Belton Stallion Parade 2010

Sunday the 18th ,we were invited to take stallions but just cant make it this year as got too much on sadly
 
Just been down to Belton and have the program
Stallions are

Washington Postman
Primitive Proposal
Future Illusion
Primitive Star

These seem to be the only ones sponsors are Tower Equine they might know if there are going to be anymore being shown.

Parade is on Sunday 1.30pm
 
Report (unbiased I hope) for those who want it:
We watched 1/2 hour of warmup as well as the show. In warmup they had to contend with the PC mounted games teams warming up round the ring at the same time, Fleetwater Illusion was quite full of it but nothing Jeanette Brakewell couldn't cope with easily, he just put in a few extra bounces and little plunges. the older stallions were all impeccably behaved. Washington Postman was carrying a rider who looked rather big on him and dwarfed him a little, a pity as it didn't enhance the overall picture. He's quite an old boy now and his owner said he hasn't been in work and was brought in from the field last week - if so, it's a real credit to him, he was beautifully behaved.
Grafenstolz stood out for exceptional movement and exceptional jump. i have vids if anyone wants me to put them up.
I asked Ken R why G's not eventing any more - answer: too valuable (he told me what he paid for him) and because he now has an acquired heart murmur. apparently he was given his 'flujab when in Germany and then galloped on the same day, which did it. (i thought everyone knew that they need a few easy days after a 'fluvac?) the murmur is 3/6 on the scale, was definitely not there at all for Grading vetting, he checked back. Therefore definitely not congenital.
Ken got him off the box for me to take pics of his front feet, the vid from the Expo was totally misleading, his near-fore is straight, his off-fore is very slightly turned out imho.
GrafFeet2.jpg

I didn't see Primitive Star jump in the arena because of going to check out G's feet, sorry.
Shame there weren't more stallions there, but it was good to see those who did make the effort.
Shame also that there was a blatant fib in the commentary about FI (they stated that he went double clear at his first Intro last year) - i'm sure we'll all forgive a silly spooky stop or two from a young stallion!
 
He was warlord I believe, not mentioned in the programme.

Kerilli Primitive Star looked lovely jumping to my untrained and very amateur eyes. He clipped a pole and knocked one over but made a lovely shape over the fences.

Was Washington Postman the one that J-P Sheffield was riding?? If so I was unimpressed with his jump.

I was dashing in and out to our stand during the stallion Parade so didn't follow all of it too closely (of course customers couldn't turn up while there was nothing happening in the ring they had to wait until there was something we wanted to watch - darn it!! :p )

Thought Fleetwater Illusion was fabulous though. And the one ridden by Sarah Cohen (was that G? or primitive proposal?? ).
 
Hang on a minute, wasn't it Grafenstolz who was supposed to go to Oli Townsend? I seem to remember something about him taking part in the Eventers Grand Prix at Hickstead. Surely if he was too valuable, then that would never have been the plan from the get go and they would have also known about the heart murmur then too - no?

As for a limb conformation shot, I've seen better and seen worse. Though it was the way he used/moved his right HIND leg, not his front, that people had been commenting on following the Expo and Hartpury Stallion Parades.
 
JP rode the Primitive horse, the first dark one.

Washington Postman didn't jump as he was only back in from the field 10 days, he has now retired from all competition.

FI was nice, few strops in the collecting rind, but nothing unexpected from a young stallion.

Grafenstolz was first, after him many of the others unfortunately looked a bit 'ordinary'
 
Oh dear I'm getting confused.......

I thought Future Illusion was the one that Jeanette Rode and that he was first, then the next was ridden by Sarah Cohen and that was Grafenstoltz. Is that right or have I got the two names the wrong way round.

Then that would have been JP on Primitive Proposal, then Washington Postman, then Primitive Star the Grey. Then Warlord last.

Either way the two that went out first ridden by Sarah and Jeanette were stunning in my opinion. Primitive Star was lush but obviously a completely different type.

I thought warlord was a little lacking in sparkle and presence and obviously the other two I'm struggling to differentiate, one of them jumped but not desparately well in my very humble opinion!
 
Sarah Cohen was riding Grafenstolz.
JPS was riding Primitive Proposal, iirc.
I'm not sure who was riding Washington Postman.
Yes, it was Future Illusion, Fleetwater Opposition is dead.
S_N, i know there were comments about his hindleg evenness, but it was the head-on footage of him at the Expo that made his near fore look v odd - I think whoever posted that he must have had sand stuck to the hoof oil prob had it right, because the hoof looked utterly 'wrong', and didn't yesterday...
vids of him yesterday, if anyone wants to see. btw, i'm nothing to do with KR, Graf or anything else, I was just interested to see what all the fuss was about. He's not right for my mare but he is a lovely stallion.


 
Sorry Kerilli; I have to disagree; not sand and hoof oil! Graf did seem to be saving a hind leg previously during the dressage at the other venues; can't see that in your footage possibly because he was not being asked for such strenuous movements; but the crookedness in the off fore IS apparent even in your own video; the third video shows it clearly as he comes toward you. As for your still shot; this suggests that both legs turn out and surprisingly that the off fore is worse than the near fore; I say surprisingly because the near fore is the one that is visible on the video footage. I'm tempted to ask whether the the picture has been reversed somehow? As a rough guide, if you take a straight, clear piece of plastic and put it over the screen, aligning it down the centre of the horse's leg, you'll see that it hits ground inside the centre line of the hoof on both feet.

Now in fact I don't know how important this is; it may be an uncorrected developmental weakness that should have been sorted out when Graf was a foal; it may not be hereditary (though sometimes this sort of thing seems to be). However I do feel that the people promoting this horse and who are, I am sure, aware of this fault, owe their potential clients an honest response rather than the excuses and denials we have seen so far. Fred99 appears to be based at Pelion, for example, and is doing nothing for that stud's credibility by this approach.
 
the picture definitely hasn't been reversed, Ken R was holding him from the near side and it's his foot and leg you can see in the pic. i was expecting the near fore to be worse too, fwiw.
i think it must have been sand stuck to hoof oil (or something) because the head-on footage from the Expo made the near fore hoof look totally weird, horribly twisted, which it plainly isn't. it's not perfectly straight, however, which is why he won't suit my mare.
i have other vids of him from yesterday, I was really focussing on his feet and legs.
 
Sorry- I'm getting my nears and offs confused; its always the near fore in the videos that bothers me, though its the off that is worse in the photo.
Somebody once told me (at around pony club age, I think)- "You can't get it wrong; near, left and port all have four letters; off, right and starboard don't". But of course, you still have to remember which is left and which is right.
 
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