Carol Lush, a prominent sport horse and pony breeder, lost her 2 1/2-year battle with ovarian cancer on July 19 at her home, Maple Side Farm in Quakake, Pa. She was 58.

Mrs. Lush’s whole adult life was devoted to her passion for breeding good horses. She began her program in the 1970s by putting together a broodmare band of exceptional individuals. Before the days of the Internet, Mrs. Lush became part detective, making exhaustive searches and tracking down Thoroughbred racing mares with top sport horse jumping pedigrees.

Dr. Peter Birdsall, the famed pedigree expert, told the story of how he was so close to tracking down the full sister to Chase The Clouds only to find out that someone named Carol Lush had just bought the mare a day or two earlier.

Her mare band included the half sisters of grand prix jumpers, Albany, The Jones Boy and Sloopy. She was an original shareholder in the Galoubet syndicate and had the first Galoubet foal to hit the ground in the United States, a filly called Galoubaby out of the half-sister to Albany.

Mrs. Lush stood several stallions during her long career. It all started when she purchased On The Road who had siblings who were Kentucky Derby winners on both the sire and dam’s side, out of Sweep In, who was the dam of Kauai King, by Royal Coinage who was the sire of Venetian Way.

On The Road was everything a sport horse stallion should be—16.3 hands, good looking, big boned, classically bred, extremely athletic, a 10 mover and jumper. On The Road produced handsome horses who competed successfully in the hunter, jumper and dressage arenas.

On The Road’s get Tie B Road and Ormitchel, owned by Tom and Wisse Brede, placed first and second in the young hunter under saddle at Devon (Pa.) one year. Tie B Road later became Cathy Morelli’s noted dressage horse.

In 1995, Mrs. Lush was the No. 1 breeder of show hunters and No. 5 breeder of pony hunters in the country in the U.S. Equestrian Federation standings. One of the highlights of her career was when her homebred Penn Square, by Magical (whom she also bred), won the prestigious HITS East Meets West Hunter Classic where horses from both coasts were pitted against each other via video.

Mrs. Lush also bred top ponies including Maple Side Rain Or Shine, Harbor Master, Grammeracy Park, Touch Of Magic, Batman, Beau Rivage and others.

Silver Signature, a stallion that stood at Joan Irvine Smith’s The Oaks in California, was bred by Mrs. Lush.

Though not formally schooled in equine veterinary medicine, Mrs. Lush absorbed a tremendous amount of knowledge in that field. In the 1980s, she was on the cutting edge of implementing the use of embryo transfer. With fellow breeder Danny Magill of Newsprint Farm, Mrs. Lush bred, through embryo transfer, the three grand prix horses Grand Jete, UGalouway and Frequent Flier.

Three of her major stallions, On The Road, the Holsteiner-Thoroughbred, Magical, and the Welsh-Thoroughbred Maple Side Mr. Magic, graced the back cover of the Chronicle’s annual Stallion Issue for many years.

Mrs. Lush graduated from Rosemont College (Pa.) in 1973 as a math major and received her riding BHS instructor’s degree from Morven Park International Equestrian Institute (Va.).

She is survived by her husband, Steven Badesso, of Quakake, Pa., her mother, Margaret Lush, of Allentown, Pa., four brothers, many nieces and nephews, and the many horses and ponies she brought into this world.

Memorial contributions may be made to VNA of St. Luke’s on behalf of the Carbon County office, 1510 Valley Center Parkway, Suite 200, Bethlehem, PA 18017.