theplaidhorse.com • January/February 2015 • 57
Hidden Creek's Rain Fox (1983-2014) At the end of 2014, the pony world lost one of the greats, Hidden Creek’s Rain Fox, one of the first crossbred stallions. His life was both long – he was 31 years old – and productive – his last foal was born in 2014. Standing at Champlain Isle Farm in Vermont with Amy and Randy McCoy for the last 20 years, Rain Fox contributed greatly to the fierce competition and excellence we see in the pony hunter divisions today.
“Foxy” was bred by Marguerite Taylor, out of a Thoroughbred mare and by her legendary stallion *Cymraeg Rain Beau. He started his career winning by being the overall Pony Hunter Breeding Champion at The Devon Horse Show three times- as a yearling, two year old, and three year old. “Marguerite is the quintessential pony breeder in this country. She has done all of it. She really bred a lot being in the thick of things in Virginia,” says Amy McCoy. Some of Taylor’s other progeny of *Cymraeg Rain Beau (by Farnley Lustre) include multiple time USEF Leading Pony Hunter Sire Blue Rain, as well as perennial pony hunter winners Knickerbocker, Millbrook’s Tiny Bubbles, Lucky Too, Lucky Me, Remember the Laughter, Buzz Light Year, and Blue Mist. After breeding him with a heavy schedule at her farm in Virginia, Taylor sent Foxy to the McCoys to stand at and Champlain Isle in 1991 and then they bought him. From their farm in Isle LaMott, Vermont, (about four miles from the Canadian border), the McCoys both shipped semen to the US and Canada and bred their own mares. Foxy often bred a dozen or more mares per year, up until