All language subtitles for Clydesdale.Saving.The.Greatest.Horse.2020.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

-== [ www.OpenSubtitles.com ] ==-

There's a perfection
about Clydesdales.

They are incredible athletes,
incredibly graceful

in their movement.

Just big personalities.

It makes you feel small and humbled

and incredibly privileged
to be with them.

They're beautiful.
They are just beautiful.

In order to have a Clydesdale
become your partner,

you really have to put your ego
to the side and really be there

for that creature...

..that depends on you.

I see them as just the most
amazing breed.

It's a treasure trove of positive
traits and characteristics

that I absolutely am passionate
that we should not lose.

You only need to look at the herd
books to see that it's diminishing,

there are far fewer horses.

You don't need to be an expert
to know that. That's just obvious.

I started asking questions of
the people who bred the horses,

and they were telling me shocking
stories of the breed entering

what they call
the extinction vortex,

when a number of factors
come together

and, unless you react quickly,
the whole breed

can just collapse.

So I could either pretend
I hadn't heard that,

or else I could do
something about it.

It's now or never.

We've really got
to save this breed.

They touch the soul.

They really do.

I'm Janice Kirkpatrick,
I'm a designer.

I have a business in Glasgow
with my husband,

an architect called Ross Hunter.

We met when we were students.

This is perfect...

We work for some of
the big global players.

British Airways, banks like RBS,
a lot of... Janice!

Am I not allowed to say that?

No.

I suppose I've always been a big
kid my whole life, in lots of ways.

I like toys. I like bikes.
The power is remarkable.

Horses are the same.

I think women at a young age
identify with the power a horse

can give them, and it's exciting.

I was always interested
in the Clydesdale horse

through my love of horses,

but also through design.

30-odd years
of practising as a designer,

I've come to truly believe
that old is gold.

And, for me, the Clydesdale
is very much this kind of a thing.

Do you remember
when horses were here?

Yeah. But, I mean, I can remember
when there was horses here,

but there's not much of it left.

Oh, boy...

This is a barn that would
have at one time

had several horses in it.

These would have been big horses.

Clydesdales, the pre-eminent breed.

The best breed.

The most highly bred horses
in human history.

And people were immensely
proud of their horses.

The breed was born in
the Clyde Valley,

to the south-west of Glasgow.

Everything that came from the Clyde
was of incredible quality.

You know, the ships,
the locomotives, steam engines.

And the Clydesdale horse.

ARCHIVE FOOTAGE: In the lowlands
of Scotland,

let's not forget the great work
that's been done,

and is still being done,
by the ploughman and his good

servant, the horse. The heavy horse.

Scotland's pride and joy -
the Clydesdale.

You need a really well assembled
musculoskeletal frame

to get great power from the rear end
of a horse,

because it's the great power
that gives it its ability

to push into a collar and move,
you know, a tonne weight.

And it's also the power you need
for a great riding horse.

That's where the big horse race
started.

The race to create
the biggest horses,

which could produce the most power

that would fuel the
agricultural revolutions

and Industrial Revolution.

PA SYSTEM: Second - Ronnie Black,
number 10.

And third - number 11,

Amazing Grace, from Sandy Aitken.

Well done, Sandy.

APPLAUSE

I love coming to shows like this
because it really reminds me

of just how long the Clydesdale
has been part

of our culture, our history.

That's a nice one.

Is it square buckles, or...?
Yeah, it's proper square buckles.

They're always putting
a hand on them and stroking them

and trying to make them...

Try and get them to be your friend.

Mess on legs.

But we don't panic.

It's a proper kind of Clydesdale
show as well.

There's a bit of a focus about it.
Well, the only one that really gets

big numbers in that scenario
is the Highland. Highland, yeah.

PA SYSTEM: Those who are taking
part in the pairs competition...

I think my earliest memory
is of being at

what must have been a country fair
or a fete in Dumfries.

And I must have been really wee,
not much more than a toddler.

I remember gripping onto the front
of the saddle and looking down,

and the movement of the horse
going like that,

and thinking, "Oh!"

When, I think, I was seven,
I started proper riding lessons.

Thereafter, I became hooked.

When I was a kid, shows
with Clydesdale horses

would have been packed and it would
have been really exciting,

it would have been a real
celebration -

go and see the big horses.

Today, it's a much thinner affair,

there are fewer people
and older people.

Some of the older photography,

when they had dappled greys,
they had horses of all colours,

which I think would have been
quite amazing to see.

Today, there's really only one
colour of horse, and that's brown.

And also there's not many horses.

Well, this class that's just
being shown just now,

in the mid '90s there could have
been 20 in that class,

and there are three today.

So we're not...

..quite sure why.

And that was number 27
from Charles Jamieson...

