A champion performer , ABBEY - FS is also the most influential sire in the Australian Stock Horse Stud Book .
ABBEY - FS
This horse is without peer the most influential horse in the Australian Stock Horse Stud Book . Currently he has almost 40,000 descendants , more than twice the number of his nearest competitor , REALITY - FS .
Everything about ABBEY - FS is exceptional : his breeding , his performance and the people that surrounded him during his lifetime . ABBEY - FS was bred by Harry Ball , a great campdrafter from Frederickton on the North Coast of New South Wales .
Harry was a dairy farmer with little money to spare , so he bred this incredible horse from a borrowed mare , Joys Pal , that he had won campdrafts on , and a free service by a horse his uncle campaigned . Although at first glance this may appear to be convenient breeding , nothing could be further from the truth . His uncle ’ s horse was Radiant , a great campdrafter of the day and a full brother to the incredible Radium III . Radiant was by Radium II ( See Taproot Sires ) out of a TB mare , Lady Squires .
The dam of ABBEY - FS , Joys Pal , was owned by Hugh Flood , the publican at Willawarrin and named after his wife . Joys Pal was by Radium II and out of a Cooplacurripa station mare . ABBEY - FS is one of the Foundation stallions with a double cross back to Cecil through Radium . He possibly also had another cross back to Cecil through the Cooplacurripa station mare . A jet black colt , ABBEY - FS was born in 1955 . Harry was so keen to get started with ABBEY - FS that he broke him in when he was little more than a weanling . He won his first campdraft at Taree at 22 months of age , and people started talking about him . It seems they never stopped .
By nine years of age ABBEY - FS had won 23 campdrafts , including The Duke of Gloucester Cup in 1961 and 1964 , which is now called the World Championship Campdraft . He also ran second in this event 1962 . ABBEY - FS was in his prime , and in 1964 things could not have been better for Harry Ball and his wife Coral . They had a champion horse who had just won The Duke of Gloucester Cup , and a few weeks later , on the 4th June , Coral gave birth to twins . Life seemed to be so good , but everything changed on the 23rd June , 1964 , when Harry was killed in a road accident .
Coral Ball could never imagine anyone but Harry riding ABBEY - FS , so she retired him from competition and gave him to her friends Theo and Bonnie Hill to look after for her . ABBEY - FS changed from champion performer to champion sire . His deeds as a sire have never been matched , as is shown by his incredible number of descendants : over 40,000 and counting .
Australian Stock Horse Society 1971 - 2011 23