Faside Stud Blog

October 2, 2021

We are pleased to announce all the foals for the 2021 season has now been born, and you can see them on the foals section and horses current for sale can be found in the for sale section

June 16, 2020

In 2020 we are expecting foals by Fursten-Look, Furstenball, For Romance II, Furst Romancier, Sir Donnerhall and San Amour. The first foal is due in April.

Furstenlook was the 2014 Oldenburg licensing Champion, highest priced stallion and performance test winner. A his 30-day test his dressage score was 9,41 with 5 perfect scores of 10 for character, temperament, performance readiness, walk, and rideability. His canter and trot received 9.5's. He became Bundeschampionate in 2015. In 2018 he scored 84.05% in the WBFSH World Breeding Dressage Championships for 7-year-old Horses to place 3rd.

For Romance II was premium stallion of the 2015 Oldenburg licensing in Vechta. He is full brother to German national champion and PSI top price Fasine.

Furst Romancier received 9's for all of his paces and 9.5 for rideability in the 70-day performance test in 2008. He became 2009 dressage Hauptprämie by the Oldenburg Verband for the quality of his foals.

Sir Donnerhall won his performance test and was awarded Hauptprämire for his first crop of foals. In 2006, Sir Donnerhall was 5-year-old Bundeschampion and Vice World Young Horse Champion. He has trained upto Grand Prix level and is one of the leading sires on the German FN breeding valuation.

April 17, 2019

Good news, we are pleased to announce that the 2019 foals will be published in the coming weeks.

The first foal is due imminently so please also, check out our Facebook Page for loads of photos.

April 25, 2018

You can view the four beautiful foals born so far this year on the Foals Page of Faside Stud, and we have some more foals due imminently so please check back soon to see our new arrivals.

At this time of year we are also posting lots of photos of the horses and foals on our Facebook Page.

December 15, 2017

Its fair to say December has been a very easy month for me, as I spent three weeks in Thailand. Its always difficult to get away from the horses and I always worry they will do something stupid and cause chaos for those left in charge! Its always a relief once I get back and can see them for myself. This time it wasn't so much horses causing chaos as the weather was. Its been a few years since we last had temperatures dip to -10 and some of our water pipes objected, busting and causing massive slippy ice puddles.

This year I didn't get the horses Christmas presents, Santa tends to visit weekly with 4 large sacks of carrots so I figure every week is Christmas now. In the autmun when we have a glut of apples they are doubly spoilt! Last year they were delighted to get lots of new headcollars - I think they would prefer I stick to carrots.

In fact the only parcel they have received this Christmas has been a big (and very expensive) box of Equest Pramox so they can be treated for encysted redworm and tapeworm, which is so important especially for youngsters who are much more susceptible to worm damage.

Its that time of year when we tend to look back of the year that has been and look forward making plans for the future. I thought it would be interesting (but a bit scary) to reflect on 2017: The horses ate 1400 bags of hard feed, 520kg carrots and 260 bales of haylage. The yard used 30 bales of straw (which isn't too much, as most of the horses live out 24/7 year round). We had 6 of our own foals and one livery foal. The yard has two new kittens Ariettie and Pod. Four of the barren broodmares were backed or ridden away. We had help from three fabulous French students in the summer 2018 is looking to be a much busier year at the stud. We have 14 of our own foals due plus one livery. They are due between March and July so it's going to be a long season. Good thing I've just had a holiday. Happy Hogmanay. All the best for 2018.

September 12, 2017

September is a quieter month as most the repro work is over for the season, my work experience students have left and both I and the horses have a little bit of a quieter time.

The mares get their annual teeth check and rasping done by the vet, which is done over several days. I think it's so important with broodmares that these things aren't missed because she's 'just' a broodmare. These mares are the backbone of our operation and without them we have nothing, so it's important to keep them in the best health and condition possible.

The last of our foals due in 2018 are below: For several years I've been hoping to use Foundation and now we have two mares confirmed in foal to him for 2018. The first Foundation one due is Dawn Til Dusk, who is the only daughter of my original broodmare. The second mare due to have a Foundation foal is Magic, who is by Rubin Star N (Rubinstein) out of a Donnerhall dam.

One of my favourite mares, Isla May, is in foal to one of my favourite stallions, Furstenball. This will be Isla's first foal, so I will have two maiden mares (both homebreds, Isla and Brittany) to foal next season. Caratina is in foal to the Vivaldi son Vitalis. I have only bred one Vitalis foal, Vivre d'Amour (born May 2017). She was born with so much confidence and is a real yard favourite.

Diaderry is having a Sir Donnerhall baby again because we've had several foals from this combination and they've all been fabulous! The first two were like 'mini-m's' of Derry. The oldest started under saddle in his new home this year and his owner said it was like he'd done it all before. Were expecting great things of this pairing again.

The final mare due in 2018 will be the lovely Bo, who is expecting a full sibling to Faside Felicity, her 2017 filly foal. Again this combination seems to work well so I haven't changed it this time.

August 21, 2017

Over the last few months we have had some French students visiting us to learn about horse breeding and this is the second year we have been involved with this. We are pleased to be able to say we have had another successful season for Foals this year and arrangements are already happening for next season. We were also very happy to pass 50,000 likes on Facebook which we view as a great compliment.

The Edinburgh Festival is underway at the moment and it is yet again having one its most successful years. Edinburgh has been incredibly fun this month and its not long until the fireworks display to mark the end of this years festival. On a side note, for anyone interested in glamping an interesting read source of information is Flashpacking World and gives a good overview of activities, sports and adventures in Scotland.

