About Forest General

Forest General is an English thoroughbred racehorse, who’s stable name is Harry.  He is owned by John Pemberton and his wife Susan, and was bred by Susan's mother Jeanette Carr with a heritage as a racer over jumps, not on the flat.  Jeanette gets the interest in racing from her father, Joe Carr, who was a racehorse trainer on the North Yorkshire Moors in the mid-1900s.

Harry was born at Beech Tree Stud www.beechtreestud.co.uk on 18 June 2013, and chiefly raised there.  His sire is Geordieland, standing at Beech Tree Stud near Shepton Mallet, Somerset.  His dam, Mollycarrs Gambul owned by Jeanette Carr and now deceased, won a number of point-to-point races.

Harry’s half-brother out of the same mare, Thomas Crapper born in 2007, has won and been placed in National Hunt hurdles and chases over a career spanning from 2011 to 2018, winning in excess of £120,000.

In May 2016 when he was three, Harry went for breaking and assessment to Robert Walford’s racing stables near Blandford, Dorset.  He is a large horse, standing at some 17 hands, and he was deemed to need more time to grow into himself.  He then spent a year growing at the Pemberton’s livery yard on their farm Ipley Manor in the New Forest, Hampshire.

In January 2018 when he was nearly five, Harry went for training to Harry Fry’s racing yard www.harryfryracing.com.  Again, he was deemed to need more time for growth and improving fitness, before racing was attempted.

Before going to Harry Fry, the horse had been to racing pre-trainer Sarah Gould, near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, to school him and develop his fitness.  It was therefore decided to return him to Sarah’s yard in March 2018 for further schooling and fitness training before the 2018/19 winter season of jump racing.

He has always been keen to do the work and has succeeded in what he has been asked to do.  He is happy to perform dressage, to gallop and to jump.  Although he is a thoroughbred, he has turned out not to be highly strung or difficult to handle or ride.

It only remains to see what he can do …