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.

July 31, 2013

To start our 2013 season Reggae produced a fantastic colt I Spy who is the spitting image of his sire Metall, who is also the sire of Carl Hesters Olympic ride Uthopia. This was the first of 2 Metall foals we had this year and we are very pleased with both.

At the start of May our Sir Donnerhall colt Sir Derry arrived and he is the spitting image of his dam! Sir Donnerhall keeps producing first class offspring each year, for example, his son Sa Coeur was the 2012 World Champion of 5-year old dressage horses and was then auctioned for 2.31 million Euro as top horse of the PSI Auction. The Sir Donnerhall foals always have very friendly personalities. On the 20th May our homebred Sunny Boy mare Sundance produced an athletic little filly by Metall whom we have named Mystery. Then Champagne Supernvova had a huge chestnut filly Ilya by Furst Romancier on 26th May. Furst Romacier is by the World Champion Furst Heinrich who also sired the exceptional British bred mare Woodlander Farouche.

At the end of May Dawn Til Dusk had a pretty filly Isla May by Sir Donnerhall who is internationally recognised as a sire of World Champions, auction price highlights and licensing winners. On the 4th July Donnatella had her long awaited foal by the British owned stallion Wolkenderry. He is full of character with correct conformation and the super movement expected from this combination. Our mares have been scanned in foal for 2014 to Hotline (Hofrat x De Niro), Johnson (Jazz), Sandro Hit, Bretton Woods, San Amour, Furst Romancier (Furst Heinrich), Sir Donnerhall (Sandro Hit x Donnerhall), Metall and Bordeaux (United x Gribaldi). The first ones are due next April. Three of our mares With Love, Eutopian Love and Faside Rubins Black Magic have been professionally backed at KA Equestrian this year and we hope to send more there in the future.

May 5, 2013

With this years foaling currently underway we are now starting to put together the first foal pages for 2013! We have so far had two foals with the next mare due in around one weeks time. We have added a lot of photos to the Faside Stud Facebook Page and we have now updated the Foals Page with our first foals.

We have also now bought four new types of chickens which each provide different coloured eggs including brilliant white, blue, freckled and brown as we wanted to introduce some variety. The lambing for the year is now complete and despite the snow, we are happy to report that it was a successful start the the year.

We have also created a Video Slideshow on our Youtube Channel of The Estate including the self catering and the bed and breakfast accommodation.

February 1, 2013

We just found the very early original Flash website for Faside Stud which we used up to 2007 so if anyone wants a look out of general interest the old website is still online here. Its amazing how much websites change, although we stil quite like the early one!

We have also revamped all the horse pages so that they now include embedded videos and an improved gallery with higher resolution images.

Also, The Tate Gallery are now displaying a previously unkown to us sketch of Faside Castle by the water colourist Turner.

January 21, 2013

A useful bit of information for anyone coming to Edinburgh for a holiday is you can purchase something called an Edinburgh Pass which gives you access many of the main attractions in Edinburgh for a flat rate. It is also quite economical for getting around The City as it covers certain transport to the destination.

We are also are about to host the prize winners of a Visit Scotland competition last year which was won by a couple in Yorkshire. We expect to be offering the same prize again this year and details will follow soon!

January 18, 2013

We have now a separate Trip Advisor listing for out Self Catering Listing and our existing listing which is now dedicated entirely to the B and B Listing. Anyone that has stayed is welcome to contribute and we welcome any feedback.

December 29, 2012

With New Year just about upon us we would like to wish everyone a happy and successful 2013. We will soon be updating the Faside Stud page for the coming years breeding.

A new property has recently been added to Domestic Lets Edinburgh Property Rentals.

September 16, 2012

We have just got a Pinterest Account so we can share some photo's of Faside Estate. If anyone is on Pinterest, please feel free to add us and to share photos with us. Also, if anyone has stayed and has photos they would like to share please do!

Other than that, just a quick update on what has been going on. We recently just sold one of our beautiful mares, Faside's Melody and will be staying locally near Edinburgh. We have also got the details for next years breeding at www.fasidestud.com and we have seven currently in foal for 2013.

