Photos from Langaller Farm - Charles Upham's post

What a beautiful autumn. It must the driest November for years, and aren’t we enjoying it? Probably well advised to batten down for January and February though! I am sure that we have never brought the stock indoors before they started to make a mess in the fields but we did this year. The sheep moved in and now have free range of the whole farm cleaning up behind the horses, treading in the divots and eating the grass where the fussy equines don’t. As I am a week or so late with this blog I am going to combine it with, and bore you with, the annual ‘review’ of 2016 at Langaller Farm. And maybe let you in on a secret for 2017 ssssshhhhhh. Our general pattern, month on month, seems to run pretty much the same year on year. January...yuk, February...yuk but soon be spring, youngsters for the show season arrive, first mares start to bag up. March...yuk, first foals imminent, show youngstock look worse than they did in February, hunting still in full swing, every stable and alley way full of horses. April...phew! Not so yuk, youngsters and mares turned out, show youngsters turning the corner, first foals born. May.....Help!!!!! The first show is just days away, sleep is a dim and distant memory, stallions are settled into their season, vet visits are daily, visiting mares come and go. June, same as May. July, same as May and June but with very few foals left to be born now. August....3 or 4 shows a week, some local one day agricultural ones which are great for taking the later youngsters to for the experience and some bigger County Shows for the ‘team’. September....last few shows, much fewer visits from our vets {hopefully}, hunters back in work, ‘chip and snip’ day at the end of the month for the foals. October....aahhhhh, foals weaned and hopefully going to new homes, mares out grazing, youngstock out, only hunters and stallions in stables. November.....opening meet, clipping, feels like daily visits from Stuart Taylor, our farrier, mud appears, bale wrap appears, straw all over the yard appears. December....yuk. We never tire of seeing the wonder of new life and although we see many, many foals born it is the most fantastic thing to witness; that first breath and Mum’s first wicker to her foal, amazing. It is something that drives us on year after year, that’s for sure. 2016 was a very successful year for the show team. It has been lovely to be able to do so well with a number of youngsters by our home bred stallion Langaller Starring Role. Hopefully 2017 will continue where we finished in 2016. It was lovely for our stalwart broodmare Chantry Clover Girl to gain her 4th HOYS in hand qualifier on only her second outing of the season which meant she could then sit back and have quiet summer. She certainly enjoyed her ‘down’ time and she was as fresh as a daisy for the final in October and had her personal best placing of 2nd in the horse section. This took her through to the main ring for the overall Championship with all the pomp and glamour. She has been a real privilege to own, show and breed from. Five foals in five years and number six due in April ’17. Langaller Starring Role has had a fantastic season eventing with Charlotte Rowe. He started the beginning of the season with 64 Foundation Points BE and finished just short of Intermediate status, winning and consistently placed at Novice throughout the season. Unfortunately he was balloted out of his last two runs, it would have been amazing if he could have achieved the few points needed to step up a level. Thank you so much Charlotte for all your hard work, and for sharing my belief in him. He is currently hunting weekly with Charlotte, often with the Taunton Vale taking on their notorious hedge’s, both of them come home with huge grins on their faces!! And no, I don’t want to have day with them, thank you!!!! September marked two very special occasions. A ‘yard’ celebration for Steph Parker and Rose Miners who have both been part of the team here at Langaller for 10 years. Steph is a hugely valued member and I genuinely don’t know how Langaller would function without her. Although I had known Rose from a distance for many years, a chance meeting and a ‘knee jerk’ invitation to look after the office and telephone resulted in her doing just that for the last decade. So far.......!!!!!!! On a family note 3 of my 4 Canadian cousins visited together for a long overdue reunion. I haven’t seen my cousin Paul or his wife Andrea for over 20 years but it felt like just a few days had passed once we were together again. It was great to spend some time with them all and we took many trips down memory lane too. In November I also had the privilege of seeing one of my favourite nephews and his girl friend, again visiting from Canada. And again the time apart just evaporated and it was as if they were always here. Miss you all so much now. Again on a family note Dad has had a very successful hip replacement and is walking without a stick and driving again. We would like to thank our Vets, Richard Stringer and Jamie Gibbs and their team at Stringer Equine Veterinary,our farrier Stuart Taylor and our ‘rider’ Charlotte Rowe; also Gain Feeds and Harry Hall for their support throughout the year. May we wish all our friends and customers a very Happy Christmas and a successful 2017 From Charles, Stephen, Steph, Ted, Holly and Rose Oh, the secret......... There are two new stallions at Langaller for 2017. The first is another homebred, this time a coloured by our own Keady Star and out of the same dam as Langaller Starring Role. He is 16.2, just coming 4, currently being broken and ridden away by Charlotte. He is called Langaller Star Maker. The second is an older but well established full Thoroughbred stallion with an exceptional pedigree for the competition market. He is by Primitive Rising and out of a mare by Hoarworthy, in fact she is Another Hoarworthy’s full sister. Both Hoarworthy and Another Hoarworthy were massively popular HIS premium stallions and producers of numerous show and competition winners. He is called Primitive Proposal.