The overwhelming fact of
the Clydesdale is that the horse

and everything that
surrounds it is ageing.

Catalogues are available
from the marquee

at the top end of the arena.

Good morning, everybody.

Good morning, Joseph.

Ugh...

Hello, Phoebe.

When I went to Glasgow School
of Art, I was 18

and the awful thing was
I had to sell my horse

because no-one else in the family
rode, and it scarred me very deeply.

I still have
a lot of regret over it.

I always had a heartening to go
back and to ride again.

So I decided I wanted a Clydesdale.

I wanted a black one.

The blacks really appealed to me.
And it's a personal thing -

I just think that they look amazing.

I had a look around and I couldn't
find any black horses in the UK.

So I ended up with this one.

He's an American Clydesdale...

..from Oregon.

Joe.

He's got a really expressive face.

He's very old-fashioned
in style.

He's a big horse by any...any
measure.

He's about....just a shade
under 18 hands.

Woo!

What makes the Clydesdale
so special is, for me,

just the sheer power of them.
They are just magnificent.

Guys like Joe can be so light,
absolutely light as a feather,

and when you get that power
with the lightness,

it's a really special thing.

When I'd made the decision to get
a black Clydesdale, I got

really interested in why there were
no black horses in the UK.

What had happened
to the black horses?

Where had they gone?

I'm on my way to meet
Shona Harrison, whose partner,

John Zawadski, sadly died
a few months ago.

John was a real expert
in the Clydesdale world,

and he travelled up and down the UK
to visit different shows.

I think this is it.

There's quite a lot
of horses around,

a lot of stables round about,
as well. Yeah, there are.

And there's a livery yard up there.

I was born here, but I lived at
a farm further up the road.

And then as soon as my dad
and all that retired and the farms

were sold two years after that,
John and I bought the place back.

Shona's family have been
in Clydesdales for generations,

and I'm really hoping that she
can tell me more

about John's thoughts on the breed.

Come into John's office.
I'd love to!

A lot of it's just as he left it,

because it's going to take a long
time to go through things.

Just watch the steps.

Photographs galore.

Fantastic.

There's one called Grand National
that's used as a...

It's W Johnson, 1918.

I'm very interested in how the
horses change over the centuries.

They definitely have changed
a lot. Over here...

It's a very organised man.

..as I was saying, the breed
histories are all down here.

Clydesdale Horse Society history.

All that up there's the history
of Clydesdale Horse Society.

Just amazing. All the original
documents like newsletters, letters

from the secretary,
that sort of thing.

I'm just amazed.
It's not at all what I expected.

What a job he's done.
It's just amazing.

These are stallions, 19th century.

So he's pieced together
all the stallion information.

This is going back decades and
decades, you know, like centuries.

It's a cornucopia.

I've never known anything like it!

So did John map out the bloodlines?

Yes, he's got the male bloodlines.

Oh, my God!
The illustrations, like, pre-camera.

That's your Prince of Wales again.

John Zawadski's bloodlines.

And he's got two male bloodlines,
one for Prince of Wales and one

for Darnley, both of whom
were foundation stallions.

It's like layers thick with
information, bloodlines and people

exchanging horses over hundreds
of miles and continents.

What strikes me about these
documents is they were people

with a long term view, building

this industrial power plant
of an animal.

Just glorious! Gorgeous.

Shona's collection includes antique
sales catalogues from Scotland's

most famous breeder
of Clydesdales, Lawrence Drew.

They are just exceptional,

I've never seen catalogues
like this ever.

They are absolutely exceptional.

It's a sale catalogue for
the Rolls Royces of horses.

Lawrence Drew, he knew he was doing.

You know, when you look at Prince
of Wales, I'm sure there

must be a note somewhere
about his colour,

but he looks like
a very black horse.

I've not seen a Clydesdale stallion
in the herd today

that looks like this horse.

Ross-o! Mm-hmm?

This is the treat.

Oh, aye.

Wow. It's the catalogue for

the dispersal sale of
Lawrence Drew's herd.

This is 150 years old.
That's amazing.

That's Prince of Wales,
one of the foundation sires.

And these are all drawn.

Wow. It's just awesome.

What a size of a horse!

Look at that! It's incredible.

A lovely smile as well!

I would too, I think, if I were him!

I missed this the first time.

And I looked at the next page,

and then I flicked back and I found
that. Does this still exist?

I don't know.

Merryton was where the first
Clydesdale horses

were really created.

So what had happened
to the black horses?

I started to dig.

At Merryton, there's a big arch
entrance with what looks like

a statue of a Clydesdale horse
on top, and lots of people

arriving with their horses.

I'm relieved to find
that Merryton was still a farm.

It looks like the baronial tower
is still there and many

of the original buildings.

