That sad fateful afternoon in May 2010 we heard a commotion from Valiant's paddock. We had recently put Tb mare Redeemable back in with him for company as he had been fretting by himself and had become very thin.

I saw him receive a heck of a kick in the chest and then he pulled up extremely lame- I ran down with cellphone in hand fearing the worst, rang the vets as he stood swaying on three legs wanting to lie down but rearing up in agony when he tried. The vet was with us within 10 minutes, he said that he feared he had broken his femur and there was nothing he could do for him. He also noted that his eyes were cloudy with cataracts- I hypothesis that he must not have been able to see hence his uncharacteristic fretting and then his getting too close to Redeemable. He also had broken a couple of gates the month before- probably because he couldnt see.

He was by Llanina Morning Blaze (imp UK) and out of Sydenham Godetia (imp UK) and his life is a credit to his breeder Priscilla Neill who had the foresight to breed such a bold, courageous, mellow, beautiful Welsh cob.

He lives on through his fabulous progeny. Those fortunate enough to have offspring by Valiant always adore them and they are seldom for sale. We have 4 breeding mares by Mill Creek Valiant. To his progeny he gave lovely conformation, a trainable temperament, with a fabulous brain that searches for the answer. All of them are so smart they dont wait at the fence line closest to the feed out, they always go to the gate. They all love to jump, just like him (he would often be seen jumping logs in his paddock) Shammy cleared a huge log one day running around the paddock, and cleared a gate out of a pen in her heavy wet winter rug, Rosheen cleared a gate of 1.15m at 9 months old, Moon often jumped into the hay paddock for a gallop about and when no-one joined her would jump back in with her friends. They all have a sense of humour, a natural jump, great legs and love to be taught tricks.

We are grateful to have had such a fabulous stallion, we learnt so much from him regarding the breeding game. He was so easy going in nature that I would hold the mares for service with him loose in the paddock. He is missed by all that knew him.