Langaller Farm - Charles Upham

So another month has passed, the clocks have changed and the ‘quiet’ autumn is nearly over. September finished with a ‘yard’ social evening to celebrate, or commiserate, with Rose and Steph who have both been a major part of team Langaller for the last 10 years. Steph joined us as groom and is now groom, head of lorry packing, day to day list writer, yard manager, exercise rider, vet. organiser, in fact generally in charge. Rose is the ‘nice’ person who answers the telephone to customers, the one who leaves cold callers in no doubt of their wasted time, the one who has miraculously balances the in box and the out box and annually gets the ‘tidiest covering certificates’ award for her beautiful hand writing. In all seriousness I am very proud that we are all members of one team that pull together for the benefit of the horses, their owners and the reputation of Langaller. I often get asked how I manage to find and keep good staff? The answer is simple, I don’t have any staff. October, of course, is Horse Of The Year Show month and we were absolutely delighted that Chantry Clover Girl made her fourth trip such a successful one standing second in the horse section of the Cuddy in-hand final. Few individuals will have managed to qualify at all let alone four times. She really is Miss Consistant and a real working broodmare too, with her 5th foal at foot and number 6 due in 2017. The West Country was well represented as always. Julian Walter’s stood an outstanding second place in Cuddy pony section with Sharptor Trinity, the first Shetland to qualify for over 20 years and Vicky Roger’s achieved what the rest of us can only dream of by winning her section in the Search For A Star hunter and got to ride under the spot light in the main arena to that famous music. And so many other’s from all over the South West achieved incredible results. Way to go South West!!! For over 2 weeks I was without internet, or rather a computer, and to be honest I was starting to really enjoy the peace and quiet although was nervously curious as to what emails etc. I was missing out on. We do have an ipad thingy but I am resolutely slow at learning its functions. I did from time to time fire it up and tried to look up various auction websites and the obligatory social media but really struggled with having to constantly tap tap tap on the screen like a budgie on acid in order to get any action. I must say though that it was a feat of genius to invent something that you have to hit to make work and yet allegedly can’t live without and so the more you hit it the more likely it is to break and the more likely you are to have buy another! Sheer brilliance. All the foals are now chipped and snipped and SHB passports applied for. Weaning went well with a very short spell of whinnying before the mares wandered back to their grass fields and the foals accepted their new independence. Slowly but surely they will be heading to they’re new homes and we wish them and their new owners much success and happiness. This autumn we have been to a few youngstock shows, not something we have done before but we had a couple of yearlings who had been somewhat ignored throughout the summer {cobblers child syndrome} and so it was a chance to take them out for a quiet education. These shows are the perfect opportunity to show off a new purchase or an adolescent who is playing catch up with its maturity but I have to admit to having mixed feelings. On one hand it is lovely to get a few of the later born foals out as yearlings once they have started to catch up with their older age group contemporises. On the other hand I have seen one or 2 weaned foals that will be lovely at a later date but really need time to mature and should be left at home to grow up rather than be produced and travelled when their limbs and joints are obviously vulnerable and will better for not being put under unnecessary strain just for the sake a ribbon fetish. Many years ago the late Douglas Kellow advised me that ‘the art of showing is knowing when not to.’ His words have stuck with me and I have learnt to wait until each individual is ready before taking them out in public.