It'd be really nice
to track down some

of those black Clydesdale
bloodlines,

because the breed originally
had a strong black component.

Merryton. This is where
Lawrence Drew had his operation.

He was absolutely clear
that his horses

weren't just to be beautiful.

They had to be functional,

and, boy, they had to be sound.

Merryton is where it all began.

Your dad said that it was
70 years, I think, he arrived

here after Lawrence Drew had left.

Did he tell you stories
about Lawrence Drew's era?

One of the things I remember Dad
saying was that many

of the stable hands
were actually female.

Gosh, it's absolutely huge.

It's stunning, isn't it?
It's really lovely.

I love the colour of the sandstone
and the different textures.

I think these will be oak beams.
They are lovely.

Big building.

And it's been for big horses.
The dimensions...

Dad said... Well, you can see where
the stalls were,

you know, straight in front. Uh-huh.

That was where the
original stalls were.

Do you see the height in
the dimension of them?

The big upright and then...

I think Dad said there was 22.
22.

I mean, when this was full
it must have been quite some sight,

and there'd just be those gorgeous
horse bottoms all lined up.

Merryton was owned by the Hamiltons.

The Dukes of Hamilton were
immensely wealthy.

Merryton was one of the big farms
on the Duke of Hamilton's estate,

and Lawrence Drew was one of
the Duke of Hamilton's men.

It's really interesting to be here
in Chatelherault, where the Dukes

of Hamilton had their power base.

And they thought on a big scale.

Their horse breeding
was on that same grand scale.

Lawrence Drew,
he was an entrepreneur.

He was a showman.

Drew knew where he was going

with the commercial part
of the business.

Thousands of horses were exported,
and because this was very much

a business, they were building
a brand and this was a big plan.

This was a worldwide plan.

This was about exporting
to Australia and Russia and Italy

and North America and Canada.

And the blacks had been exported

as being amongst the highest
quality.

It would have been quite
a busy place.

But it's very quiet now.

If Drew had lived, I would just
love to have seen

what he could have bred.

But he died,
hence the dispersal sale.

This sale would have drawn people
from all over the world,

and apparently 6,000 people
attended it.

So all of his stock, which was
really, you know, a treasure trove

of the breed, it was being dispersed
throughout the world.

I had a hunch that, because
Clydesdale horses had been exported,

that there was a package
of genetic material

that had been exported with them.

I want to understand more
about the underlying health

of the Scottish herd...

..and get a snapshot of whether
or not our gene pool is healthy.

I quickly discovered that the UK
has a very small and shrinking pool

of Clydesdale horses, which means
it's very hard to keep the breed

healthy in the future.

I looked a bit further and started
talking to people about it,

talking to the vets about it,

and they started telling me
about problems with the breed.

I started asking questions of
the people who bred the horses.

We lost five one year in a summer.

And they were telling me shocking
stories of the mortality rate

and issues of breeding,
like massively

reduced fertility in mares
and stallions,

and increased foal mortality,

which means there are
simply fewer horses

and there's less genetic diversity.

Clear signals of the breed
entering what they call

the extinction vortex.

And, unless you react quickly,
the whole breed can just collapse.

And that changed everything.

Everyone knows there's a problem.
Nobody knows what the solution is,

and nobody wants to act first.

I just found it just incredibly sad.

So, like, I couldn't possibly not
try and do something about it.

I really needed to go and speak
to some scientists

to find out exactly
what was happening.

The first thing we need to find out

is how healthy is the herd
in Scotland?

I'm going to find somebody -

somebody who has the knowledge
to find out

what's happening and what needs
to be done.

Secondly, we need to find out

if there is an issue
with inbreeding.

And the most important question
is can the breed survive?

That is the really big question.

Hi. Hi, I'm trying to get
through to Jessica Petersen.

RINGING

Hi, Janice.
Thanks for taking this call.

I really appreciate it.

I'm really hoping that you can help

unravel this Clydesdale mystery.

I'm trying to understand
how viable the genetic population

is in our Clydesdale horses
in Scotland.

I'm wondering if there's
a way that we can measure that,

if that would be something
that you could help with.

It seems like something
that we could get at

using genetic data.

How diverse is this population?

Are the Scottish horses different
than North American horses?

So definitely something
that's up my alley.

Jessica has agreed to do a genetic
study of the Clydesdale populations

in the USA, Canada and the UK,
and in order to do this

she needs DNA from horses
in all three countries.

By collecting that DNA, she can get
a snapshot of the diversity

and therefore the health
of the populations

in those respective countries.

So Jessica is going to get 50
samples from Canada,

50 samples from the USA,

which leaves me to get 50 samples
from the UK, and that gives us 150

hair follicle samples,
which is 150 bits of horse DNA.

That should be great.

We should be good to go with that.

