THE
BREEDERS NEW
ZEALAND HORSE & PONY
Blueblood
babyCraighaven
Stud's new imported colt Lord Welton carries the very best eventing
bloodlines. Helen Firth visited his owners, Martin and Karen
Gow, of Whakatane.
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Only
14 months and already a big boy: Lord Welton with his
owners, Karen and Martin Gow. |
 |
The
three year old stallion Craighaven Leviosa (by Voltaire
II out of a Kingsway Diamond mare). |
The
famous English Welton line is now available in this country
through the exciting new colt, Lord Welton. He is the last
son of Welton Crackerjack, and was imported by Martin and
Karen Gow to be the new figurehead of their Craighaven Stud.
At 14 months old, Lord Welton already stood 15.1hh. He is
7/8 thoroughbred, 1/8 Irish Draught (the same mix of blood
as Welton champions such as Greylag and Envoy), and his thoroughbred
mother is the granddaughter of an Irish Oaks winner. Welton
Crackerjack put down earlier this year at the age of 28 sired
Badminton, Burghley and Lexington winners, and stood eighth
in the World Breeding Federation's ranking of the top 50 sires
of the last decade.
The purchase of Lord Welton was something of a coup for Martin
and Karen, and also a fitting closure to their own English
experience. The couple went over in 2000, just as the elderly
Welton stallions were relocated from breeder Sam Barr's farm
to Hartpury College, which has bought both the Welton horses
and the prefix.
Martin was employed to run the commercial stud for the college,
while Karen a partner with Edgecumbe Vet Services lectured
in vet science, and also worked through the foot and mouth
epidemic. In fact, the money Karen earned during this time
paid for Lord Welton's costly importation, and so she jokingly
refers to him as "Mr Foot and Mouth." "Actually,
he owes us a new house!" The Gows will try the colt over
a couple of their own mares this season, and he will stand
commercially next year.
"He will cross very well over the New Zealand thoroughbred
with his size. It's exciting, because it's an influx of new,
proven blood for eventing, plus I think you could take a cross
bred mare to him and get a really nice all rounder,"
says Martin.
Welton Crackerjack was an elderly stallion, and latterly plagued
by injury; Lord Welton was the only colt from the ten mares
which did get in foal to him during his final stud season.
"Because he was not sound, we had to collect semen as
infrequently as possible, and inseminate all the mares at
one time. Three of the ten foals came from a single collection:
this colt is one of them, and another was from a mare who
belonged to the Queen we hope ours is better!"
When I visited the multi talented couple at Craighaven, they
were still bubbling over with enthusiasm about their time
in England. While at Hartpury, Martin was responsible for
collecting semen from the stallions, as well as inseminating
and flushing out the mares.
At
home, the Gow’s do most of the work on their horses
veterinary, farriery, saddlery and breaking in and so Martin
was also able to pass on some of his ideas to his English
employers. In particular, his more natural approach to breeding
achieved a 100% success conception rate in the college stud's
mares during his last season there.
"In New Zealand, mares get in foal on a flush, on a rising
plane of nutrition, and then in roughly 12 months' time they
foal down to a subsequent flush, when they will have plenty
of feed for the foal; that's why they get in foal on a rising
plane so readily.
"In England, traditionally, they bring the mares in over
winter and hard feed them, and then in the spring send them
to stud. The mares are then out at grass and, because the
grass is mediocre at that time of year, they go from a fairly
high plane of nutrition to a real drop. Instead, my philosophy
was to continue hard feeding them and it worked."
The students too, benefited from Martin's practical knowledge
and were very much "industry ready" by the time
they left the college. "They'd got a lot of dirt under
their fingemails!" grins Martin. "Because I was
a Kiwi, the college tended to turn a blind eye sometimes."
