Donald MacIntyre and Lady Dawn
Photograph of Donald MacIntyre with his Clydesdale mare Lady Dawn of Gott.
Courtesy of Mrs Claudia Ferguson-Smyth
Donald MacIntyre was photographed with his Clydesdale mare Lady Dawn of Gott in the summer of 2006 by Claudia Ferguson-Smyth. Dawn is looking somewhat dejected. She has been tormented by clegs (horse-flies); the lumps from their bites can be seen on her flanks.
Donald has bred Clydesdale horses for nearly seventy years and exhibited them regularly at the Highland Show at Ingleston outside Edinburgh. He once won fourth prize for a three-year-old mare in the 1970s and enjoyed competing in the horse-shoeing events.
From a long line of blacksmiths in Gott, Donald has always made and fitted the shoes for his own horses. Before the days of tractors he used to go to Coll every March and November for about a fortnight to shoe horses and repair farm implements. His is the last working smithy on Tiree.
Colour photograph of Donald MacIntyre of Gott with his Clydesdale mare Lady taken in the summer of 2006.
Donald MacIntyre of Gott with his Clydesdale mare Lady photographed in the summer of 2006 by Claudia Ferguson-Smyth.