In the early 2000’s, Andy was instrumental in putting together a breed management strategy, known as SPARKS, to control inbreeding and prevent the loss of genetic diversity in the global Cleveland Bay Horse population. SPARKS has now been extended to many other critically endangered equine breeds, including the Suffolk Horse, the Shire Horse, the Eriskay Pony, the Dales Pony and the Highland Pony.
Dr. Andy Dell is a retired teacher of Biology and Outdoor Education, from Kendal in Cumbria, where he lives on a smallholding with his partner Jill, along with their family of horses and Shetland Sheepdogs.
He has been involved with horses since his childhood in Devon, and with raising horses on the smallholding for 35 years, having successfully bred Cleveland Bays under the Endmoor prefix.
He is a former Council Member, Trustee and Honorary Life Member of the Cleveland Bay Horse Society and in the early “Noughties” was instrumental in putting together a breed management strategy, (adapted from the world of management of captive wildlife in zoos), now known as SPARKS, to control inbreeding and prevent the loss of genetic diversity in the global Cleveland Bay Horse population.
In 2008 Andy was awarded the Rare Breeds Survival Trust / Marsh Christian Trust Award for Technical Support of Conservation of Biodiversity.
He completed his Doctorate entitled “Genetic Analysis and Breed Management of the Endangered Cleveland Bay Horse” as an invited mature student at the University of Lincoln in 2010.
Under the auspices of the RBST (Rare Breeds Survival Trust), SPARKS has been extended to many other critically endangered equine breeds including the Suffolk Horse, the Shire Horse, the Eriskay Pony, the Dales Pony and the Highland Pony as well as to Vaynol Cattle and Andy has been made an Honorary Life Member of various Breed Societies as well as the RBST in recognition of his ongoing work.
During lockdown Andy was one of four invited speakers at the first online National Equine Forum, “Using Science to Save Our Breeds.”
In 2025 SPARKS was incorporated into the online studbook management package Grassroots, which is used by the vast majority of rare breeds in the UK, and by various breed societies globally.
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