Photos from Langaller Farm - Charles Upham's post

September Blog Phew!! The last show of the season is done, the last of the mares have been scanned and most of the visiting mares have gone home. Now mares with their foals are coming in to run with our own herd for a few weeks before weaning. Increasingly we offer the option of taking mares and foals in to wean as the whole process is much less traumatic when foals can be weaned in a group. We are fortunate in being able to shut the foals in a barn behind a large sheeted door and the mares have access to this area and can touch noses with their foals and then make the decision to wander off to the fields as and when they are ready. Not surprisingly many mares they don’t hang around for long and within no time they are grazing quietly and enjoying the peace. The gates are left open and if and when they want to they can go back to the yard to check on their foals they can. I personally feel that this is by far the best method. No wrenching mother and baby apart, no solitary, dark stable for the frightened foal to panic in and nothing to enforce the separation except a door. Let’s not forget that in the wild the mare will drive her foal away when she decides the time is right; when they are restricted to a field she cannot do that. We also have what we call a ‘chip and snip’ day a week or so before weaning when all the foals are microchipped and registered, and the colts are gelded. All of our foals are registered with Sports Horse Breeders GB without exception. I cannot stress enough the importance of registering with a BRITISH stud book. Many ‘foreign’ stud books will stamp ‘UK’ on their passports but when that horse achieves any FEI points all of the credit goes to the stud book of origin which is not British! Our stud books will not have been credited for so many outstanding horses bred in the UK who have competed at the highest levels worldwide. Also using an identity Passport Issuing Authority rather than a stud book will not verify the horse’s pedigree or breeder. Am stepping away from my soap box now. The show season has been very successful for the team here. In Hunter Breeding our own Langaller Starring Role remains the most consistent sire for producing correct limbed, free moving and easy to handle young horses and he has been responsible for a number of winners in the show ring up and down the Country this summer. Keady Star has again given us some beautiful coloured youngsters, many of them standing at the top of the line in their respected sections. My tired old showing jacket was replaced by a new one from my sponsor Harry Hall at the beginning of the season. I am not a superstitious person but I had worn the old one for so many years and managed to win a few decent prizes in it that I was reluctant to change but the new one has carried on from where the old one left off. Thankfully. Also the Harry Hall polo shirts have been well and truly tested as I live in them 7 days a week and they are very hard wearing indeed, and look smart to boot. I know that we are very fortunate at Langaller to have plenty of space and at this time of year we tend to open gates and allow the youngsters and in foal mares to run as a larger herd and please themselves which fields they use and who they socialise with. On my morning constitutional with the 2 JR’s and Scarlett it is lovely to take the time to stop and appreciate the surroundings. Most mornings I can watch deer grazing or see a fox heading home after his night’s hunting. It is also a privilege to be able to watch the horses interact and enjoy their freedom. Now I make no apology for my views on individual turnout and the poor horses that get penned behind electric tape, standing in mud with no shelter because ‘they need to go out everyday’ blah blah blah.....anyway.....it seems to be something of an autumn theme that my ‘lot’ love to gallop. Scarlett, being an Irish Setter is prone to running flat out for no apparent reason, skid to a halt and then chase back to where she started. This morning I watched as {I won’t admit numbers} a group of youngsters who were playing the same game; ears back, necks stretched to the fore, lungs and hearts pounding it came to me just how essential such freedom is to a immature and growing adolescent. How important it must be for the development of their limbs, hearts and breathing apparatus to have the opportunity to be exercised to their full extent. And so this leads on to the question of how many soundness issues, lameness or wind defects in later life stem from restricted exercise in their formative years. Just thinking....... Wormers. You get what you pay for. Just saying!! Autumn hunting has been in full swing for a month in Devon, our own hunters have been in work for much the same space of time and we will be enjoying the slightly later meeting times of 7 am from here on. We are considering offering weekend breaks for those of you who might like to come to Dartmoor and bring your own horses, either hunting or just to enjoy the amazing riding and breathtaking views, not to mention countless country pubs and local ales. We can provide accommodation with logs fires and home cooked meals while your horses have stables in our stone built barns with deep straw beds and a hot horse shower!!! A few days now before we head to Horse Of The Year Show with our lovely broodmare Chantry Clover Girl for the Cuddy final. This will be her 4th visit so fingers crossed!! Best of luck to all those competing there next week.

Sport Horse Breeding GB south West mare grading on June 25th at Langaller Farm, Bovey Tracey, Devon TQ13 9JP. Further details from Marian Eydmann on 01732866277 or marian@sporthorsegb.co.uk

Timeline Photos

Langaller Starring Role and Newtown Pedro enjoy the sun at today's meet of the South Devon Hunt