Thursday 5th June - Regional Day, South East
TBA Members were treated a wonderful Regional Day on Thursday 5th June. The sun was shining as thirty members arrived at Angmering Park Estate in West Sussex, to visit William Knight's Lower Coombe Stables. Angmering Park Estate is the home of Lady Herries and covers 11,000 acres over the South Downs. William leases Lower Coombe Stables from Lady Anne and is in his third season as a trainer, he currently has 40 horses in the yard. William has full use of the magnificent facilities at Angmering Park including three gallops, turn out paddocks and woodlands walks.
Members watched third lot, two-year-olds, pull out from the yard and then via 4-wheel-drives were taken to the mile and a half all weather gallops, with stunning views across the South Downs and Arundel. The horses have about a one hour ride out to the gallops and back again, through woodland and across fields. The members watched the horses canter and then followed the string, which included horses such as Dome Rocket (Domedriver – Sea Ridge) and Dalradian (Dansili – Aethra) as they headed back, stopping a few times to get out, watch the string and take in the view.
Members were then shown around the yard by William and his wife Emily, and top rated horses Ashdown Express and King of Dixie were pulled out for members to see. Illustrious Blue, William's stable star, was unfortunately on his way back from a race in Stockholm and so not on parade.
From here it was onto the Arundel Equine Hospital, where Practice Partner Paul Du Preez showed members the facilities and gave a most interesting talk on gastric ulcers. This was followed by a talk from Matt Waterhouse, also a partner, who gave a demonstration and explanation of scintigraphy and how beneficial it has become to the diagnostic work carried out within the practice.
The afternoon was spent at Lavington Stud, a 340 acre estate owned by Captain John Macdonald-Buchanan, M.C., D.L. and A R Macdonald Buchanan. The stud has been in operation for 110 years, and up until last year was standing stallions. Now the stud has their own mares and foals, boarding mares, horses out of training, and some sales prep yearlings.
Members were treated to a mare and foal show, with homebred dams such as Passiflora (Night Shift – Pineapple) and her Compton Place foal, and Coventina (Daylami – Lady of the Lake) and her Verglas foal and Gwyneth (Zafonic – Lyyn Gwynant) and her Cadeaux Genereux foal on parade.
It was then on board the minibuses for a tour of the stud, with a look at some of the colt and filly yearlings along the way.
Members returned to the covering shed, for a talk by resident vet Paula Broadhurst, who works for the Arundel Equine Hospital, about the veterinary work involved on a stud on a day to day basis.
Our thanks to Joan Langmead for organising such a fantastic day, to William and Emily Knight, and their staff, to vets Paul Du Preez, Matt Waterhouse and Paula Broadhurst, and to Tim Read, Bill Lloyd and the staff at Lavington Stud for a wonderful Regional Day.
www.wknightracing.co.uk
www.lavingtonstud.co.uk
