity and once every four years I have to buy a Stallion from another reputable Spanish brand.

There is a Spanish saying... "If you want to realize the true worth of your horse, you should sell it and buy another..."

The stallions that have served our mares at this stud include  Levitón, Reberte, Ulster, Telegráfico, Jenson de YM (Militar Broodmare), Colombiano III, Juicioso VI, Llamativo II, etc., all of which are from well-known Spanish brands.

We have exported horses to Europe and America.

I hope you enjoy my horses as much as I do.

Juan Díaz Navarro

to top