The arrival of Lord Welton only strengthens Craighaven's existing
line up of resident sires. They already have four stallions,
including their foundation sire, Waingata (by Aberlou). Now
an older horse, he is the grandsire of many of Karen and Martin's
youngstock. Intially, the Gows put Waingata over stationbred
and part Clydesdale mares. They retained the daughters, and
crossed them back to warm blood jumping sires such as Valiant
and Voltaire II.
"The
Craighaven horses already out competing won't be a patch on
these ones, if we're doing our job correctly," says Martin.
Adds Karen: "We can see a big improvement already, just
in the paddock."
Besides
Waingata, the Gows have the stallion Craighaven Leviosa, by
Voltaire II, out of a Kingsway Diamond mare (herself out of
an In The Purple mare, out of a Kurdistan mare). Craighaven
Voila is by Valiant, out of a Jaguar Imperial Seal mare, and
at six years old, the Gows are happy to report, he is leaving
beautiful types. Completing the list of stallions is the halfClydesdale
Big Easy, a grandson of Waingata, which they use over their
smaller thoroughbred or part Arab mares.
"The
last season before we went to England, we used eight different
stallions, in order to cross our mares with what we believed
was the right type for each one," says Martin. 'When
people decide to breed a foal, they need to have some idea
of what they want to end up with and then look closely at
their mare, before considering their stallion options. It
might be a beautifully bred stallion, but that doesn't necessarily
mean it will match your mare."
The
Gows returned from England to 40 youngsters of their own to
break in, and five hunters in the field, so have been busy
ever since. Hunting is their main riding interest Martin is
president of the Eastern Bay of Plenty Hunt and so far they
have enjoyed educating their horses to the point where they
are ready to go out and jump 1m.
"The
growth market in New Zealand is for women's horses,"
says Martin. "Something that's relatively competitive,
with a nice presence and up to size, and they want it to be
user friendly, so if they go to Sydney for a week they don't
have to rebreak the horse in when they get back. That is our
bread and butter market."
Until
very recently, Craighaven's last missing link has been a competition
rider; this void has been filled with the arrival of Hayden
Morresey. Originally from Taranaki, Hayden has been based
overseas, riding for some of the big show jumping and dressage
names in America and Europe, among them Butch and Lou Thomas,
and Mike Endicott. The intention is for Hayden to take some
of Craighaven's promising youngsters through to the more advanced
levels Martin and Karen know they are capable of.
Given
the weight of their numbers and the quality of breeding, it
is surely only a matter of time before we start to see Craighaven
champions.
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THE
BREEDERS NEW
ZEALAND HORSE & PONY
Cracker
Chance For Kiwis
 |
Karen
,Daniel, Martin & Shane |
 |
Martin
Gow aboard the stallion Welton Ambassador |
When
the famous English Welton stud horses relocate to Hartpury
College this year, a New Zealand couple will be at the
helm. Martin and Karen Gow of Whakatane travel to England
this month to begin a two year contract to manage the
stud at Hartpury, a large agricultural college in Gloucestershire.
The college have leased the four Welton stallions and
ten Welton mares to form the basis of their stud unit,
used for teaching.
"Our
job will be the day to day looking after the horses,"
says Martin. "Obviously, being England, that will
mean a fair bit of running around with a muckrake!"
Hard
work, maybe, especially with two young sons in tow.
But the experience will also be invaluable for the pair,
who have their own breeding operation Craighaven here
in New Zealand. Limbury Stud, home of the Welton horses,
is ranked number one in England. Its oldest stallion,
Welton Crackerjack, is four times English eventing stallion
of the year.
Sam
Barr, the principal of the stud, decided in the 1960s
to breed event horses using stallions whose performance
and temperament were tested in competition a theory
well ahead of his time, but one that proved successful.
Welton
Crackerjack, 25, is by Sarn's foundation stallion,
the thoroughbred Welton Gaineful, out of an Irish Draught
x thoroughbred mare. Crackerjack reached advanced eventing
level, completing Burghley. His progeny include Mark
Todd's Burghley winner Welton Greylag, Welton Houdini,
winner of Badminton for Ginny Leng and Blyth Tait's
ride Welton Envoy.
