HORSES AT FRITH MANOR ON A SUMMER DAY IN 2018
(If you love horses, you will love these pics and stories)
FOUR STORIES … INCOMPLETE STORIES
alan Skeoch
August 2018
Our granddaughter Nolan Skeoch is a horsewoman. Proven by the great swaths of time she spends at Frith Manor grooming, riding, jumping, bedding, wheeling carts of horse manure, talking to horses (and occasionally people).
Frith Manor is hardly a palatial estate. But it houses 45 horses in big stalls and provides wilderness trails that even veteran Londoners do not know exist. Most of all, however, each horse has a story. I have tried to capture a couple of horse stories so you can feel you know Frith Manor…a place you will never see for it is hidden away in a forgotten quasi-medieval farm that developers have missed and is now protected as pasturage for horses.
STORY # 1: MARIA TITNEY
Story #1: MARIA
This is Maria Titney and her horse Beanie. I do not know Maria’s full story but
what I do know is quite moving. Beanie is (was) her daughters horse but
her daughter got sick and could not look after Beanie. So, for the past several years,
Maria has done the care. Not easy. Maria gets up before dawn to ride by public
bus to Frith Manor to feed, brush, wash and walk Beanie. He expects her
every day. Looks from his stall down the line of stable stalls to the path Maria walks.. After
caring for Beanie in the morning, Maria goes home by bus and then returns at
nightfall to clean Beanie’s stall and prepare him for bed.
This sounds like a very onerous and unpleasant schedule for a person of limited means.
Not Maria. She is a joy to meet. Always greets us with open arms and questions
about our lives. Someday I hope, someone takes the time to get Maria’s full story.
Should Maria ever fail to be there for Beanie then he would be doomed. He is
a very large horse as you can see. Gentle as a lamb. Unfortunately he accidentally
stepped on Maria’s foot. Badly Damaged. So now she limps when taking Beanie
for a walk.
Story #2: AMARANTHE
Amaranthe drew my attention when I notice his owner trying to give him a path
with a garden hose. He became skittish. About to rear up. While his stablemates
looked on with either total disinterest or amusement.
“What a beautiful horse?”
“”Thoroughbred…just arrived from Spain”
“Seems a bit high strung.”
“Time and attention will change that…if he survives?”
“If he survives?
“He has OCD…bone splinters in one of his legs.”
“Splinters?”
“Bad problem. The new owner was thinking of sending him back
to Spain and get her money back. But now she has changed her mind.”
“Why?”
“Because he will likely be put down if sent to Spain”
“Why?”
“Horses with bone splinters are usually ‘put down’…imagine a horse with a broken leg. What can be done?”
“Not a damn thing.”
“Brings back a memory…way back in 1947 my Dad bought part of a horse after a Claims Race
at Dufferin Racetrack in Toronto. Probably owned 20 bucks worth of the horse for Dad never
seemed to have more than 20 bucks at a time.”
“What does that have to do with Amaranthe?”
“Dad’s horse broke its leg the next day. Eric and I were just small boys. Squeezed through
a hole in the board fence just in time to see Dad’s horse shot. It reared and fell. Not
a nice memory.”
“Amaranthe’s fate is going to be a lot better. Owner has decided to try and fix
the leg. Expensive for sure. But she cannot bare to think of Amaranthe
being put down.”
Story #3 HORSE RESCUER
I was only able to have a short conversation with this young lady. Her affection
for horses goes beyond petting, feeding and riding. She is a horse rescuer.
“Horse Rescuer?”
“Racehorses…only the winners have value. Losers are often doomed…sold to highest bidder some of whom
are in the meat industry.”
“She has rescued three of them.”
“I thought race horses were always well treated.”
“Winning horses are but losing horses are not. In any given horse race
there is only one winner.. What do you think happens to the losers?”
“Never gave that much thought.”
“Some are rescued by horses lovers but a great many are doomed.”
“Doomed?”
“Horseracing is a money game. If a racehorse cannot make money
for its owner then it is put in a claims race where anhoe can buy it cheap.”
“Surely not as awful as that.”
“There was a time when retired race horses were highly valued. Back in the horse
and buggy days. Now the lucky horses are sold to only a few like that. In
Canada , many ex racehorses are bought cheaply by Mennonites and Amish
people … religious people who consider our motorized society sinful.”
“So most racehorses are a dime a dozen so to speak. Cheap in other words…. face a grim future?”
“Right.”
“Hard not to admire a horse rescuer…but a very tough life she must face.”
STORY #4 Nolan and Gabriela Skeoch become horse breeders
I don’t know where this story began. Mothers notice things about their children.
Gabriela noticed tha Nolan’s bedroom was becoming very ‘horsey” for Nolan
was filling the walls with horse pictures. Gabriela heard there was a hoses
stable not farm from they home in Muswell Hill, North London. So Nolan
got riding lessons on ‘Squash’, a rather small horse who needed attention.
In time, Squash proved to be ungrateful and gave Nolan a little nip. Not bad
but enough to make Gabriela worried. She had a choice. Quit the life
at Frith Manor or buy a horse of their own.
That’s how 9 year old Georgie became the first horse in the London Skeoch family stable.