We also now have an offical page on Wikipedia which contains information about the history of the castle.

August 28, 2012

The Festival and The Fringe are currently running full pace in Edinburgh and this year we have managed to get to a few shows which with the horses, sheep can be difficult to fit in sometimes. We are still to see the film, Brave, but the launch marked the start of the film festival and this year the festival moved location so The Speigel Tent has moved to George Street so the festival feels far more encompassing of the whole city this year. Also, the Assembly Rooms have now re-operned after a long restoration projection so another good year for Edinburgh festivals!

July 28, 2012

We have decided to make the castle available for exclusive use during The Golf Open in 2013. The property is available for the duration of the event and we have put some details together regarding the Exclusive Use of the property online and we will be adding some further information shortly!

On an additional note we have also recently set up an Instagram Account!

June 17, 2012

We have just added our Foals Page for 2012 and we have also created a For Sale Previously page so we can show our previous livestock as well as current.

Our most recent foal has been Called Faside Rousseau Magic and was born on the 15th.

June 6, 2012

We have just put inormation online of our first foal of 2012. The foal has been named Hotwire Faside and is a beautiful little colt and was born a few weeks back.

More information on this years foals will soon appear on our website and we are adding to the Faside Stud Facebook Page very frequently with updates!

April 29, 2012

We have now nearly finished lambing and we now have our first mother and foal of 2012. We will soon be adding a foal page for this years foals and hopefully we should have four foals by the end of the season!

After a little bit of technical wizardry you can now automatically Post Updates to Wall on Facebook to make it easier to follow our core announcements!

March 12, 2012

We are getting close to lambing season and we have recently added a section to our website on our sheep. They are mainly rare breed black Wensleydale and at different times of the year we intend to have various products on sale including wool, mutton and sheep skins.

If you want to read more about our flock, please browse of Faside Flock section.

March 3, 2012

We have recently been pulling all the information together on the properties owned by multiple members of our family which are rented out on long term lets and we have created a website called www.edinburgh-propertyrentals.com to have the information available online. Along with providing self catering and bed and breakfast holiday accommodation, our family also provide long term lets on properties, predominantly in the Edinburgh area.

We constantly try and evolve what goes on at Faside and one of our most recent projects is breeding rare breed Wensleydale sheep. A few years ago we ran an architecture practice at Faside and then we decided to make a change in lifestyle and more use of the castle and this is now our fourth year since beginning holiday lets and setting up the horses breeding facility.

January 14, 2012

For the first time ever we have taken part in a competition with Visit Scotland where you can win a two day break in The Tower, plus 300 pounds spending money and a meal for two at a local restaurant!

If you want to take part, you can enter via the Visit Scotland Promotion and we wish you good luck!

December 21, 2011

The castle is looking remarkably Christmasy at the moment and we are about to make mulled cider from our homemade cider from our orchard here, in the grounds. The perfect Christmas treat. We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

December 3, 2011

We are very happy to be on the front cover of this years accommodation publication for Embrace Scotland which was a very pleasant surprise for us and it is a very nice photo of the castle in the sunshine.

We have also recently anticipated in an instruction guide for self catering accommodation providers in Scotland and our website is used as an example of a real world project and hopefully gives an interesting insight into the set up of our self catering holiday accommodation business.

November 27, 2011

We have also bought a new Black Wensleydale ram who is quite special as he came from two white parents and thus is a new bloodline for our rare Black Wensleydales flock. His name is Forest Lea Jack and you can read about our flock at www.faside-estate.com/fasideflock.

October 1, 2011

We have just had a visit from a group of Veterinary Students who have come across from Holland to get a better idea of the Scottish horse industry. We were able to show them many of the foals at the castle and tell them about the our experiences we have had in starting the horse breeding programme back in 2007 to the present day. We hope the information we gave will be beneficial and it was enjoyable have so many people interested in the horses to talk to. We have uploaded some photos from the event to Facebook.