The
other Welton stallions are Welton Apollo, 24, who is
the only stallion to have completed Badminton three
times (with Leslie Law), Welton Ambassador, who at 13
has already produced five advanced event horses, and
a young horse by Crackerjack out of a Light Spirits
mare which the Barrs bought in New Zealand.
In
the list of eventing horses in England, there's something
like 60 horses that carry the Welton prefix," says
Martin. "And they serve maybe 70 outside mares
each year, so you'd just have to guess how many of their
horses that don't carry the prefix are in that list."
With
Sam nearing 80, he and wife Linda have decided to take
a backseat with the breeding, passing that responsibility
on to the college. They will now focus on producing
another advanced Martin Gow aboard the stallion Welton
Ambassador
A
one inch advertisement in Horse and Pony magazine last
year started the ball rolling for the Gows. At that
stage Sarn was simply looking for stud staff, and Martin
sent over his curriculum vitae. "And then I got
a call at 6am. Ten days later I was on the plane to
England for five weeks at Limbury farm."
During
Martin's visit in August, Hartpury College held the
inaugural British in hand mare championships. Martin
showed a horse called Baby Welton for the Barrs, which
went on to be supreme champion of the show, something
he describes as "quite a buzz", with the big,
indoors classes.
Then
it was back home to Whakatane, to breakin and sell some
of his own horses. All of Craighaven's three year olds
have now gone, but Martin has retained the younger horses,
which he will return home to when the contract with
Hartpury is up.
"My
father Angus and family will keep everything ticking
over here. We feel that our own horses are just starting
to move along and do the right things, and we've got
some nice young horses on the ground."
In
the early days of the Craighaven stud, the Gows had
some straight Clydesdale mares, which they put to their
own Aberlou stallion, Waingata. They sold the geldings
off as hunters, but retained the mares which they have
since put to stallions with good jumping lines, such
as Oldenburg, Voltaire and Valiant. More recently they
have bought some of the top price mares from the Gisbome
station sales.
"We're
trying to breed heavy weight thoroughbreds with a bit
of constitution, as allrounders really, but heading
towards the showjumping market."
Martin
and Karen are keen hunters, and Martin has just handed
in his presidency of the Eastern Bay of Plenty Hunt.
Both ride the young horses out at local shows, until
they are jumping up to a metre, at which stage they
hand them on to someone who can take them further. Most
recently, Toni McIntosh has taken on some of Craighaven's
three year olds to show jump.
Horses
have been a life time interest for Martin, who at one
stage did a six year stint rodeoing. When his father
bought a horse that was difficult to break in, Martin
started him and rode him until the horse was sold. "Dad
gave me half the money about $1500 and I thought that
wasn't bad. I started buying a few, handling them and
selling them on, and we got involved that way."
"We
started off using the hack mares we had here, but now
we're much more critical of our own horses, more on
temperament than anything. If a horse has got a reasonable
temper, you can generally find a home for it. That's
the bread andbutter side of it, and that's why we've
kept ourselves in business."
They
have also been able to produce their horses relatively
cheaply: Martin has done all the stud work and breaking
in at Craighaven himself, and is a saddler by trade.
Wife Karen is a veterinarian and they have a dairy farm
which subsidises the winter grazing.
"It's
that all round ability that's given us this opportunity
at Welton really, because they just want somebody who
can do the whole shooting box."
From
Karen's perspective, the college is a "go ahead"
one; they have just installed an equine therapy unit
and the only underwater treadmill in England. She will
be lecturing in veterinary science.
Securing
the Welton horses is somewhat of a coup for Hartpury,
and they are building a £150,000 complex to accommodate
their new guests. The college's existing facilities
include stabling for more than 150 horses, two full
size indoor schools, hunter trial and horse trial (to
advanced) courses.
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