This is my little tool kit
for my genetic collections.

It requires the breeder to provide
a hair sample

of around 30 to 40 follicles,

which are pulled from the mane
or the tail.

And that's really it.
Then they're placed in a stamped,

addressed envelope
and sent back to me.

So it's not a huge job
for people to do.

I'm going to do three horses
this morning.

Joe is in his usual domain,
which is here.

That's us.
That's our first sample.

So that's about, I would say, 30, 40
hairs, with the roots intact.

Stick that in an envelope.

What I'm going to do this
afternoon is contact breeders

in the UK independently, explain
to them the project

and ask them to participate.

Hi, it's Janice Kirkpatrick
trying to reach Caroline Reynolds

regarding the Clydesdale
DNA information.

VOICEOVER: There's this feeling
generally

within the kind of Clydesdale owners
in Scotland and in the UK

that everything's just OK.

You know, they see the horse
outside in the field

and the horse looks healthy,

and I don't think we've quite got
the urgency of the situation.

But people have been actually
OK about it, saying,

"Yes, we will do it."

Thanks. Thank you.

Need to count the bags.

One, two, three, four...

You're a star. Thank you.

It would just really help.

16 samples. Fantastic.

I'm the sort of individual behind
the Clydesdale project.

Another two. I've got another two.

Ah. Blackstone.

Thank you, Bob.

Two, three, four. 36...

..so far, so we need another 14.

Thank you so much. Bye.

49, 50.

We actually have...we have
50 samples.

We've got 50 samples.

That means that we've actually
managed to find

enough DNA to do our survey
of the Clydesdale population.

It's really good.

This just came in the post
for you, Janice. Oh.

Thanks, Zoe.

These are the results
of the DNA analysis.

Ah.

"Data generated from these samples
support what you suspected.

"Based upon the relative isolation
and small population size

"of Clydesdales in Scotland,
they do have less diversity

"than Clydesdales studied
from North America."

And there is an increase
in inbreeding

within the Scottish population.

Jessica, I've only skimmed it, but
it seems that our hunch was right,

that there is an issue
with genetic diversity.

So, yes, the concern about
the Scottish population

being very small in size held true
in that inbreeding estimates

of the horses in Scotland
were generally quite a bit

higher than from horses
in North America.

And that goes back again
to the small population size

where, if there's just not
a whole lot of horses,

you're going to be mating relatives
to relatives, whether or not

you are intending to do so.

For the first time, I think

we have definitive scientific
genetic proof

that the Clydesdale herd
in Scotland is in danger.

We have to do something about it.

It suddenly dawned on me
that I could maybe bring back some

new genetic material, new genetic
Clydesdale material to Scotland

that would give it some diversity
and some sustainability.

The very best horses were exported

because they commanded
the highest prices.

They were exported to Canada
from Glasgow, from Liverpool,

and then from Canada they
went down into the United States

and South America.

When the genetic material
was dispersed, some pretty big herds

were founded across Canada,
and some of the black bloodlines

are in these herds today, the black
bloodlines that have their roots

in the old stud books in Scotland.

What I'm looking for
is a great-looking

and great-performing
pregnant breeding mare,

so I can create black Clydesdale
horses in Scotland.

I think the time has now come
for the horse to come back home

again to the place it was created.

It's important that I bring
a horse back into the UK

that is as different as possible
genetically from the horses

that we have at the moment
because by doing that

I will strengthen and widen
and deepen the genetic pool.

Most Clydesdales exported
from Scotland

ended up here, in Ontario.

Many of them passed through
a really famous farm

in Pickering Township,
which is just outside Toronto.

We come here, where so many
of those horses landed,

and it's like this...

..almost Scottish-looking
landscape that's not unfamiliar.

This place is called Thistle Ha',

and it's where the Miller
family had their operations.

The Miller family pretty much
controlled the transatlantic trade

in Clydesdale horses
all that time ago.

Welcome to Thistle Ha' Inn.
Oh, thank you. It's a lovely house.

So this is a portrait
of my great-grandfather.

He settled this farm
as a pioneer in 1839.

It was the family business
in Canada and the United States.

I recognise this name - Lord Harry.

This Lord Harry poster

was advertising when the horse is
available for breeding mares.

It's wonderful.

And he's by the very famous
Prince of Wales.

So this is going right back
to the beginning of the herd books.

Bred by Lawrence Drew,

which was a famous Scottish
Clydesdale breeder.

This is beautiful.

He was a champion everywhere
he was shown.

He was an unbeatable horse.

What's amazing is that the Miller
family were the first and biggest

importers of Clydesdales
from Scotland into Canada,

and this small farm was once
the centre

of the international
Clydesdale trade.

After the Civil War,
they had to start rebuilding

everything in the United States.