This was the first visit of this kind that we have hosted and we found it a very positive experience and we believe it important to increase awareness of the breeding of sports horse in Scotland. We strongly believe the horse breeding industry requires better support in Scotland than it presently receives.

September 14, 2011

We have just revamped our website and we have now separated the horses and the accommodation into two websites due to the volume of information. We now have the original website www.faside-estate.com which we will use for the self catering and bed and breakfast holiday accommodation and our new website which is dedicated solely to the sports horses, www.fasidestud.com. We hope everything is working on both websites and if anyone has any feedback, please feel free to get in touch.

We have nearly completed fencing at some new land purchased near the Estate and this will allow for us to keep increasing the amount of livestock that we keep. We will also soon be creating a website to the rare bread sheep that we keep at Faside. The motivation for this is that we have recently learned that their are more pandas in the world than there are black Whensleydale sheep and this is something we are keen to bring peoples attention to.

August 6, 2011

We have 3 mares in foal for 2012. In April Reggae is due another Breitling W foal who will be a full sibling to this years chestnut colt Greitling. Champagne Supernova is back in foal to Hotline due in May. Our young homebred mare Dawn Til Dusk is expecting a June foal by Johnson who stands at Team Nijhof in Holland.

Once her foal is weaned our broodmare Russian Roulette will be for sale. She is by the BWBS Champion stallion Rosenburg (Rohdiamant x Ramiro).

July 1, 2011

We now have over 50 videos of the mares and foals online at out Youtube Channel. It is now possible to Subscribe to new videos via our Channel or again on Facebook! We have now successfully completed the purchase of some further land for the mares and foals and hopefully this will mean many more mares and foals in the years ahead!

June 17, 2011

We have now had the last foal of the year which was born last week. All the foals have fortunately been born fit and healthy and many of the foals will be available after weaning. Due to the number of photographs and videos which exist of the horses we have created a new Facebook page dedicated just to them!

This will hopefully allow anyone specifically interested in the horses to get video and photo updates and those who are interested in the Castle and Estate can follow our regular updates!

June 3, 2011

We had a visit the other day from a member of The Council in East Lothian and we were discussing the possibility of creating a sculpture trail at The Old Course in Musselburgh. East Lothian has just hosted an international golf competition but one thing many people do not know is the Old Course in Musselburgh was recognized by Guinness World Records as being older than St Andrews and hosted The Open Championship 32 years before St Andrews did.

Musselburgh Old Course was also the first Golf course in the world to host an all female golf competition and the 200th anniversary of that event is this year and employed the first person in history to maintain and manage a course. Musselburgh was also the home of the Honorable Society for Edinburgh Golfers which later became Muirfield which is hosting The Open Championship in 2013.

We have put in motion a proposal for a commemorative sculpture trail in Musselburgh and our proposal is available in PDF. To download a copy, please Click Here.

May 14, 2011

We have added a Special Offer to all guests that book any of our self catering and bed and breakfast holiday accommodation at Faside Estate.

We currently also have Late Availability offers which are applied to the prices automatically if you book any of the self catering holiday accommodation within 20 days of the stay itself!

May 11, 2011

This morning our broodmare Reggae produced a lovely chestnut colt by the FN breeding index leader Breitling. This is the 5th foal Reggae has had at the Stud. Photos to follow!

Our next mare due to foal is Champagne Supernova by Sandreo. She was our first foal born at Faside Stud back in 2007 and is out of With Love. She is in foal to Hotline due at the start of June.

Most of our 2011 lambs have been born, with two Shetland x Wensleydales born this morning. All our purebred Wensleydales have been born with just a couple of Shetland left to go now!

March 17, 2011

On another positive note we have had the annual inspection from Visit Scotland and all the properties have maintained there current ratings and we received a lot of positive feedback from the assessor about the self catering and bed and breakfast holiday accommodation.

We have also managed to complete on the purchasing of some additional land in East Lothian for accommodating our livestock. We are very excited about this purchase and we will be adding some photos to our page on Facebook.

Foals for 2011 will start to appear on this years Foals Page in the coming months!

