Seumas Marwood and Wild Oats on course at the 2015 Australian International 3 Day Event
Wild Oats is a well known name in Australian equestrian circles. The Oatley family are heavily involved in the sport and also have the famous yacht but there is also the 4* eventing mare with a great show jumping style - Wild Oats competed by Seumas Marwood
Now there is also Wild Oats II (stable name of Harvey) who was out and about competing last weekend at Boneo Park Showjumping day with Seumas. He was conceived by Embry Transfer from Wild Oats by Caracas and is the mare’s first foal, born on 11/11/2011.
Wild Oats II at his first outing
Seumas’ lovely mare Wild Oats was named after the 1993 Sydney to Hobart winning yacht Wild Oats so Seumas and his wife Danni Marwood couldn’t resist calling her first foal after the current Oatley champion yacht. Danni is a qualified AI technician so, once they chose the stallion, it was quite an easy process to facilitate the insemination
“We chose Caracas because we wanted local chilled semen for our first attempt at AI and I loved the scope of this horse” explains Seumas “He was with Des Russell at the time just up the road and we did a barter with Des in return for some Shark Net. Adam Johnson did the collection for us, Danielle did the AI then on Christmas day Kylie Tiller flushed her and drove the embryo up to Shepparton for a straight forward implant. How easy can this ET thing be!”
However Wild Oats II’s introduction to the world was not quite so easy with the recipient mare panicking before he was able to stand up and walking all over him, resulting in the scar on his rump that can now be seen. He had to be pulled out under the fence away from the mare and treated as an orphan but luckily for him a neighbouring thoroughbred stud had lost a foal overnight and their mare took up the task of being Wild Oats II’s third mum.
“While he is without doubt the most talented and athletic young horse I have ever sat on, he is far from easy. He is exhausting to handle, like a kid with ADHD, never still. But, he is getting better and better all the time. We just need to be super consistent with him and very rewarding when he behaves well” says Seumas
“It was his first outing at Boeneo Park and he just did the 60cm and 80cm tracks. In the first round we were the crowd entertainment in the warm up for the first half hour as Harvey did his level best to dump me and was then very uninspiring when he finally got to jump, looking at everything but the rails. Then in the 80cm he just started to slip into gear and show a little of his true form. He is an amazing jumper to sit on, very slow and loopy in the air. His canter is the same so it is hard to imagine him galloping around a 4* cross country with that stride, I think his career will be with the coloured rails”
Wild Oats II now has three siblings with another on the way. There are twin two year olds by Kannan, a colt, filly and a yearling by Diacontinus and another Kannan on the way.
“I just wish I was 10 years younger!” says Seumas
