Kaz and Kilmannan William
This is Kilmannan William, my dales gelding. He was born on 12 May 2001. His sire is Slaypits Black Magic and his dam is Byway Surprise.
William is a very loving and sweet pony. He is very affectionate and loves cuddles and fuss. His favourite thing is when I use his wooden massage ladybird on him. He just stands there and loves it. During the summer when it is very warm, he comes up to the gate and stands until you turn the hose on him to cool him down, he even turns round himself to do the other side, he loves getting hosed down. He is also, like I suspect every other Dales, very food orientated.
I bought him from his breeder, Bill Ireland, on 25 September 2004 as an unbroken 3 year old who Bill had taken to a couple of shows as a yearling to give him some experience.
William was bought primarily to replace my old mare who I competed in private driving classes and ridden veteran classes. Her name was Briary Sparkle Of Gribton (known as Sherry), a grey, Highland x Tb mare who was 24 years old when she was retired in 2005 due to mild arthritis.
In 2005 we took William to quite a lot of shows in including the Royal Highland Show with a good deal of success to compete in the In-Hand classes to get him used to going to shows and used to the atmosphere on a busy showground. I also started the preparation work for his future driving career by long reining him around the village and out on the roads to get him used to his harness and traffic before being driven out.
He went away for a month during the early summer of 2005 to Andrew May’s (My driving instructor who taught me to drive and broke sherry to drive back in 1997. He also backs and schools ponies under saddle) yard to be professionally backed and schooled on a little. When he came back from being backed we did some more In-Hand classes also a couple of local ridden tack and turnout classes to get him used to being in the ring with other ponies and continued with his long reining in preparation for the driving. He was then turned away for the winter.
In the spring of 2006 William returned to Andrew’s yard to complete his breaking to harness. We continued to go to In-Hand classes at agricultural shows with success to let him see the sights at such shows. This included taking part in the grand parade alongside the cattle, Clydesdales and even a pipe band at Biggar agricultural show where he had won his In-Hand class. He started being driven out and about the local roads.
We live next to busy A roads but he is a superstar and is so good in traffic. He is not worried about double decker busses, articulated lorries or any heavy traffic we encounter on our drives around the local area. For such a young pony he is so very good in traffic. This is probably even more important for a driving pony than a ridden one as you are so far away and have less control in a carriage. You can not have something which is worried about traffic as even as slight spook, which ridden would not be much can cause an accident in a carriage.
During 2006 we attended out first driving club drive outs and at the end of the summer took part in his first private driving classes in my original carriage at two shows. He did very well for his first driving classes and we will be doing more private driving classes at the larger agricultural shows next year including hopefully the Royal Highland Show. As I am not at all keen on riding in ridden classes (I get physically ill with nerves) at shows a friend has started riding him and during this summer took him to some group schooling sessions at the local riding club and to some riding lessons and hacked out sometimes. He has been driven more than ridden up to this point but we hope to have him ready to do some novice ridden classes next summer. So next year we will do a mixture of In-Hand, Novice Ridden and Private Driving classes, as well as drives out around the local roads and attending riding club and diving club.