A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY
THE KELSTON STUD
Kelston Stud is a small private business based in the heart of Hampshire. It is run and managed by Francis and Wendy Keeling.
Francis has been involved in breeding Irish Draught horses since 1989. A farrier by trade of some 30 years now, he was the backbone of the former partnership "The Blue Gray Stud Farm" which dissolved in 1995. The Kelston Stud then emerged in 1996 set up with part of the stock he had bred and brought in from the former partnership. That foundation stock consisted of one homebred purebred stallion; a son of "Rakish Paddy" RID, one homebred half-bred stallion; " a grandson of "Blue Henry" RID, four pure-bred RID mares; two by Blue Henry, one by Enniskeane Prince RID, one by Colman RID,
two thoroughbred mares and a small number of youngstock. Year 2000 saw the return of his former stallion "Blue Henry" and a Snowford Benson RID mare into the fold. Blue Henry renown for his wonderful dressage paces, has been very influential to the breed by producing many successful offspring competing in all disciplines, and today his bloodlines are very sought after. Sadly though we recently lost him at the age of 23 years and although we miss him terribly, we have his purebred son Blue Max who passsed inspection last year and now has RID status, to carry on his line, and hopefully live up to the reputation his great sire had earned, a tall order indeed. His other colt Last Orders, a superb little chap, has just been sold to a lady in South Carolina USA, to breed competition horses, we are thrilled about this, it is just what we wanted for him and she is delighted with him.
AIM OF THE STUD
The aim of the stud in addition to keeping pure the lines of the Irish Draught, now on the rare breeds register, but to continue the lines of Blue Henry through his sons and to breed quality competition and show horses, and specialising in Show Cobs.
We felt sure at the onset that the blood lines of our foundation stock would produce high quality competitive youngstock and of those bred so far, we certainly haven't been disappointed. It is every breeders dream to produce a champion or two. This has been achieved with youngstock from the former partnership namely "Blue Gray Amazement": a little purebred Irish Draught more famously known in the show ring as "Bailey's Horse Feeds Polaris" This wonderful multi champion Show Cob is a household name in the Show World and was shown to perfection by Lynn Russell. On retiring in 2003 Polaris had accumulated, 55 major Championship Titles including Championship honours four years in succession at the Royal International Horse Show, "Cob of the Year" in 1999 and Heavyweight Cob of The Year in 2000 and 2001, British Isles Cob Champion at Royal Windsor with a £3000 prize, and Champion at the Royal Show in 2002. It has now been confirmed that Polaris was one of the most successful cobs of all time. A pure-bred by Silver Jasper out of our foundation mare "Clannad Bess",
Blue Gray Amazement, as he was formerly known, was foaled in 1992. He was an outstanding colt and was destined to be a champion. He won the Supreme in-hand Championship as a two year old colt and was sold shortly after that. At a later date he was then spotted by Lynn Russell at his new home and the rest is history. Bess his dam, who we sadly lost this year, aged 24, has produced some beautiful prizewinning stock for us including "Vega" half-brother to "Polaris" and "Clannad Chance Desire" who is dam of our own current homebred champion cob "Kelston Madam Butterfly" by Blue Henry. She has been one of the most successful cob mares around not only in the Lightweight Cob division, but also winning in Side-Saddle classes, Working Cob, Affilated Dressage and Irish Draught Purebred classes.
Sadly in 2005 year we lost Southern Belle (Polaris's daughter) and her foal by our homebred ID stallion "Perhaps" but unfortunately these things happen, she was a lovely mare and it was a disappointment to lose the only offspring we had of his lordship.
We have several youngsters making their debut into showing this coming season with new owners and hopefully another of our own that we managed to hold on to (before someone wants it), so it will be interesting to see how they fair in the big wide show world. Not every youngster we breed go on to show homes of course as its not everyone's cup of tea, however we wish all new owners good luck and enjoyment of the coming competitive season, and please if you have to change their names please enter the breeding details, it is so nice to keep track of our babies to see how they fair and at least get some feedback - and some recommendations -no one knows if there are no details given.
Our other foundation stallion "Blue Gray Perhaps" is also one of Bess's sons and half brother to Polaris, he is producing some excellent stock, passing on his presence, wonderful temperament, and stamping them with his quality and tremendous bone. We are delighted with all of them, they each have the qualities we are looking for and the potential to further accomplish our aims. He has supplied us with plenty of cobs, several of which are out there now flying his flag and have already found success. We too have decided to add a splash of colour into the fold and sent two of our cob mares to a coloured cob stallion, only one got in foal and the result below is a
super liver chesnut and white filly, chunky with lots of bone so hopefully we have a future show cob here. That's something to look forward to and wehave sent another mare to the same stallion hoping for another in 2008.
Show Cobs have become very popular, and nowadays, there are many to be seen in the show ring that have full pedigrees (Polaris, Vega and Madam Butterfly are evidence of this), thus dispelling the saying that cobs cannot be bred but are usually accidents - none of these were, and there are more in the pipeline!. Many of today's show cobs are indeed either pure Irish Draught or have a large percentage of draught blood in them. A good quality pure-bred cob is hard to find, particulary a heavyweight, as is a top quality small hunter. We hope that the stock we have bred and continue to breed, will endorse the superb characteristics of the Irish Draught as a breed to be reckoned with, and we look forward to fulfulling our aim to breed and produce excellent lines of show and competition horses.
Francis Keeling (Registered Shoeing Smith)
Wendy Keeling (DEFRA/RCVS Approved A.I. Technician)
Blue Henry
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