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ROUND THE STUDS. THE FOREST Wilkinson and David Keenleyside are the third generation of their family to farm at the Forest, Scorton, near Richmond. Their father was a carthorse man, and the first Cleveland Bay to come on to the farm was bought in the 1930's for Wilkie to ride. Information as to the outcome of this venture is not forthcoming, but at any rate the breed remained at the Forest when tractors replaced the carthorses, and in the 1940's both brothers were serving on the Council of the Cleveland Bay Horse Society. Both of them have done a term as President of the Society, and both are official judges, though they usually appear in the ring as exhibitors. The foundation mares at the Forest were Lady Fairfax (1548) bred by the now defunct Cleveland Bay Syndicate, and Stressholme Dignity (1516), a granddaughter of the great mare Hawsker Lassie (1414). These were the old fashioned strong agricultural type of Cleveland, which curiously enough has always produced the great junmping horses, and the Keenleysides, as befits practical farmers, still look for soundness, strength and size in their horses. Like most other breeders, however (and no doubt also under pressure from a riding-mad younger generation of Keenleysides) they have come to regard the future of Clevelands as lying in the cross with the Thoroughbred, rather than in agriculture or carriage work, which used to be the main outlets for their horses. Although they supply horses to the Royal Mews, and a wide range of customers varying from Newcastle Breweries to the Government of Pakistan, they remain the simplest and friendliest of families, who will do no business of any kind on Sundays: look after and show their horses mostly themselves: give short shrift to the unsound or unstable, but cherish the good ones whether they are an unprofitable hobby (as they were in the 1950's) or a paying proposition, as they undoubtedly are today. They never pamper their horses, who winter out with hay only in really bad weather, but the rich grassland at the Forest grows young stock quickly, and at the summer shows their horses come out full of bloom. Competition in the Cleveland classes has become much stiffer in recent years, but they have produced the Champion female at the Royal Show with Forest Fancy in 1964 and Forest Felicity in 1966, and their young stallion Forest Superman (sired by H.M. the Queen's stallion, Mulgrave Supreme) was Breed Champion at the Great Yorkshire in 1966 and is the present holder of the King George V. Cup, awarded annually for the best Cleveland Bay stallion or gelding. But when all is said the Forest Stud in years to come will be especially remembered for producing Lord Fairfax-their first home bred stallion and the one they would never sell. The old lad, as he was always called at home, had his faults. He was not the best of movers, and he occasionally left a chestnut foal. But he was a sound, strong horse with a marvellous temperament, and he transmitted to many of his progeny a jumping ability exceptional even in a jumping breed. His daughter, North Flight, went with the British Show Jumping team to Tokyo, and his son, Maddison Time, to Mexico last year. There should be more great horses by him yet to appear, for the old horse covered more mares during the last five or six years of his life than in the preceding fifteen. His stock was exported all over the world-to Africa, Australia, Pakistan and the U.S.A., and almost every Cleveland Bay stud in Great Britain carries his blood to a greater or less degree. He died at the end of 1968 and has been replaced at the Forest by his great great grandson, Forest Superman. 1969
Cleveland Bay Magazine - No.2 |