Horse stock breeds new life into a local farm

By Charlotte MacAulay

It was eight years ago when Ken and Theresa Mellish decided it was time to get out of dairy farming and into horse breeding.
In 2002 the Mellishes were faced with a choice of expanding the dairy operation to stay competitive or changing their focus.
They had always had some horses and their daughter, Martha, rode show horses so it seemed a natural fit to get into the horse breeding industry.
New Perth Farms now breeds Dutch Warmbloods, a breed of horses originating in the Netherlands, which are used for show jumping and dressage.
They started by importing from Holland a foundation stock of six young horses that had just been weaned.
The horses are bred through artificial semination with frozen semen imported from Dutch Warmbloods in Holland.
Mr Mellish saw a good potential on PEI for getting into the breeding industry.
“It is a huge industry in Europe and there aren’t too many breeders in Canada,” he said.
In fact, Mr Mellish sold one horse last year to a lady in BC who said New Perth Farms was the closest place to buy.
They have customers all over Canada, mostly the Maritimes and some of the states.
Most people who buy the horses from the Mellishes ride as a hobby, but it is an expensive and serious hobby as there is not only the cost of the animal, but also equipment, horse care and travelling to shows and clinics.
“There are quite a number of people on PEI who ride,” Mr Mellish said.
Even though New Perth Farms has been in the business for eight years, they still have what is considered young stock.
Show horses have along career as most are 20 by the time they retire.
“If you are training a horse for jumping they don’t usually start the higher jumps until they are eight- years-old,” Mr Mellish said.
The riders who have bought horses from New Perth have had a lot of success in the young horse classes.
This past summer at a show at Gingerwood Farm in Stanhope inspectors from Holland came to look at New Perth’s stock and they were credited with having the number one yearling in North America.
This time of year is spent training the young horses and around the end of the month it will be busy in the barn with new foals arriving.
This year five new foals will be joining the stock at New Perth.
Most mares foal in the middle of the night and foal quickly so they have installed security cameras in the stalls.
This helps alleviate unnecessary trips out to the barn in the middle of the night, Mr Mellish said.