Tom King’s Stallion Diary – January 2019

As there’s been plenty going on recently I wanted to update you all on what’s been happening. Well, firstly, Zoustar and Charm Spirit both arrived into Heathrow on December 20 – with about 10 other stallions, including Almanzor, Shalaa, Olympic Glory, Vadamos and Reliable Man.

It was a long flight for our boys, about 27 hours, and Charm had also come from New Zealand as each year he spends the Southern Hemisphere season at Windsor Park Stud. From Sydney they flew to Melbourne, Singapore, Sharjah, Amsterdam and arrived into London late in the evening. There is half a dozen grooms and a vet on the flight, though naturally we do our own checks when they get off – make sure they’ve eaten up, drunk lots of water, check their temperatures and take blood tests.

John Campbell, Tweenhills vet, assessed their condition and will have written a full report to David, Sheikh Fahad and Antony Thompson at Widden Stud. Though there’s been plenty of change at Tweenhills since Charm was last here in 2017, he could walk straight back into his old box so he was very happy.

As thoroughbred stallions in racing don’t start covering until February 14, January is a good time to give those new to stud some ‘practice’ – and allows our International boys some down-time. It’s fascinating to see the difference between each stallion in terms of whether they naturally know how to perform in their second career.

Roaring Lion was a touch impatient when he first jumped on a “batty mare” whereas Lightning Spear was a natural, very professional – but Lion has very much caught up now and it’s probably worth remembering he has only just turned 4 (well, he won’t actually turn 4 until March 11) whereas Spear has just turned 8. Both will have a lot of mares to cover, however they will have a few more trial runs before the serious work starts from Valentine’s Day!

As for the stallions’ daily program, we try and keep them all doing a similar thing as much as possible but naturally it will differ a bit from horse to horse – it’s all about keeping them consistent in their own routine. They get hand-walked for an hour first thing in the morning and then get a pick of grass; though they get turned out into their paddocks for about 5 hours a day anyway. During the season this can change with covers. We also lunge them for about 15 minutes to help maintain their fitness, though they will naturally keep themselves fit during the covering season.

Of course, we are also showing for breeders every day; the office team will make sure we’re well aware of when clients are coming so we can bring the stallions in if they’re out, give them a groom etc. As you would imagine, they’re all on specialised feeding programs too.

I must say our boys look fantastic, and they are a pleasure to deal with too, so we cannot wait to introduce them to plenty of lucky females in the coming months!