The Road To Your Dreams - Part 4

By Gordon Ironside, MFS Studfarm

After Geneve was Licensed I cant say I had too much to complain about. We were out and about with Nibels showjumping, and he was doing very well for himself with the young rider, Chris Cumming. The two of them got on like a house on fire, and it was great to see them out at the shows, as the team never let us down, qualifying for the Scope Festival.

Geneve has busy breeding seasons, and was always one of the most popular Scottish Sports Horse Stallions on an annual basis with the number of mares he commanded.

We also purchased another colt from Holland. Caroline had always liked the Flemmingh and Ferro bloodlines and I remember her saying to me one day, “wouldn’t it be good to find a colt that had both”, as both these stallions were leading the way in the KWPN dressage index for producing top level horses.

Vision & Gordon with Dogs Sharon & Mist

Well one day when Caroline was reading the KWPN magazine, she was doing her usual and looking through the classified section, when low and behold she noticed someone advertising a dark brown colt by Flemmingh out of a Ferro mare. She pointed it out to me and I said for her to give the people a call.

Fun and games ensued because when she phoned the people at the other end of the phone only spoke Dutch and Caroline does not speak the language. I have to say that we British people can be a bit lazy and our expectations are that people in another country will be able to speak English. We never endeavor to try and learn their languages that will then go on and help us in future business.

So after Caroline tried for around 20 minutes to get across the reason for her call, both her and the owners gave up with the communication. However, Caroline was not to be deterred from this little communication problem and she contacted the KWPN.

The KWPN were very helpful, and Caroline gave them all the details of the advert and they acted as mediators between Caroline and the owners. Thankfully as the process went along the owners of the colt had a daughter who taught English at a local school, so she then took over from the KWPN.

Pictures of this colt were emailed to us. He was tall and leggy, with what looked like lovely movement from the pictures. After deliberation we decided to purchase this colt, and this was when “Vision” came into our lives.

Vision when he first arrived from Holland

At the time of weaning we eagerly looked forward to Vision arriving. He had a very long journey from Holland as there were several delays, but eventually he arrived late at night, off one of the Eric Gillies lorries.

I went to take the colt out and Caroline captured a picture of him once he came down the ramp. We have always kept this picture because it can show people just what a foal can be like and what they can then go on to become.

When he arrived he was thin, as he had not travelled well, having just newly been weaned from his dam, and he came down with a virus, but as he was isolated anyway (which is our stud policy for any horse arriving into the stud) this did not pose any problems.

Several people came to see our new acquisition and I remember them thinking we had all lost our marbles, because they would take one look at this scrawny looking colt and say that he would not become anything special. Caroline and myself kept on saying to people to give him time, that as he was a big colt that he would need time to come into himself and develop.

I also remember that Geneve was very much put out with the fact he had a “young buck” next door, but he and Vision were soon the best of friends.

As Vision was slowly developing and maturing, Royal Geneve was going from strength to strength. We put him down to the very talented dressage rider, Catherine Marshall, to bring on. She was based down in Edinburgh and was the cousin of the top Scottish dressage rider, Jo Barry. Catherine did an absolutely fantastic job with Geneve’s training and took him to several trainers who were all impressed with him. Unfortunately for us she was not quite so confident about taking Geneve out competing as she had never ridden a stallion out at shows before. At this point we brought him home and the gifted young rider, Pauline Gilbert, took over the reins.

Pauline and Geneve went from strength to strength winning and qualifying for the Regional Championships and Pet Plan Qualifiers. Geneve was a big favourite with many of the judges, and he always commanded a big audience wherever we took him. It was hard not to be impressed with this stunning horse. At Ladyleys Equestrian Centre he was a particular favourite with the pony riders, who were always arguing about who would give him water after his class when he was in his stable. Geneve loved the attention and because of his superb temperament he was always a pleasure to take out and about, and always loved the attention of the children.

Royal Geneve & Pauline Gilbert

Not only was Geneve one of the most popular stallions in Scotland, and doing incredibly well in his competition career, but his stock were also making headlines at the gradings, with his first foal crop being received very well by the KWPN judges and him having a 100% strike rate of 1st Premiums, and over the years he continued to produce the Premium youngstock.

During this time Vision gradually started to bloom, and when he reached two years old people were standing back in awe of his movement. This was definitely an ugly duckling that was turning into a beautiful swan.

We decided as a 2 year old to put him in front of the KWPN judges, who in 2004 were the top judges of Mr Toine Hoefs and Miss Ina van Deurzen. We decided that this would be “make or break”. If Vision did not receive good marks and comments then we would geld him and sell him as a future competition horse, and if he did well we would then run him on as a stallion prospect.

Vision (Flemmingh x Ferro)

The grading was based at good friends of ours (Tony & Vicki Westwick), who were just up the road from the Stud. They had a fabulous outdoor arena, so we managed to organize a grading there. After the mares and foals were passed we travelled Vision from the Stud to the venue. He travelled in top style, in a mode of transport not often seen at shows…….what was this I hear you say………well we hitched up our trailer to the back of the tractor and up the road we chugged.

Vision was not perturbed by his mode of transport, as this horse is the kind of horse that will load into anything, as he trusts what you are asking of him.

So we arrived and got him out the trailer and then stood him outside the arena, waiting anxiously for our turn.

So we took him into the arena, and Vision moved effortlessly in front of the judges. The time then came for the judges to make their deliberations and let us know their thoughts.

Well we were not ready for the comments that followed, with Toine Hoefs stating that Vision was a definite future International dressage horse, being a beautiful model with long lines, very modern in type, with long front legs and big uphill movement. He then said that he was a “1st Premium”.

On speaking to Mr Hoefs afterwards he told us not to geld Vision and to bring him back for stallion approval the next year. To say we were on a high after this was an understatement. However the cherry on top of the cake for us was when Pauline did a display with Geneve for the audience and the judges, and he was well received by everyone.