The Horses

The pony, a bright bay 12hh gelding, being an unhandled 2 year old unregistered hackney, proved to be the first of the Rathburn Hackneys and  became an excellent challenge for the Hendrys to establish a winning Hackney Stud.  Soon a variety of hackney ponies and horses followed including Sunbeam Lucky, a previous National Hackney Pony Champion, Appleton Bay Duke and Eaglestone Arc Royal, both former Wembley Horse of the Year Show Champions as well as a number of broodmares and youngstock.   The stud grew from being home to Clydesdales, Arabs, show ponies, miniature shetlands as well as hackneys.  One of our Clydesdale foals Rathburn Ruby (Knockandu Prince Charming ex Aynsley Ruth) was exported to Ontario, Canada and went on to become Reserve National USA Clydesdale Champion.

Back in the UK, Cameron has achieved exceptional levels with the hackney horses and has won 2 Royal Highland Show Championships with Appleton Bay Duke, the first Scotsman ever to do this and is also the only Scotsman to have ever taken the Championship Hackney title at Great Yorkshire Show. 

He also enjoys private driving and started showing in the British Driving Society classes with Wentworth Crystal, a bright bay hackney mare out of Brook Acres Sildora and a decendant of the great Solitude.   Crystal, purchased in Cornwall, was an exceptional driving mare, winning many Concours D'Elegance classes but when Appleton Bay Duke arrived on the scene, Crystal was replaced in the gig by Acle Queen's Perfection, a son of Segenhoe Lucifer.  However, due to prejudice against hackneys in private driving classes, the Hendrys' kept to their core competence of showing in the hackney classes with an unbeaten record in pony classes in 1998 to prove the successful strategy.

Colleen initially found pleasure in the show ring with Stenigot Bluebelle, a 14.1hh part bred arab riding pony by Royal Blue ex Rosevean Hill Star (by Bwlch Hill Wind) and later progressed onto Phoenix Karim a 15hh rose grey arab stallion by Elite (by White Lightning) ex Gypsy Kiram (by Karim Rusan).  Karim proved too much of a handful for riding and went on to stand at stud in Hayling Island, Hampshire so Colleen concentrated on driving the hackney pony Sunbeam Something Special to great success in both Scotland and England winning both Great Yorkshire and Royal Highland Shows in 1998.  

Feeling out of place by the father and daughter pair taking over the Scottish hackney show scene, Alice decided to get her own back by purchasing Welsh Cobs.   Initially Alice purchased Parc Sir Geraint a 2 year old, 14hh liver chestnut Welsh Section D Cob colt sired by the well known Nebo Daniel (by Nebo Brenin) out of Parc Angharad, who became the foundations for the Welsh Cobs at Rathburn.  Gizzy, as he was called produced 3 foals out of Fairgate Nest a daughter of Llanarth Solo.   Rathburn Super Trooper, a very true to type, old fashioned 14hh dark bay gelding is now 5 years old and is still a great favourite at Rathburn.

The Lancashire Heelers

Dogs have also been an important part of Rathburn.  Starting off from having Yorkshire Terriers called Teddy and Tania and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels called Prince and Twiggy, Alice took a liking to Rottweilers and purchased a dog called Rathburn Beauty from Essex and began showing.   Colleen prefered the smaller Jack Russells and was given Roxanna one year as a birthday present.  However, Cammie required something different but liked the colour and stature of the Rotties but the size and cleverness of the Russells and thus, the ideal dog lay in the Lancashire Heeler.  The very proud looks, determined and heeling nature and guarding tendencies proved an immediate need. 

After a 2 year wait, Delfran Midnight Dream (Nancy) came along in 1994, but only under the breeder's  condition that she would be shown.  Taken to breeder Frances Bowman's word, Nancy was shown and successfully at that.  First time out at the Scottish Kennel Club May Show 1995, the 7 month old little show-stopper (by Delsteps Deeply Dippy out of Doddsline Sweet Dark Secret) won the Lancashire Heeler puppy bitch class, best puppy title, best bitch and went on to collect the Best in Breed ticket, an amazing achievement for 18 year old Colleen.  The following year, Nancy won 1st junior then 1st post graduate bitch at Crufts with Colleen.  Alice purchased the dog Delfran Dark Comet also in 1994 and in 1995 bought Nancy's full sister out of the second litter Delfran Deep Dark Desire which was called Jet.  Both Nancy and Jet were shown at Crufts 1999 and Nancy took 4th place in the Limit bitch class.

The Cars

Although the summer months are primarily reserved for showing the hackneys, Cammie spends most of his spare time under the bonnet of one of his many motors and also has to juggle his time with maintaining 19 properties.  His drive to get back into cars was due to Colleen's boyfriend, Mark Howard, a Morris Minor fanatic and owner of a 1959 Sage Green model.  There is a facinating history behind Mark's "Moggy" as it was originally sold at the Central Garage in Buckie in 1959 to a nurse yet Mark found the car in a bitter state in the early 1990s in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire and proceeded to rebuild it.  What seems peculiar is that Mark moved to Western Moray and met Colleen so the car returned to her old home. 

Reading through a few of Mark's magazines proved too much for even Colleen and as a result, the peat brown 2 door Morris 1000 was purchased in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire and was affectionately named "Bug". In October 1998, Bug had only done 32,000 miles and is in excellent condition for her age so is ideal for rallying.   Cammie decided to go back to his roots as a mechanic by purchasing an immaculate1968 white Morris Traveller down in Shropshire.  The Traveller is now known as the "Superbug". 

Two Armstrong Siddeley cars, one a Star Saphire, joined later, but are certainly not in the same condition and are a long term project.

In November 1998, Cammie brought home a 1963 S3 burgundy-over-silver sand Bentley, which is a prestige wedding car and is available for chauffeur driven tours of Moray.  The S3 Rolls Bentley is in exquisite condition and a prime example of a quality 1960s motor car.