March 16, 2011

More exciting news! Our Rosenburg mare Rosewould produced a beautiful bay filly on the 15th March at about 5pm. Photographs, web page and name to follow!

Her sire is Sir Donnerhall, whose pedigree is the perfect combination of genes from Sandro Hit and Donnerhall. He comes from a strong damline and is out of the Brilliantring mare Contenance D.

Sir Donnerhall received the highest dressage index score ever awarded to date of 163 points in his 70-day test. Even as a five year-old Bundeschampion and Vice World Champion he fascinated onlookers with his feather-light movements and exceptional presence. A consistent producer of performance horses, Sir Donnerhall has sired Champion and Premium stallions as well as top priced auction horses including Schickeria who sold at the North Rhine-Westphalian Elite Auction for EUR 355,000. Her dam, Rosewould, is by BWBS champion stallion Rosenburg who combines some the best dressage and showjumping lines in Europe. These include the dressage legend Rohdiamant (Rubinstein) who was the champion dressage horse of his generation in Oldenburg and a main premium stallion with a huge dressage index of 150.01 points.

Rosenburgs dam sire is Ramino (Ramiro) who was Champion stallion at his performance test and went on to compete Internationally in Show Jumping. Ramino is the sire of Loretta, the dam of Sandro Hit.

The next mare due to foal is Russian Roulette and then we have a bit of a break until the end of May when number three is due! We are also due to start lambing at the start of April.

February 23, 2011

Faside Stud are delighted to welcome a new broodmare to our breeding programme, and a very special one at that! Donnerkind has competed internationally with Paralympic rider Lee Pearson. In 2003 at the World Championships in Belgium she won an individual Gold medal in the Kur, and helped secure team Gold. She also won the 2003 British Dressage National Championship, and won both the Championship Test and Kur at the 2003 French International. As well as an exceptional career in both Para and able-bodied dressage, Donnerkind is graded in the Hanoverian Main Stud Book and the Oldenburg Head Stud Book. Born in Germany, Donnerkind was on the front cover of the Hanoverian Studbook as a three year old. She is by the great Donnerhall and comes from an impressive mare line which has also produced the stallion Being Bling and the international dressage horse Fleurie (who competes for Sweden). Her webpage will be created soon.

February 11, 2011

The sires of our youngsters have has some excellent results recently. Monarch of the Glens sire, Mill Law is top of British Eventings 2010 Rankings for sires of 5 and 6 year old event horses, winning by a huge margin of 42 points. A 6 year old by Mill Law came 17th at the World Young Horse Championships at Le Lion d Angers.

Eutopian Loves sire Johnson won the VHO Trophy at the 2011 KWPN Stallion Show in Den Bosch with an expressive, flawless test scoring him 77 per cent. Johnson is not only a super dressage horse but also fantastic sire, producing the performance test winner Bretton Woods and the winner in Den Bosch, Breezer. At the Pavo Cup final for 4 year olds Johnson was leading sire with 6 offspring of the best 25 in the finals! Faside Sandalwoods sire San Amour produced a stunning uphill stallion who became Champion Stallion at the 2011 South German Stallion Licensing in Munich. No less than 5 of San Amours progeny were selected for the 2010 Oldenburg Stallion Licensing in Vechta and 8 of the 43 stallions were by Sir Donnerhall, who Rosewould is in foal to for 2011.

February 5, 2011

Sarkozy, the sire of Faside Eutopian Melody, was selected for 2010 World Championships for Young Dressage Horses. Due to the success of his progeny Sandro Hit was the USEF Dressage Sire of the Year 2010, with 3805 points, almost 1000 points higher than the second placed stallion. In the 2010 German Breeding Value Index three of the sires of our foals due in 2011 scored very highly: Hotline with 158 points (86 reliability), Breitling W with 170 points (86 reliability) and Sir Donnerhall with 166 points (96 reliability).