He was Quiet and appreciative. And easy to ride but a tad smaller than
other horses at 14.2 hands. So gentle, however, that he could be ridden
bareback without worry.
Ownership of Georgie was the beginning of their equine addiction. Why stop
with only one horse.? Especially when word arrived that a Spanish 5 year old Andalusian
Palamino was for sale. So what if the horse was in Spain and had to be trucked
through France to England. And so ‘Mello” arrived. Initially Mello was a little
too spirited for Nolan so was sent to training school. After graduation Mello became
Nolan’s first full size horse.
Nolan and Mello are learning how to jump over fake fences. Dangerous for both of them.
So Gabriela bought two horses. Why stop there>
Two horses unleashed bigger plans. And Gabriela bought “Atea” , a chestnut purebred
Spanish 4 year old mare … who just happened to be pregnant. Now the horse business
was getting very serious. Needed a stable where foaling was carefully tended. So Gabriela and Nolan found another
stable a two hour journey away in a charming back road part of Surrey.
Roads to the stables in Surrey got very narrow…one car roadways…then suddenly we were there.
Altea with her third Skeoch foal named Aurora. Born in June 2018.
Atea is a natural mother so Gabriela and Nolan now own, August 2018,
three other foals. The latest foal, only 2 months old has been named Aurora
She tucks herself close to her mom, Atea, in the above photograph. And snuggles up to Gabriela
in the pic below.
Her two sisters, Navarra, a 1 year old Chestnut filly and Karma are with their mother
Atea and young sister Aurora at the Surrey stable. But the older fillys live separately from Atea.
They have their own rooms like some human children do.
And so Gabriela and Nolan now have six horses…two mares and three fillys. And one gelding.
Gelding?
” If George is a gelding then how did Atea get pregnant?”
“Silly question…A. I. …A.I. is foolproof.”
“A.I.? Do you mean Artificial Intelligence?”
“Nope, Artificial Insemination.”
“Does That mean that most men are expendable in future years…not much need for males anymore. Just room for super males.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning technology is replacing jobs with machines…no need for us in the future.”
“Silly”
“Society with those new intelligent machines…those #$%^& robots… rendering most of
us obsolete. We may as well all be gelded. We will certainly be unemployed. Most of us replaced by
A.I. things.”
“Sometimes I wonder about you.”
“ Only perfect males will be allowed to procreate. That
is now common among domestic animals.”
“Fear not, Alan, you are perfect.”
“What a relief? Wait a minute, did you wink?”
Kevin Skeoch and Gabriela Skeoch admiring Navarra and Karma. Kevin Skeoch
has documented the whole horse adventure and in the process become a good
rider and a gentle unfearfull presence among the animals. Wish I could say the
same thing about myself.
Why would they want six horses? Simple. Purebred Spanish Andalusian thoroughbreds
are valuable. They can be sold and thereby diminish the costs of stabling six horses…vets bills,..
farrier bills…feed bills…transportation bills…etc. etc. Owning horses is not a cheap affair.
One horseman I recently consulted suggested “Never get close to your horses. Keep
them distant. If you love them then parting is very difficult.” Seems to me that
Gabriela and Nolan love their horses. Selling will be difficult.
STORY #5 WHAT ABOUT MORGAN?
HAS MORGAN BEEN FORGOTTEN?
Looks like Gabriela and Nolan are having fun but what about Morgan.?
Do not get your knickers twisted. Morgan loves dogs and cats. So Gabriela has
purchased two dogs and three cats they all live in their house in Muswell Hill.. Morgan’s
interest in animal care has been encouraged far beyond what most parents
would understand. She plans a career devoted animal care…perhaps even becoming a veterinarian.
Gabriela aided that possibility. In March, Morgan volunteered as a farm worker in Northern Scotland doing lambing in early spring.
Then in July she volunteered at an exotic zoo tending a pile of meer cats and skunks in early July near Birmingham. And as I
write this letter Morgan is in the outback of Australia helping to pull calves out
of cows that have gone full term. Morgan’s story is just a rich as Nolan’s.
In the picture above Morgan is getting a kiss from Mello at the Frith Stable.
PICTURES OF STABLEMATES
QUESTION: WHY ARE MOST HORSE OWNERS IN THESE STABLES FEMALE?
Hard to believe this wilderness road is near London, England…right?’
Hard to believe the Skeoch family own 6 horses in and near London…right?
Hard to believe the world is round….right?
Hard to believe everything we do is done in the thin band of Oxygen laden air that envelops the earth…right?
Hard to believe in miracles but our presence…alone…in the vastness of the universe seems miraculous…right?
Hard to believe that we are alone…right?
So sharing our livable space with six horses may be some act of faith…right?
Sharing our living space, tiny though it is becoming.
Hard to believe that others share our life journey…including horses.
Hardest thing to understand is why Frith Manor horse owners are overwhelmingly women…?
alan skeoch
august 2018
Hi Mr Skeoch,
Some of the guys noticed your blog and passed along.
Great pics and stories of the family.
So sorry to hear about Gabi and just wanted to reach out to send my condolences. Hope you and Mrs Skeoch are doing well.
Jay Self