A lot of horses were killed
in battles, so they came to Canada

to re-establish their herd.

The other thing that was
happening too

was the opening of the prairies.

To plough, harvest, cultivate a farm
that ran from horizon to horizon,

the Clydesdale was king.

TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS

Wow.

TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS

I've come to Saskatchewan
because there are

descendants of the original
horses that were exported

from Scotland to Canada
all these years ago.

SAT NAV: Turn left at the stop sign.

Here we go.

Yeah, I think we've got some
Clydesdales.

It's just such an amazing country.
It's so big,

you know, flat and vast
and endless.

It's so different from Scotland
and the land that we bred

those horses on originally.

With me I have got John Hankinson,
who is a longstanding good friend.

He's an equine manipulator.

He's a master farrier.

He's got a whole bunch of tools
in his box.

Let's just go in this way.
Is this it?

Yeah.

We're here.

At last!

CHILD SHOUTING

Janice, how are we doing?
Good to see you. Good to see you.

The place looks so different.
This is John. Hi there.

How are you doing? This is Derek.
Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

Derek Cey is from a family of
Clydesdale breeders.

I think they're in their fifth
generation of Clydesdale breeding.

CAR HORN BLARES

They're coming.

They're coming. Look at the sight!

Awesome.

DEREK WHISTLES

Come on.

Hello.

Hello!

It's just great.
This is what I came here for.

It's just... It's like swimming
with horses.

It's just brilliant.
SHE LAUGHS

I mean, Derek's herd is vast
compared to anything

I can look at at home.

And it's very moving because it
evokes the images of these huge

studs that we had in Scotland
100 years ago, 150 years ago.

It's just such a treat to see that.

CHATTER

First impression -
is that where you start?

Janice was looking for a sound
horse, who's going to remain sound

for the next ten years.

John is so used to looking

at the minor discrepancies
in horse movement.

This is years spent looking at
thoroughbreds, where you're looking

at, you know, every time
they plant their feet

what bit strikes the ground -
is it the outside, is it the inside?

It takes years to kind of
tune your eye into that.

And one of my biggest
problems coming out here

was, like, if I came out on my own,

I'm never going to see
half this stuff.

I just do not have the skill
and experience to pick out

those little bits and pieces.

My face should tell you how I feel
about horse shopping today.

I'm very excited about it.

All of our land is named
around here, so we are going

to Keasey Pasture.

We'll be going to see Jack.

He is one of our three main
stallions in our operation.

Nice, big, gentle giant, and he

has his core mares with him

that he's been hanging out
with all summer, so...

It's going to be
a very long few days.

There's a lot of horses
to look at.

Can't wait to get started!

OK, so that's a yearling.

Mitzi is just behind,
if you want to have a better

look at her while she's
standing there.

So this is Mitzi.
This is Mitzi, yeah. Mitzi's nice.

How are you doing, my dear? Eh?

That is Bacardi,
nice little fancy mare.

I've got to be really objective.

When I see a horse I like,
I'll write down the name,

I'll take a photograph
on my phone.

I want a horse that has a good
length of neck,

because you need that in order
to produce a good riding horse.

It needs its neck to balance.

It needs big hindquarters.

Not fat hindquarters -
big, muscular hindquarters.

That's where the power comes.

The limbs have got to be straight.

I also want a horse that has got
really great rhythm, great movement,

that has got a kind of cadence
to its step.

Amber, a three-year-old.

She's got a little bit
of an attitude.

Can we take a closer look at her?
Yeah, you betcha.

She caught my eye, she caught John's
eye, and she's got nice shoulder...

All her zones are good.

And she's actually got quite
a nice rear end.

What do you think?

Yeah, I like it. Yeah. Yeah.

The other thing about Amber is
she is in foal.

Derek thinks it's
Willow Way Nightlight,

who is the big black stallion.

So that adds a different dimension.

He's quite a rare black
bloodline from an excellent

herd of Clydesdales.

A lot of checkmarks
you've got going there and stuff.

I'd like to see that book
when you're all done.

It's tiring because
you're concentrating.

You're thinking, I mustn't mess
this up. I mustn't miss something.

So where do you keep your
good ones, Derek?

THEY LAUGH
You know how that works.

So, Janice, what are your thoughts?

I really liked Amber.

What did you think?

I think you've mentioned the one
that I've got on my sort of list

as being the prime candidate.

She's in foal.
She's got the right attitude.

She's got a nice action.

She's good, clean-limbed.
Looks to tick all the boxes.

As I say, she, at the moment,
is the one that I'm thinking

is probably
the best one for you.

What's the plan now? Are we going
to do the hands on bit?

I think that would be a good idea.

I wanted a pair of eyes
on this horse

and a pair of hands
on this horse.

