Heather's Naturally Horses Page

I am Heather Stopher and this is my horse Harry, or to give him his full name ‘Caerba Martin M’.
(Courtesy Philips Photography)

My new horse, Harry, is a 12 year old papered purebred 16.1” Irish Draught. I bought him in February 2006 to replace my much loved Goldie, who I lost in 2005. Poor Harry had a tough act to follow.

I saw Harry in a field in Nottinghamshire. He was covered in fur, feathers and had a full beard and whiskers too, added to which he was underweight and under muscled. He had huge feet and looked common - definitely nothing special. I had seen nine other horses, seven of which I took one look at in the stable and said ‘not for me thanks’ and walked away. The only reason I took a second look at Harry (or ‘Beckham’ as he was then) was that he came up to me to say hello which prevented my making a quick get-away. I looked closer. He had a lovely kind eye and a droopy bottom lip.

I have a very soft spot for horses with a droopy bottom lip. He stayed with me and genuinely seemed to like the attention I gave him. The vendors asked if I wanted to see him ridden. I said OK. When he moved I could see he moved straight as a dye and his conformation was good. I looked at his passport and found he was by the ID premium stallion ‘Touch of the Blues’ out of an ID Hornby premium mare, ‘Maggie May’. It seemed that he had impressive blood lines.

Harry and Becky

One thing followed another. He still did not set me on fire but I liked him and thought as he was such a kind horse he would make me a good partner in time. Nothing out of the ordinary and definitely not a head-turner like Goldie, but just a good sort of horse. I took two natural horse friends to try him and tell me what they thought. They liked him. This was followed by a five-stage vetting, the handing over of a large sum of money and bingo, I was the owner of yet another new horse.

All that was nearly a year ago now. Since then there is very little that H and I have not done. Harry was thrown in at the deep end and he swam. It does not seem to matter what new things I throw at this horse, he just gets on with it. No fuss. He has been successfully shown gaining two firsts and Champion in the Hunter classes in his first ever outing with me. He came third in the open Hunter class at Ashwell and finished fourth in the Large Riding Horse class. Harry is by no means a Riding Horse type (they are normally fine TB types) but we entered just for the experience. Harry was pulled in last and finished fourth in a class of 12. The judge said that his ride was so mannerly that he could not afford to overlook it! We were thrilled.

H is an unassuming sort of horse. His previous owner likened him to an old boy sitting puffing a pipe in the corner of a pub. I now see what she means. H is not great at showing himself off to the best advantage. He will stand still in line for hours, but he will be bored to death and has a tendency to close his eyes and drop off to sleep in the sunshine. I have learned to beware when he pricks his ears. The norm is ears to the side or back. This does nothing for him in the show ring, so we can be found at the ring edge with plastic bags on sticks to wave discretely when the judge is anywhere near!

We have been to the seaside, have been on three Charlie clinics, where we rode in a hackamore for the first time. We then took a huge step in at the deep end when we signed up for a five-day Ken Faulkner clinic. We came on by leaps and bounds. Harry and I hack out nicely in company, he learns at the speed of sound as he is so sensitive. I can stop him (nice change) and he doesn’t buck or rear. He loads like a dream, is never sick or sorry, is mannered and nicely schooled. He is an all round gem of a horse. Truly a find in a million.

There has always got to be something though… I met Maureen, the owner who had him for the first 7.5 years of his life. Maureen had written a letter to the girl who I had bought Harry from and this said that she had ‘sold him in a fit of temper’. I thought this was a strange reason to sell a horse. All became clear when I met her at HOYS last year. H is very good at spectacular shies and he apparently dumped her in a dressage test at ‘K’. H’s shying was further endorsed by Maureen’s instructor who was also there. After the introduction, her very first words to me were ‘has he had you off yet?’ and proceeded to regale me with the story of when he had her off. I am waiting…

Take as you find. So far he has been wonderful friend, a true Irishman, and I can’t wait to do some more weird and wonderful things with him this year. I am proud of my new partner.

Harry and me

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