A rare breed horse with feet “the size of dinner plates” has travelled more than 1,000 miles to return to the UK.
Tallyho, a 14-year-old Suffolk horse of about 18hh who was transported to Mallorca in 2006 has returned home to Coxwell Stud.
Heather Glockling, who owns the stud with husband David, told H&H: “My parents bred Tallyho in 2005. He was seen by a Mallorcan lady when he was a foal at a show and she bought him and took him home.
“He was broken in to drive and every Sunday he would drive around the island. He worked on a farm and would appear at children’s parties and festivals.”
Around 2012 following a change in the owner’s circumstances Tallyho was taken into the care of another person temporarily. When he returned, he was “not in good way”.
In 2018 the owner took the decision to rehome Tallyho back to the UK.
“There had been severe weather, the harvest failed and the grass hadn’t come through. The mosquitos were attacking other horses too but there was nowhere off the island to move him to,” said Heather.
“The owner wanted to do what was best for him so she contacted my parents. They didn’t have room for a gelding at their stud so my husband and I paid for him to come to us.”
Tallyho arrived on 12 March and has started to put on weight.
“He is doing really well,“ Heather said. “He’s very calm and quiet and takes everything in his stride, and his feet are the size of dinner plates.”
Heather plans to show Tallyho this year and drive him.
“We’ve entered him into the Suffolk show in May, my daughters Leona and Jasmine are going to do young handler classes with him. They’re really small but he’s very gentle and loves his cuddles,” she said.
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“We have another young Suffolk gelding so we are going to use Tallyho to help teach him to drive. We’ve been invited to the British Carriage Driving trials at Sandringham in June in the heavy horse section.”
Heather said members of the public are welcome to meet Tallyho at the stud.
“Coxwell Stud is on Facebook for anyone interested in following his journey and we would love people to come and meet him or speak to us at shows if they want any information on the breed.”
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