John's a very, very good judge
of how a horse

is put together physically.

That's you.

So far, so good.

John's also got a good feel
for personalities.

This is good.

A hell of a girl.

I like this one.

What are you...?

Awesome. Awesome? Yeah.

Thank you, John.

She's a cracking girl, isn't she?
She's... Yeah. Fabulous.

Hey, good girl.

And I think that really
affected John.

Very rarely he ever finds
a horse that tries so hard.

And he was just amazed that this
horse, which was really a wild

horse, was trying so hard
to understand what he wanted.

Team hug.

Team hug. Thank you.

I'm so pleased
that you came with me.

That's the right horse.

Her energy is just amazing.

Hey there.

VOICE ON PHONE:
Have you organised it?

Yes, I've not organised it all
but, yes, we have a horse.

You are going to love her.

John is absolutely
in love with her.

Like, unbelievably in love with her.

What this horse is bringing
over is a whole toolkit of genetic

lovely things that could, you know,
take the Scottish herd in different

directions, and that for me
is really exciting.

This isn't just about even my
lifetime - this is about, you know,

other people's lifetimes.

Of all breeds, the Clydesdale
deserves a future.

Good run? Oh, not too bad.

Ah, so... Nice to meet you.

This is Amber.

Her maiden voyage.

Come on, sweets.

Do you want to give her
a last petting?

Just everybody walk up
nice and slow there.

Oh. Atta girl.

All right.

CHILDREN: Bye, Amber!
There you guys go.

She's now got the beginning of
a very big journey to Scotland,

back to Clydesdale heartland.

Copy for your records.
Thank you.

That's everything done here.

So today is D-Day.

It really is the conclusion
of Amber's journey over here.

She's had 3,000 kilometres by road
and then another...

She's had an eight-hour journey

from Chicago that's been delayed
for five hours.

So she's going to be fairly tired.

I'm really looking
forward to seeing her.

My husband Ross hasn't seen
her at all.

So it's a big deal
for both of us, really.

Amber coped ridiculously well
with the travel.

It's now beginning to feel
a bit like Christmas.

I'm very relieved that
she is so...cool with everything.

She just looks really alert,
really interested in it all.

She's not fazed by it.
So that's good.

Oh...

Yeah, I don't need your help.

You're such a pest!

Come on, missus.

This is our Canadian lady.

Don't be cheeky.

She's very cheeky.

I don't call my horses
by their pedigree names.

It's quite nice just to hang with
them for a while and find out

what their characters are like.

She just doesn't feel like an Amber.

She's not an amber light.

This horse is a full-on green light.

She was just so audacious
that I decided to call her

Jesse James after the outlaw.

Good girl. Good girl.

Right, Steve-o.

We've got John Morris, my local vet,

coming to have a look at Jesse.

SHE SIGHS

I'm knackered!

Is this your new girl, Janice?

This certainly is. Good girl.

Good girl.

All right, so these are the
identification documents

for the Clydesdale Horse Society.

She looks a very different type.

It's interesting to see
that there was another line

of Clydesdales differentiated
in another country.

In terms of her pregnancy,

we don't know quite how far on
she is.

It's really very difficult
to try and get a date.

It's not unusual to find that people
sit up for about two weeks

waiting for their mare to foal,

and then they go to bed
because they're so tired,

and then guess what happens -
they foal that night.

And are there any particular
features of a Clydesdale birth

as opposed to a normal horse birth?

Clydesdales can be more difficult.

If the foal is not in the right
position, then they can get stuck.

Beyond that, there's a sort of inner
sack - normally the foal bursts

through that, as part of
the birth process.

But if the foal is born
and the sack is over its face,

then it can't breathe.

It's quite scary stuff, actually,

especially when it's horses
that you love.

If things go wrong,
they go terribly wrong,

and they go wrong very,
very quickly.

I've got a very good imagination.

I'm very good at imagining
horror stories.

To re-establish a viable Clydesdale
herd in Scotland

is going to require a lot
of support.

The change from the wooden plough,

sort of early 1800s, through to your

typical Scottish ploughs
to your North America...

Is that a Ronaldsay plough, the
little, tiny mobile one? Yes. Ah.

Bob Powell's
an agricultural historian.

He understands everything
Clydesdale, and there's not much

he doesn't know about this horse.
Like me,

he thinks there's a really deep,
almost ancient passion

for the Clydesdale
that I need to tap into.

The old boys that I speak to,

they really miss the horses,
by and large, you know?

People used to ignore me when I went

through the countryside
on a normal horse.

The moment I started riding
Clydesdales,

old guys would open gates for me,
they'd stand and talk,

they'd tell me stuff.

There was a clear... Some of
it's misty-eyed, I'm sure,

but I think they also missed
the companionship.