May 24, 2017

With our first foals born this month for the 2017 season we now have our first foal on the website on the Foal Page. There are also some photos now on our Facebook Page.

We are also pleased that we are fast approaching having 50 thousand Facebook likes which which we take as a huge compliment and a great achievement. At Faside its been a busy start to the year and we are very pleased summer is now upon us.

December 25, 2016

We would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and an amazing 2017 full of fun and happiness.

In our Photo Gallery you can see one of our favourite photos of Faside in Snow.

June 6, 2016

We are pleased to be ale to present the first of our foals for 2016. Our first foal is called Faside Joella and is by Johnson and Donnatella. The second foal is called Faside Jasmine and she is by Johnson and With Love and our most recent foal is called Faside Got The Love and is by Grey Flannel and San Amour.

It is possible to view all our 2016 foals on both our Foal Page or our For Sale Page.

April 16, 2016

With this years foaling have just begun we should soon be able to post some updates on this years years foals in the next few weeks.

We have also revamped our mobile website for both the estate and the horses.

December 19, 2015

The foals have been practising loading through the trailer. We change the location of the trailer each session. It is much easier to load the foals who's mums will happily stand quietly on the trailer. Usually a bit of bribery for the mares helps, especially the first few attempts when we let the foals go at their own speed and explore the trailer. We find a few of the foals like to test the ramp with their hoof by pawing it. We keep the sessions really short, loading each foal three times. The foals get a good scratch when they stand quietly. Once they have practiced a couple of times this becomes really quick. Often the way out is the bigger challenge as the aim is to walk out sensibly, not to jump out! I like using a trailer to practice with as the ramp is at a gentle angle.

All the foals lead to their field now. They are all wearing their winter rugs to keep them dry. They get very fluffy coats so we use lightweight rugs. They are weighed every month. The oldest foal, Japonica, is fast approaching 300kg. She weighed in at around 50kg when she was born in April. Its incredible how fast they grow in the first year. The youngest foals, born at the end of June, are still closer to 200kg, its amazing the difference a couple of months head-start can make.

The first foals have been weaned. As per usual there was no great stress involved, the foals took a while to notice that the milk bar is in the next field. We put both fields hay at the same point in the fence so that the mares are encouraged to stay nearby. Usually the mares are more bothered than the foals. The foals are in the groups of friends they made growing up.

Most of the other foals are due to be weaned, but the weather has been very wet so we are waiting until the ground conditions are better as we wean them in the fields. We will leave a couple of 'nanny' mares with the weaned foals. It doesn't feel particularly Christmassy with the mild, wet weather we've had. We were lucky that our 'flooding' was more mid-welly puddles at the foot of the fields. Glad we're not near a river.

We had a fabulous trip to London to watch the Grand Prix at Olympia with the owners of Safiya, Sir Don Allure and Tobias. It was great to see such amazing horses and riders.

Soon our foals will be yearlings. I always think of them as being foals until the first foal of the next season is born. Our first foal is due in April, and mirroring this year most of our mares are due in June again.

December 15, 2015

With the self catering accommodation being discontinued we have rejigged our website with The Tower remaining available as holiday accommodation and we have retained the eating out, towns, golf and museums sections.

Both Woodside and Gateside are now on long term lets.

April 18, 2015

This year at Faside Stud we have an exciting selection of foals due from mid April by Sir Donnerhall, Johnson, San Amour, Barrosso, Tolegro, Franklin and Sandro Hit and updates will be posted here and on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/faside.stud.

The lambing has been going well and the weather has been fairly kind this year.

We also now have a large number of reviews for the castle accommodation and these include reviews from FreetoBook and which you can read online.

December 21, 2014

With just a few days left to Christmas, we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

August 4, 2014

We have just added the foals born so far this year to the Foal Pages on Faside Stud. This year has been very successful with six foals born so far and another three due shortly. We are also about to pass the 30,000 fan mark on Facebook for our horses.

More photos will be getting adding in the following weeks but feel free to check out the photos so far on our Facebook Page.

Also, you can now add us easily as a contact on your mobile using our vCard.

May 15, 2014

We have now added reviews from FreetoBook for our self catering holiday accommodation and the bed and breakfast and these reviews. The following links are for the reviews of Woodside, Gateside and The Tower and are also available in our Guestbook. When a guest books using the booking on our website they are sent a follow up email after the date of stay by FreetoBook to collect reviews and this ensures only guests can make reviews.

February 28, 2014

We have now improved our photographs across our various holiday accommodation listings for both the self catering and bed and breakfast holiday accommodation. These listings include AirBnB - Guesthouse, AirBnB - Self Catering, Holiday Lettings and Flipkey. The photographs we have selected show the castle and the estate in at its very best.

For equestrian related products why not check out www.brashequestrian.co.uk.

November 23, 2013

We have just added a Guestbook section to our accommodation page. This amalgamates comments and reviews from TripAdvisor, Holiday Letting, FreetoBook Google and and Flipkey.

We have now created a separate Facebook Page for our flock of Black Wensleydale and White Wensleydale sheep. We think we now have the largest flock of Black Wensleydale in Scotland. Black Wensleydale sheep are extremely rare and there are less Black Wensleydales in existence than giant pandas.

They also now have a new web address at www.wensleydale-sheep.co.uk.

September 15, 2013

An online version of a book about Faside Estate is now available to preview here. It covers the history of Faside Estate including details of the Battle of Pinkie which resulted in it becoming a ruin.

The book also includes details and photos of the horse breeding facility, Faside Stud. Photos of the interior of the castle are also included, including both the private residence and the Bed and Breakfast within the tower and the self catering holiday accommodation within the grounds.

We also have just created an accommodation listing on the Booking.com website.