Patricia was a farm born and raised girl and has always been surrounded by animals, her love of horses has always remained strong. She 'imported' Russell from a city bred 'sales and marketing' life back in 1985 and introduced him to the wonderful world of horses starting with their first miniature, Tia. Sadly Tia has since passed over to the lush fields of 'horsey heaven', but they continue to love and breed these gorgeous little horses with much pleasure and enjoyment. Patricia is a licensed American Miniature Horse Association international judge and licensed Australian judge of miniature horses and ponies. She has been 'across the water' a number of times enjoying her 'job' immensely.

Their farm concentrates on breeding and showing quality individuals, with the best of American and Australian bloodlines, sporting eye-catching colours, and their small herd dictates that each horse is the best quality available. They choose only to keep the number of horses that allows them the time to give each horse one on one daily care.  This enables them to maintain their high quality standards.
These quality horses can then be passed on to their selective buyers.

Promotion of each line is important.  They identify candidates yearly for the show circuit.  They have them evaluated by professional trainers to aid in assessing their show ring potential.  They select only the best for promotion.  All their horses are of exceptional quality and have potential but only a few can be promoted.  This proves the effectiveness of their breeding program to produce top quality horses.  It also allows them to keep in touch with the industry and what selective breeders are looking for. 

They specialise in the exquisite dilute colours, but also have the traditional bay, black, chestnut and brown. They have solids, pintos and the sought after overo. Over the years they have traveled into the United States frequently in search of 'just the right pedigree' and on several occasions, were lucky enough to purchase a total of 5 beautiful horses bringing them back into Australia to improve their breeding program. One American stallion was purchased from New Zealand and four (2 stallions and 2 mares) were bought from Scott Creek Farm in Oregon over a 4 year period. This stud is one of the few and leading breeders of fine Arabian-type miniature horses known worldwide. After doing a considerable amount of homework over several years on the 'who's who' of American breeders, they slowly eliminated breeder after breeder until they were left with a select few, and their first choice was Scott Creek. This farm just kept coming to the fore displaying qualities such as refinement, style, temperament, prepotency, outstanding motion, presence, conformation, and athleticism. They knew that their new horses had to come from this farm - without question. On attending and seeing the horses presented at the US Nationals, they certainly were not disappointed with what they had chosen. Patricia says "there are a lot of horses out there, some good and many not so good, you have to do your homework diligently if you want to have consistently well-bred, prepotent miniature horses with attributes that WILL be passed on to further generations".

They also do all their own reproductive vet work at Crystal Park. Patricia is certificated after studying miniature equine reproduction, passing embryonic scanning, artificial insemination, follicular assessment and induction, uterine assessment, maintenance and treatment with a vet specialist (Diplomat, American College of Theriogenologists) in Oregon on 2 trips there, she is very competent and has received glowing support from their stud's specialist vet.

Many studs do not go to these lengths, and with most it isn't necessary, but they feel that to excel with their horses they need to know as much as they can and they have been fortunate enough to be able to do just that.

Personal message from Russell & Patricia of Crystal Park:
To everyone who is involved in the wonderful world of miniature horses, good luck with them, may you enjoy success and be proud of it, and may you enjoy every minute of these exquisite animals
Meet the rest of our 'family'

Emma	Emma	Emma
Matilda (aka Tilly)	Sebastian	Leo
Ernie	Poppy	Sadie
Tyler	Polly	Polly (and Spike)
Harry, Sadie, Willy & Tyler	Sofie Jayne	Tessa