Oh, I mean, there's no doubt.

I mean, going into a stable
and having something sort of snuffle

at you, and it's a warm body
and it's living...

..I mean, is different.

And, you know, a lot of these
old guys, I mean, some of them

may have never worked horses,
but their fathers will have had them

and they'll have been in the
stables when they were kids.

Yeah. And the memory's still there.
The memory's still there. Yeah.

And, you know, for all of us,
whatever our memories are,

for most of us, anyway, you know,

they bring back happy times.
They all smile.

One thing that's become
really clear to me about how we save

the Clydesdale is, if we can't tie
it to a hopeful future, it will die.

I really want to create
the world centre for this horse

that has got some permanence,
that's got some

sustainability going forward.

That builds some value
into the horses...

..so that there's a market of people
who want to buy them and look

after them and enjoy them
and keep breeding them.

The actual archway is 17th century.

I've not been here for years.

Absolutely years.

I think Pollock Park stables
are fabulous.

They are fabulous.

They are beautiful
early 18th-century stables.

So they fit entirely with
the story of the Clydesdale.

It's actually done well
to stay up so well. It has.

The roof's not exactly straight
and I see the pigeons have moved in

but it's not the worst.

So these would have been
the original stables.

Tell a few stories.

Lots of teeth marks and foot marks,
but no horses.

Be great to get them back again.
Oh, it certainly would.

That's the plan. Yes, I hope so.

It seems to me that Pollock
House stables is a bit of a gift

because it's right in the centre of
Glasgow, in the Clyde Valley -

the source of this
amazing Clydesdale horse.

I'm doing a brain dump,

which just gets out of my head
and onto a whiteboard

the different dimensions
of this project.

Pollock Park could be the thing
that helps save the horse.

I'm going to start speaking to the
people who actually own the park,

which is Glasgow City Council.

Hello. Hello, hello.
Nice to meet you. how are you?

I'm very well, thanks.
Good. Come in, please.

Thanks for taking time to see me.
No, a pleasure.

So, Janice, the stable blocks
at Pollock House and in the park

have obviously been derelict
and mainly unused for many years,

many decades in some parts
of the building.

In terms of being able to bring them
back to life and use them

differently, what is the plan
that you've brought today?

Well, it's really bringing
the horse back to Glasgow.

It's quite interesting,
when you look at the buildings

on the estate, I hadn't been down
to see them for decades, actually.

The side that's nearest the river
is the biggest problem.

And apparently it's been shored up
since either the late '50s

or the early '60s.

But it's all repairable

and it's in much better condition
than I thought.

It can help us be better.

It can also help save the horse.

Great. I mean, I think
that's really exciting.

There's so much potential
behind that story.

It's something that we should
certainly be supporting as a city.

That's a Clydesdale.

It is such a cracking painting.

There's a little grey
in the background as well.

Absolutely wonderful.

The murals tell
the story of Glasgow,

and I think a pride of place
for the Clydesdale.

Trying to keep sight of Jesse today
because she's really close to giving

birth, and I don't want her to creep
off and give birth in the field

shelter or in some other
corner of the field.

She loves having her udders
scratched.

That's a huge udder.

I mean, that udder feels and
looks pretty fully formed.

There's always a worry,
you always think about

what's going to go wrong.

I try very hard to make
sure that Ross is at home

when we're in this foaling window.

But it could happen during the day,
I could be on my own.

The muscles around her pelvis
are slackening off,

ready for her giving birth.

Because things happen
really quickly in foaling,

this is me being organised.

I didn't want to get caught up in
the action and not know what to do.

At what point does it get dangerous?

Just watching the time again,
with the foal standing, sucking.

There's a one, two, three
rule, which is foal standing

within an hour, sucking within two
hours, and placenta passed

within three hours.

If anything goes wrong,
it goes catastrophically wrong

very, very quickly.

We installed a little Wi-Fi camera,
which is brilliant

because it connects to my mobile
phone or my other devices,

and it means I can watch what's
happening in the foaling box

so I can check during the night
and just see where she's at,

and if there's much movement, the
camera tells me there's movement.

All we can do now is wait.

I want to bring people together
who have an interest in the future

of the Clydesdale horse
in Pollock Park.

So, breeders' societies,

there are those of us
who are individuals.

There's no real mechanism for us
all to come together, you know?

There's people know people,
you know, see people at shows

and all the rest, but actually
as a group with a common passion,

it doesn't really exist.

Around 30% of Clydesdale foals
are dying from a range of disorders

commonly associated with
a diminishing population

and a thinning gene pool,
and compared to most other kind

of common horse breeds,
deaths are really rare.

So 30% is a huge number.

And it's heartbreaking.

It's heartbreaking for breeders
and it's heartbreaking for the mares

who can carry their foals for a year
before they give birth.

