Simply The Best

Having written articles for previous issues explaining our reasons for breeding sports ponies, our aims, beliefs and future plans, it has been brought to my attention that another important member of our yard has been sadly neglected.

Simply The Best, or Ted as he is known to us, is our Irish Draught Stallion. At 16.3hh, he is obviously quite difficult to spot amongst the small people on our yard and many visitors make the mistake of walking past his stable………Sorry, my apologies, it is rare for someone to miss him and he tends to be a magnet to all walking into our barn with his friendly face poking out to make sure he doesn't miss anything, especially if involving a cuddle or pat!

Ted arrived with us in April 2008 after a short story.....

We work closely with Metheringham Upton Stud which is run by the father and daughter team of Geoff Robinson and Sarah Flintham alongside their very close family team who are all involved with the stud. The superb vets Newcombe and East do all the vetting work for the mares. We were lucky to meet them via word of mouth as they don't advertise their services, although they are open for outside mares for both their own stallions and, being qualified AI Technicians, they also accept chilled transported semen. They breed Sport Horses and Shires with some of the most fantastic bloodlines out of quality mares.

We descended one afternoon, originally to find out what they did, the costs and hopefully to book some mares in with them, at the time knowing very little about AI; my initial thoughts had been no way would we afford to go in that direction, however, how wrong can someone be?

We were greeted with enthusiasm and were made so welcome, we had a tour around the whole farm and were introduced to their stallions, one of which was the RID stallion Young Prospect who stood with them, but has unfortunately and with great sadness since passed away. Knowing now how busy they were, we didn’t appreciate until afterwards how much time they had kindly given us.

Time moved on and we were well started and moving forward with our breeding programme of ponies; it came to the Autumn of 2007, and a good friend of mine rang me to see if I'd be interested in buying or taking an Irish Draught Stallion on to sell. She said his temperament was superb, he had only run with mares, and had just been backed but had also been driven. I think my words were something on the lines of "Absolutely not! Why on earth would I want an Irish Draught, plus he would be of no use as there is already Young Prospect standing at the stud. Geoff would certainly not want to stand another, plus it wouldn't obviously fit in with my breeding programme of Sports Ponies", so the conversation was ended and put to the back of my mind but obviously not forgotten.

Time passed by to the beginning of the breeding season of 2008. Mares had been booked to come in for Young Prospect and the shock news came - Young Prospect had been sold. We were all desperately sad as we all thought the world of him, but as we all know, people and horses move on and an offer too good to refuse had been made.

The conversation with my friend arrived back in my mind - "I know where there is a stallion - if he's still available", I said. As luck would have it, he was, so we arranged to go and have a look, and as we drove down the lane to his yard, we looked at the youngsters in the field and did agree they looked very nice. We arrived at his field, which he was sharing with one of his yearling colts, which was very smart with good conformation and movement. And then we saw him, ‘Ted’. A scruffy looking boy in his winter woollies with a very long mane and tail, he had lots of filling out to do and we looked at each other not really knowing what to think. He plodded over to us to say hello and have a fuss and to check out pockets - just in case! We had taken a video camera with us but actually getting him to move caused some entertainment as he didn't really see the need!

We went home and decided that underneath all that coat there would be just the most stunning horse and he would definitely be a risk worth taking. We imagined him clean and tidy, with a scrub up and some time, and we were in agreement that Ted was to be coming home with us! After a bit of negotiation on price that actually went up not down, we agreed on a figure and collected him two days later. He loaded sweetly into our trailer and travelled well to be settled into our yard.

Our thoughts were all soon proved to be correct: he bloomed into the most stunning horse with the most fabulous temperament. He was a little on parole when he came, as we agreed that if he proved to be a liability he wasn't staying - I'm sure he knew this as "best behaviour" was his middle name. I retract all previous thoughts of “I'm not having an Irish Draught stallion on my yard”. I never thought a horse could be so loved - he is a huge part of our yard and we couldn't imagine life without him. He loves to go out in the field, have a good roll in the muddiest part and come in black-bright, and have a buck and a kick, but in real terms, he's a proper pipe-and-slippers guy at heart and loves all his new found home comforts!

He was presented at the Irish Draught Society (GB) grading in February 2009 and was graded G2ID; his 2009 crop of foals have been superb, not only having good conformation and movement, but his outstanding temperament shines through them all.

We are planning to get his competition record underway this season as although he has been so busy with his stud duties, we feel it is also an important part of his CV. He has only been to one dressage competition where he gained fantastic scores of 68.5% and 70.4%; nobody realised he was a stallion and stood chatting to us in the collecting arena without a thought! We would like to build on his results and prove without doubt he is a very level-headed chap not only at home. His ridden work has come on in leaps and bounds since he has been regularly worked and now is including lateral and mediums. He has been under the watchful eye of Stephen Thompson who has been not only supportive but encouraging in his training and although supposed to be training Ted and myself, absolutely loves to have a sit on him as he says he's just an armchair ride!

He lives on a mixed yard with mares, foals, geldings and is stabled next to our other stallions in an American Barn system with just bars between them. At present he has a mare on one side and another stallion the other. The foals come into the yard loose at night and often go to have a chat with him over the stable door as they make their way back to their stables. We never worry he may hurt them as he is such a gentle giant. He is happy to work in our school with three sides surrounded by mares, foals, or other ridden horses concentrating on the job in hand with just an occasion twitch of an ear or a sly glance if the babies have a mad half hour, although we both find it annoying when a line of little people have their heads over the school fence and we have to work off the track so as not to squash anyone! I'm always of the opinion they are watching to see what is supposed to happen once they are older. He hacks out well in company or alone but it is limited as we don't have him shod due to his covering commitments. He also has a superb technique when loose jumped over a fence. He is a proper all round sire in our opinion, with his excellent bloodlines and temperament which we believe he will be an asset to any mare owner, to produce the most fabulous young stock.

I hope you enjoy reading about this very special horse who has proved without doubt to be a successful addition to our yard alongside being a good friend. Please feel free to visit our website to see more about him and us.

Penny Walster

http://www.bathleyhillfarmlivery.com