The breeding value index is indicative of the performance potential a sire passes on to his offspring. The index is based on data collected from more than 590,000 horses. More than 11 million scores from competition shows, 2,7 million scores from riding horse classes and 75,000 results from breed shows as well as 7,000 scores from stallion performance tests are tabulated to determine the breeding value index. (Euro Dressage) Our first foals are due in about 6 weeks time!

January 12, 2011

Johnson, the sire of our young filly Eutopian Love won the Kur to Music and finished in 3rd place at the international Prix St. Georges class at Odense with his rider Hans Peter Minderhoud. The 8 year old stallion had a great season in 2010, winning at Prix St George level with scores up to 70 percent.

Details of the mares in foal for 2011 have now been added to the homepage at www.fasidestud.com.

January 5, 2011

The Tower is available at a special rate in January of only 200 pounds for two nights on a weekend and sleeps two people. Perfect for a romantic get-away!

Reservations can be made by visiting our Contact Page or phoning us on 0131 665 7654. Also, if you join our Facebook page, you will be informed of any special offers.

New offers on the self catering holiday accommodation will be posted on this Blog!

January 1, 2011

The fireworks held for New Year in Edinburgh were as spectacular as ever. You get an amazing view of the display from the Castle roof, including from both the self catering and bed and breakfast holiday properties and the grounds.

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2011!

December 1, 2010

We have recently added two new Video Clip of Monarch of The Glen , our three year old gelding by Mill Law. He was one of our first foals born at the stud.

It is also now possible to subscribe to our Video Feed. Videos are added fairly frequently and the can all be viewed at our Youtube Channel.

November 21, 2010

We have found an excellent source of historic photographs of Faside in the RCAHMS archive. The photos include areal photos which show the outlines of the Roman settlement to the South of the Castle.

You can also see a lot of the outbuildings which unfortunately got demolished during World War Two so the land could be used for agriculture. If you have any historic photos of Faside please feel free to send them to us or add them to our Facebook Group.

November 4, 2010

Sue has written a History Article for the new Scottish Castles Association website. We have had a long association with the organisation and we admire the goal they have of making information available online on all castles in Scotland. Also, one of the founding members of the association had a promionent role in saving Faside from demolition.

October 12, 2010

We updated the Video Clip of Faside Sandalwood, our 6 month old dark bay filly by "San Amour" (Sandro Hit) out of Rosewould by Rosenburg.

We also have added a new Video Clip of our 3 month old black filly (by Sarkozy), Faside Melody out of With Love. Both of these foals are for sale and available at weaning.

September 12, 2010

We travelled all the way to Melton Mowbray rare breed auction to purchase a White Wensleydale ram. He is Leyburn Levi and he came 3rd in the show.

We have also added a Livestock Section to our website. This section is however seasonal as the sheep are only shorn in the summer months. We will however announce any updates on our Blog.

August 5, 2010

We have just hosted the Musselburgh Common Ride which is an annual event where riders parade through the streets of Musselburgh, Whitecraig and Wallyford as part of the Honest Touns Annual Festival. This involves a spectacular gallop up the beach at Musselburgh. This year an estimated 120 horses took part in the ride and it is an exceptional sight to see.

At the Castle, there are speeches and the Official Party sing the Musselburgh Song. On the Monday, the Honest Lad and Lass raise the Saltire (the Scottish flag) on the flagpole to mark the start of the Musselburgh Festival week. On the Saturday, the flag is lowered to mark the end of the festivities.

The Common Ride has been going on since 1935 and is an important local event. In 2009 Edinburgh held its first Common Ride since 1946. The Musselburgh Common Ride is organised by the Crusaders Riding Club and the Honest Touns Association.

July 21, 2010

Check out our Video Clip of Faside Melody (born on 23rd June.) Our yearling filly Poppy ( Eutopian Love ) has had her tooth extracted after fracturing it.

Our mare Reggae foaled on the 29th April at 11pm. She has had a gorgeous bay filly. She is our 3rd foal of the year, and our last one is due in July.

We have finished lambing now, with 10 lambs including our Shetlydale - Shetland crossed with Wensleydale.