We can do something about it.

What I'd like to do now
is to explore how we might create

a sustainable world centre
here in Pollock Park.

Pollock stables -

something that's vibrant,
that's world-class.

I have been involved
in this project.

It makes sense to me, and this is
the moment when I discover

if it is actually going to make
sense to anybody else.

SHE LAUGHS

So there's a lot riding on it.

All breeders as well,

I think we need to actually
work as one.

We need to research old methods, try
to find a way of replicating that,

look at what's missing.

We're seeing how important

it is to have somebody like Janice,
who has the energy and drive

to just say to people,
"Let's do it."

The urgency of the situation
to sort the gene pool out

and have a breeding plan that will
ensure the health

and the continuity of this breed.

It was really good, really positive.
Really positive.

I really feel that we can make
something happen.

I feel very good about it.

You know when something feels
right, you just know it.

Hi there. It's Janice Kirkpatrick
at Lindsayston.

I've a mare who I think
might foal tonight.

Thank you. Thanks.

It got to half past five
in the morning and...

Nothing was happening. ..nothing.

So I went back to sleep.

HORSE WHINNIES SOFTLY

I don't like looking back at that
bit of film very much.

The foal can't breathe on her own
yet because her face is completely

covered in this amniotic sack
that has to be removed.

And Jesse needs
to break the sack,

she needs to do it quickly
so the foal doesn't suffocate.

Jesse just instinctively knows
that she's got to get the sack

off the face of her foal
and help her breathe.

Woke up again...

..ten past six, and...

..there's this little white face
peering out from the straw

at the back of the loose box.

Absolutely shocked.

It was like, where the
hell did that come from?

Ross is going, "There's a face!

"There's a face!" I woke Janice up.

It's a wee girl!

A wee girl!

That's a good girl.

Yeah. Your beautiful foal, yeah.

Yeah, that's a good girl.

HORSE WHINNIES

That's your mum!

When Jesse was pregnant,

I was convinced that this foal
wanted to be called Snowy,

and Ross thought I was mad.

She's got a big white face, and
she's this weird lavender colour

with flecks of white through
her coat, so she is quite

a snowy horse.

She'll go pretty much black.

Thanks for coming along, John.
I really appreciate it.

She's finding it really hard
to stand.

And we've just been doing a
combination of letting her sleep...

..she then gets up. She can actually
latch onto the teat now,

but she can't stand for long.

Oh, oh... She's so slippy.

We really want to get Snowy
standing so that she can suckle

from Jesse and get milk, especially
the first milk, which is called

colostrum, which has got
antibodies in it, which will help

build her immune system.

And that's one of the things
that can cause mortality in foals,

is not getting enough colostrum.

We thought, oh, my God,
something's going wrong here.

The structure of the foal's stomach
changes after eight hours

and it becomes impossible
for the foal then to benefit

from this immunity given to it
by its mothers milk.

John wants to make sure
that we've got her immune system

kicked in, so he's going to...he's
putting a tube into her stomach and

putting in...quite a lot of
colostrum.

He's got to be very careful to get
the tube into the stomach,

not the lungs.

See it there? Yeah.

And if we can see it... Yeah.
It's in the right place.

..it means it's not in the airway.
It's away down here.

Snowy's... Snore and drink
at the same time.

Just pull it off. That's good.

There we go. Well done.

So all that milk in you,
you're going to be strong now.

There we go.

Now she's had some colostrum,
the biggest problem is getting

them up and getting them sucking
within a reasonable amount of time.

Yeah, good girl.

Up we go...

Get it right here,
you're a wee bit too far back again.

She's going for the right bit.

It's always in my mind that
I could lose a foal,

I could lose a mare.

I really, really, really want
this foal to suckle.

The sooner she can stand up
on her own and suck, the better.

If only she could stand
on her own, it would be perfect.

HORSE WHINNIES

Whoa!

And we're up!

Oh!

That's it...

Are you going to be a big grey girl?
Are you?

Are you going to be a black roan?

Are you going to be black?

Have you got little teeth?
Are these your teeth?

They're tiny teeth.

Imagine having tiny little teeth
like that.

Yeah.

Good girl.

So I never intended to have spent
this year

like I've spent this year.

I really, really love my
Clydesdales.

Come.

I think they're brilliant big people
to hang with,

and I think the world's a better
place for them being here.

Come on, Janice.

THEY LAUGH

I believe I've at least
started the journey of helping

them flourish again.

I have a great belief that others
will join me.

How could you not be excited
about something like this,

that was created
in this place?

We need to be proud of it
and own it and embrace it,

and make sure it has
a bright, shiny future.

Please rate this subtitle at www.osdb.link/88wz2
Help other users to choose the best subtitles