Story and Portraits by Lindsay Y. McCall
Mother-daughter equestrians Cathy Comerci and Reva Danzig Moore have built a family legacy based on warmblood roots, Welsh influence and a shared passion for breeding ponies with heart and talent.
In 1980, Cathy came across an article in The Horse Connection that stuck with her for decades. It told the story of a German man who had imported a small group of elegant Holsteiner mares along with a stallion. After the man died, the mares became wrapped up in probate court and were essentially left to live on their own for nearly two years. Eventually, a woman who ran a bed-and-breakfast stepped in, took them home and carefully retrained them for trail riding.
That story never quite left Cathy’s mind. Years later, while traveling for work, she and her daughter, Reva, decided to take a detour to see the mares in person. “When we walked into the field, they were right there in front of us with those big, soft eyes,” Cathy said. “They came toward us so quietly. I was holding Reva, who was still very little, and the mares just circled around us. They were curious and gentle in a way I had never experienced.”
That moment planted the seed that eventually became Greymeadows Farm, the breeding program Cathy and Reva built together. Over the years it has produced top pony hunters, accomplished pony jumpers and athletic Holsteiner crosses. Their stallions and ponies have earned recognition from USEF, including Leading Sire and Leading Breeder titles, but none of that came quickly. They learned as they went, weathered setbacks and held onto the pieces that mattered most.
Like many horse-loving mothers, Cathy did everything she could to keep Reva riding as a child. “She had an incredible eye,” Reva said. “She would pick up ponies at the local auction, and we stretched every dollar to make it work.”
Just before Reva entered high school, the family of two faced a defining choice: a comfortable house in the suburbs with no acreage, or a piece of land with no house at all. Reva chose the land, and the two of them started building what would become Greymeadows Farm, originally in Virginia.
The Right Stallion & Learning on the Fly
Warmbloods were far less common in the United States during the 1990s. Cathy still felt strongly that Holsteiners would shape the future of sport horse breeding, so she and Reva bought four Thoroughbred mares and began searching for the stallion who would anchor their program. “We studied every stallion issue we could get our hands on,” Reva said. “That was when we found Caracas, a gorgeous grey son of Cor de la Bryère.”
Cor de la Bryère had shaped an entire era of jumping horses, and Caracas carried that legacy. His own path was almost lost to circumstance. After being imported from Germany, he was misplaced when his owner died and wound up at a Premarin farm in Canada. A friend of breeders Karen and Blair Cudmore of Heartland Farms in Nebraska noticed the Holsteiner brand on him and notified them. They bought Caracas and later sold him on to Virginia, not realizing how impressive his late-maturing foals would eventually become. Cathy remembers them saying that all the foals Caracas produced grew into remarkably athletic horses and superior jumpers.
That tendency for slow, awkward youngsters who grew into exceptional athletes would end up benefiting Greymeadows Farm.
Starting a farm from scratch was a crash course in everything from construction to foaling to cash-flow survival. Cathy and Reva converted an old milking parlor into an efficiency apartment, rigged up foaling stalls and studied stacks of books on land management and breeding. They asked questions. They made mistakes. They kept going.
Life shifted again when Cathy faced unexpected career turmoil that required frequent extended travel, leaving Reva to manage the farm on her own in the meantime. Before long, the pair chose to move the entire operation to southern Ohio, settling in the small town of Cutler. The move allowed Reva to attend Ohio University while staying close enough to help with the farm.
The transition was challenging. Some mares struggled to adjust, and the new property needed significant work. Still, the vision stayed intact.
The Arrival of Catawba
Before the move from Virginia to Ohio, Cathy and Reva bred several of their mares to Caracas, who was then located in Virginia, creating their first foal crop of the year 2000. Three of the four mares delivered healthy foals, including a small grey colt out of the mare Malabar Mist.
“The reproduction vet took one look at him and asked about our plans,” Reva said. “We told him we hoped he would become our future stallion. He said not to geld him and not to sell him. He was so impressed and said we might never get another foal like him.” They named him Catawba.
While his siblings eventually reached more than 16 hands, Catawba stopped growing at 14.3. It was an awkward height in that era, not quite horse and not quite pony. Even as a youngster, he jumped four-foot fences just for fun. He hopped banks to jump back into a field with his dam and displayed a mixture of talent and kindness that made him impossible to ignore. “He was this perfect warmblood in a smaller body,” Reva said.
When the time came for training, an Amish friend took him for a month. They soon called Cathy to tell her that their children were riding him everywhere, and that he had even helped catch a loose horse. He had the temperament they had always hoped for.
Catawba’s early foals showed lovely temperament and movement. That prompted Cathy and Reva to visit the Welsh Pony and Cob Society Association show in Canfield, Ohio. “I watched a little girl win a ribbon on a Welsh pony,” Reva said. “He matched her every move. You could tell he adored her.”
Moments later they watched a child show a stallion in a walk-trot class. Coming from a Thoroughbred background, it felt unbelievable to them. The gentleness of the Welsh paired with the athleticism of the Holsteiner suddenly made perfect sense.
They purchased High Hopes Malibu, Morwel Swgwrr and Beggs’ Magic Rocket at the auction following the show, and those mares, along with a couple of others acquired from some older local Welsh breeders, including Burton Jones, became the foundation of their pony program.
The cross was everything they hoped for. The foals matured slowly like Holsteiners and reached their best shape at 4. They were clever, athletic and balanced. Cathy remembered one baby who got a foot caught in a hay pallet and calmly studied the situation before figuring out how to free himself. “I had never seen a foal think like that,” she said.
Building a Legacy
Their direction as breeders became even clearer when their longtime trainer and friend, George Zitek, came to assess what they were producing. George was a respected Olympic trainer and a former chief rider at the Royal Lipizzan Stallion Show. After looking over the foals, he told them in his brutally honest, Eastern European way, “You have a gold mine here. These ponies are talented and special. You need someone to help develop them.”
His words stayed with them.
Greymeadows Farm continued producing medium and large ponies suited for both the hunter and jumper rings. In 2015 they welcomed Greymeadows Charge Card, a colt by Catawba out of Whimsical WT who grew to 15.1 hands and carried a blend of talent and heart.
“They love to jump,” Reva said with a laugh. “Every one of them is brave and kind. They trail ride, do parades, go to birthday parties and then show at Pony Finals. They just do everything.”
Families who own their ponies often share stories of how cherished the pony becomes, how calm and dependable their temperaments are, and the special place they hold in the family.
Today, the Greymeadows Farm name is synonymous with well-mannered, athletic ponies that jump beautifully. Their reputation speaks for itself. Greymeadows Catawba was consistently in the top-ranked USEF Leading Sire of Pony Hunters, with more than 14 offspring competing at the USEF Pony Hunter National Championships and numerous ponies earning multiple ribbons at past Pony Finals. In 2025, his descendants led the number of Welsh-bred entries in the Pony Jumpers, excelling in a new height division that has become a signature strength for Greymeadows Farm.
For Cathy and Reva, the awards mean something. But the real reward is quieter. “What makes us happiest is that it all began with a Holsteiner mare my mom fell in love with while holding me in her arms,” Reva said. “Today we’re creating exactly what we dreamed of, with ponies and horses we adore. They’re out there bringing joy to kids and families. Our babies are going to the best homes, and that’s what truly matters.”
Follow @greymeadowsfarm on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, or visit greymeadowsfarm.com
Photos by Lindsay McCall
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