Becky & Chapman & Blackmoor Mac Rua
Qualified for: TopSpec Heavyweight Show Hunter of the Year
Now over 18hh and a heavyweight show hunter, Mac was big even as a foal. In fact his size lead to a traumatic foaling and the sad death of his dam, Suma’s Little Red. In spite of her distress at the loss of her much-loved Red, Mac’s breeder, Mary Neville bottle-fed Mac, who was rejected by the first three foster dams, until he was eventually accepted by a pony mare at three months old.
Mary named Mac, “Blackmoor (stud prefix) Mac Rua” (meaning, “Son of Red”). As a weanling, he was bought by Michael Devlin who brought him to the UK along with another two colts who taught Mac how to be a horse. (Hand-reared horses are notoriously difficult to manage in to adulthood.)
Michael sent a lot of his youngsters to me to back and re-home and always had a soft spot for Mac but I was quite unimpressed when he fell out of the trailer in a big heap of tangled legs as a gangly four year old. However, what he lacked in looks and athleticism he made up for in sensitivity and the need for “connection”, I simply couldn’t part with him and took the hard decision to sell the dressage horse that I had owned for 6 years and bought Mac.
Mac did not (yet) have the movement for dressage, but as he continued to mature and develop, people especially my sister, Master Saddler, Katie Eaton, kept saying he had potential as a show horse.
He won his first hunter class at local level when he was four, I entered him for Search for a Star and he went on to win The SEIB Search for a Star Hunter Championships at HOYS as a five year old!
Newcomers to the world of showing, and busy running and coaching riders at my base Ashen Equestrian Centre, we were part-timers in Mac’s six year old season. He qualified for the RIHS but we did not take up the place as the dates clashed with a fully-booked course at Ashen and were only able to attend one HOYS qualifier, where we missed out on a ticket.
However, we made our first trip to The Breed Show, which we loved, Mac won ‘The Sportsman’s Trophy’ and he made it through to the final 14 of ‘The Blue Chip £2,000 Challenge’. (He has qualified again this year and we are hopeful for a top seven placing).
Now seven years old, Mac is more mature and ready to take on the other heavyweights, but our schedule means we still find ourselves struggling to get to more than ten shows a year. In addition we seem to be increasingly contentious as competitors, given that I choose to manage Mac barefoot. A decision made based on my research and experience as a biomechanics coach, for Mac’s long-term soundness, foot function, movement and welfare. This requires skillful management by my excellent barefoot trimmer, Antonio Checha, who trims Mac for the different conditions so that he goes equally well on man-made surfaces, grass, the road and over jumps.
We are really looking forward to our trip to HOYS 2010 and really hope it is not to be Mac’s showing swansong…
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