Just do It!
Bruce Langley Mckim of Thorpeley Stud By Charley Snowdon
E
very so oſten I stumble upon an eccentric character that is just ‘out there’, no restraints, no limits, no fear and full of self- assured addictive fun; CHN readers, I proudly introduce you to
Bruce ‘The Almighty’ Mckim! Yes, girls (and boys) this man is the ‘full package’! If you want your
mare professionally and artificially inseminated by midnight in Leeds by a qualified artificial inseminator, then Bruce is your man! “I said madam I will collect now!” recalls a very ‘matter of fact’ Bruce. “I remember ‘jumping a mare’ (not meaning over poles, by the way!) and prepping and packaging the semen before driving to Leeds to artificially inseminate the lady’s horse that very night!” The no nonsense Bruce started riding at the age of seven, the son of non-horsey parents he was given the choice of lessons or a pony. “I chose a pony that had been sitting in a field for two and a half years that nobody wanted”, recalls Bruce. “Everyone said he was loopy, but we got on famously and I’ve been around horses ever since.” Bruce’s flare for working with stallions began in the racing industry.
“I completed my A levels and then worked in Newmarket”, says Bruce. “I worked with a lot of racing Arab stallions. I was totally unphased and wouldn’t let people’s perception of ‘a stallion’ affect my mind set. I am one of those beings that if someone says you can’t do something, the more I want to do it! From then on, every time I got the opportunity to ride a stallion or compete a stallion I was in there!” From Newmarket, Bruce went on to ride Point to Point for seven seasons and had over eighty rides including winners. “I finally fell out of love with racing and I went into showing”, says Bruce. “I had always been a showman and had competed at county level whilst still racing, I then had the opportunity to be David Tatlow’s head lad for two years.” Whilst at David’s, his talent for handling stallions was put to full use and Bruce thrived. “The stallions were always my rides”, says Bruce. “I thoroughly enjoyed tending to and riding them. I got pleasure from proving people’s perceptions of ‘a stallion’ wrong, I have always treated them as normal horses. I was famously quoted for telling one lady that ‘Madam, I also have a pair of testicles and I’m not going to attack you, so why should an entire horse be any different?’ Funnily enough, my comment went down like a lead balloon!” Testament to Bruce’s ethos, today he prides himself on having a
yard full of stallions that can cover a mare in the morning and be out team chasing in the aſternoon. “I have absolutely no routine”, says Bruce. “My stallions behave like any other horses, they will travel
together, compete, follow hounds, be led off each other and unless I walk down the yard with a covering bridle (A standard chiffney which they recognise) you wouldn’t know they were entire.” Aſter leaving David’s, Bruce briefly went back to racing in what he describes as a period of ‘needed closure’ before setting up his own small yard taking on horses that needed backing, breaking and riding away. “I would ride anything!” laughs Bruce. “I was sent horses that nobody else would want to touch let alone sit on. I am an old fashioned ‘nagsman’, you have to look into a horse to understand where their problems lie and go from there.” Unsurprisingly, Bruce soon became the ‘go to’ man for people that
had reached the end of their tether with their horses. “I was quite oſten told that if I couldn’t solve it, then shoot it”, recalls Bruce. “I then was introduced to Romeo, a coloured Stallion that the owner could do nothing with and was completely terrifying everyone at the owner’s yard.” Romeo’s presence was immediately felt and even the confident
Bruce questioned whether he had met his match! “I put him on the lunge before getting on and he napped in the school, he napped in the yard and then he ran backwards into the porch of the house”, recalls Bruce. “I finally rode him out of the yard where he threw himself down a ditch and then, when I finally got him onto a bridle- way he just wanted to go. I remember calmly holding onto the neck strap and saying, ‘go on then, if you want to run let’s run!’ That horse fought me for an hour and a half solid and when we both eventually returned to the yard I was cut up, sweating and crying, and he was blowing like a steam train; We had gone for each other and in no uncertain terms, that horse had given me what for. Aſter that day Romeo IV turned out to be one of the finest ladies’ hunters in the country and never put a foot wrong. He still is one of the finest horses I have ever produced.” From then on, the bug had truly bitten Bruce and with help from
his ‘Aunty’ Jenny Childs, Thorpeley Stud was born. “Aunty Jenny is not officially an Aunty, but actually a much-loved friend of our family and her late husband, and my late father were as thick as thieves. Aſter their sad passing, Aunty Jenny believed in me and wanted to see me grow”, explains Bruce. “The stud and the horses were a good distraction from bereavement and none of us have looked back.” Today, Bruce is not only a highly admired horseman but also is one of the highest respected breeders of quality Irish Draughts, rare Cleveland Bays and Suffolk Punch horses. “Irish Draughts are so versatile, they’ve got the bone and being a proper hunting man, I like a horse that can go all day”, says Bruce enthusiastically, “They have a fiſth leg and at three o clock when hounds are running an Irish
Bruce & ‘Cos Me Is Black’ competing in the Golden Button; photos by Equipassion UK 28 MAY/JUNE 2019 For the latest news visit
www.centralhorsenews.co.uk
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