July 9, 2010

We have added a Comprehensive Content Management System to our website so we can update all the text without needing to be able to program. We have also updated the administration area making it more user-friendly for us to use.

We hope that the alterations we have made recently will ensure the content on our website is always up to date and relevant. It has been very enjoyable being able to tweak the website without any complex programming.

We have aslo added a Things To Do Section to provide our recommendations to guests staying in our self catering holiday accommodation.

June 26, 2010

Our mare With Love had the prettiest little black filly foal. Born in the field on Wednesday. Her due date was the 12th July so she was quite early. Her sire is Sarkozy.

Please keep on checking here for further updates or ofcourse check our updates on our Facebook page.

May 5, 2010

Our mare Reggae foaled on the 29th April at 11pm. She has had a gorgeous bay filly. She is our 3rd foal of the year, and our last one is due in July.

We have finished lambing now, with 10 lambs including our Shetlydale - Shetland x Wensleydale.

April 28, 2010

Donnatella foaled during the night, producing a beautiful black filly with 3 white socks and a star. She looks very similar to Donnatella and was herfirst filly, Magic, who is now rising 2.

April 20, 2010

We had a lovely little mainly white lamb by our black Wensleydale ram out of a Shetland ewe, born on Friday. Two ewes left to lamb...

April 13, 2010

Champagne Supernova and Dawn Til Dusk went to their first show at the weekend. The judge said that Champagne Supernova is a horse that can seriously move, and Dawn til Dusk got some good comments too. They were both a bit in awe of all the new sights, having never left the yard before.

April 12, 2010

Two new ewe lambs born this morning. And Donnatella is due to foal soon...

Also, if you want to Contact Us we may be able to offer special discounts for the self catering holiday accommodation!

April 8, 2010

We currently have some special offers on longer stays in the self catering and bed and breakfast holiday accommodation. Bookings for Woodside and Gateside have 5 percent off stays of 8 or more nights and 10 percent discount for stays of 14 nights. These are automatically calculated in the prices shown for these durations.

For the Tower, Save 5 percent on stays of 3 nights plus. Or why not stay longer and enjoy 10 percent off a 7 night (or longer) break.

April 6, 2010

The new foal and lambs are all doing well - lets hope the weather improves so they can get outside more. We have 6 other sheep left to lamb - two Shetlands and four Wensleydales. Our next foal is due in a couple of weeks too.

April 3, 2010

Two more lambs born last night, a girl and a boy. The ewe needed a bit of help as the lamb was presented wrong but they are all doing well now.

April 1, 2010

At 5pm we had our first two lambs of the year, both boys. These are the first of our lambs by our ram Beech Hill Bravo. Fingers crossed it stops snowing so they can go outside soon.

March 20, 2010

It is now possible to book our self catering and bed and breakfast holiday accommodation direct through our website. You can also search the Availability and Tarrifs for Woodside, Gateside and The Tower.

We also had our first foal of the season at 2:00am on Saturday morning. We will put some photographs online soon. The other three foals are due shortly.

March 13, 2010

We are looking forward to the arrival of our first foal of the year. Rosewould is due on Monday.

We are also expecting our first crop of lambs by our new ram Beech Hill Bravo, which should start making an appearance at the end of the month. We have also added some new promotions to the pricing for our self catering holiday accommodation.

March 10, 2010

The wool on our website has now been put on www.etsy.com. There are current about 150 balls of wool available. They can also be bought through the Faside Shop.

Also, more promotions for the self catering holiday accommodation will appear here shortly!

January 20, 2010

Johnson, the sire of our young filly Eutopian Love, won the Kur to Music at Odense in Denmark with his rider Hans Peter Minderhoud. The 8 year old stallion had a great year in 2010, winning at Prix St George level.

January 19, 2010

Johnson, the sire of our rising 2 year old filly Eutopian Love, has won the Kur to Music and finished in 3rd place at the international Prix St. Georges class at Odense with his rider Hans Peter Minderhoud. The 8 year old stallion has had a brilliant year in 2010, winning at Prix St. George level with scores up to 70 percent.