An afternoon of bliss...

I'm pretty sure my stallion may not be all Percheron. I know what his papers say but after this afternoon I'm thinking there must be some Teddy Bear in there somewhere ;)

I've been meaning to get this whole blog thing underway but with everything that comes along...it kind of gets pushed to the back of the pile. I have a book I write ideas down in and there are a couple of posts in my draft file. My mind seems to be on so many things at once these days that writing things down is the safest way. My pondering thoughts are often lost when I discover a new place that the chickens have been laying eggs in or that the kids have been sneaking into the store and eating all the marshmellows that I bought for the next camping trip and all I seem to remember is that there WAS something that I thought would be good to write about but it seems to be floating beyond my grasp at the moment.

The stallion and the broodmares are about three kilometres away from
the house, in a holding paddock next to the cattle yards. We've had a bit of rain lately which has made it hard to get out to them and put water in the few dams and depressions in the paddock meaning they don't have to come in to the water trough. I've been driving around and seeing their tracks. New rain means I know they are recent and Bardie's are pretty easy to spot seeing as though they are twice the size of the others! But I always like to see the horses, give them a treat and a brush if nothing else and although I can see they have been walking in and out everyday I couldn't help but imagine some disastrous wound or infliction. The longer it went the more disastrous my imaginary wound got.

So yesterday we went out again but this time in a new car that has just arrived on the station which happens to have a louder horn-which my three year old girl can easily push. Turns out that's all it took. The horses came cantering up to the fenceline (we had gone around 3/4 of the paddock by then) looking just as happy to see me as I was to see them. It was then that I realised that I needed to worm them (the wormer sitting on the table at the house ready to take with me) and I didn't have a halter, brush or even a carrot on me. It didn't take them much coaxing to follow me back to the yards which I then decided to lock them up in overnight. The yards have been locked off and are full of growing oats and wheat from the hay that has been fed there in the past six months so they were pretty happy with that.

After school we were down there again, this time with a tray load of feed, wormers, brushes and treats and the kids and I spent a blissfully warm afternoon with the stallion and his mares. I don't think I can solely credit the recent warm weather for happiness that I felt this afternoon. There is something truly wonderful about spending time with a horse that wants to spend time with you. He is the first to call out and canter up and the last to follow out after the mob has left. He will follow you around while you do the chores, scooping poop and cleaning troughs. He is ridiculously hard to take photos of without help as he will keep coming in for his cuddle or to see if that camera may be actually have turned into a treat this time. So selfies are the only way to get him on your own and it wasn't until I got home that I realised I had taken quite a lot and even managed to get a few good ones.

So this is a feel good post, to remind myself and others to take the time to lean back and enjoy the company because I'm pretty sure they enjoy our company too.

...and if you can't find your horses in a large bush paddock - get a louder horn :)  

Working with children

I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.

In fact I still don't know now but being a teacher is one of the things I should have looked at more seriously. I have thought about it since the day I left school. It was a way to use my upcoming degree in fine arts, unfortunately I left the city before finishing my degree, or even completing my diploma. When we returned to our variation of civilization (being 20kms out of a small town) I thought about it again but this time as a teachers assistant. Then the year before my son was due to start school we moved again, back to the station lifestyle. I home school now (through School of the Air) as we live too far from town, which while it is very rewarding, doesn't pay nearly as well.

There is something very special about watching a child learn, seeing their minds turning, the point of understanding, the joy when they surprise you with their newfound knowledge.

I find working with our young horses just as magical.

I am in no way an expert horse trainer. Until our own stallion's progeny came along I think I would have been able to count the number of foals I'd worked with using the fingers on one hand. I had dealt with foals, youngsters and problem ponies before though and realistically this was meant to be my husband's idea and project so I could always ask him for help. I'm sure he lost count of the number of foals he had handled and horses he had broken many, many years before I met him :)

I like to leave our foals a bit, to grow in the herd, and be a horse for a while. I am always around, grooming, feeding, trimming feet and handling the mares and stallion but I never push myself onto them. If they want to come up for a sniff then that's fine with me.

At weaning time, or around six months if they are not due to be weaned for a while, I start with the halter breaking. A few sessions later and I can usually catch them out of the paddock. The process is usually quite quick once they come to realise that people=food or a good scratch. It is so rewarding to walk out into a 50 acre paddock and be immediately surrounded by youngsters who all come in for a cuddle.

When it came to float breaking the first yearling we sold I was amazed. I couldn't believe that this baby would just step up and follow me on. It wasn't instant, I had to ask her to put her legs up into the gooseneck and then work her on one leg at a time but within 20 minutes she was on and standing there quite happily beside me. Another two days of loading and then I took her for a short run, she never put a foot wrong. We travelled a three hour trip, and through the city, two days later. I could see her blink a bit, in the camera set up, as cars and trucks passed us on the road otherwise she stood there, on her own, watching the scenery fly by. When we got where we were going I unloaded her and was asked to put her in a stable. We don't have stables at home (as much as I'd like them-Ben) and she looked at me as if to say "You want me to go in there?....OK then". She was amazingly trusting, if I led- she would follow. I was told by a friend, be careful with the ones that float train and things easily, don't get complacent, they will surprise you one day.

I'm still waiting for that day.

Every foal has been a pleasure to work with. There have been small battles as you will find with every breed of foal.  They have to learn to follow the lead, yeild to pressure and tie up, a foal would not normally jump onto a float for the fun of it. We had to truck our horses North recently. We had three foals, two yearlings and two two year olds, none of which had travelled before. We'd been up North for a year and they hadn't recieved much work apart from getting their feet done by a friend. I went down three days before hand and halterbroke the foals, got five of them branded and gave them whatever training I could in the short time I had before the truck got there. There were a few struggles on loading day, the ramp was too low and we had to dig it out with the bobcat, the ramp was too narrow and we had to improvise with planks of wood and conveyor rubber to extend it into the truck, instead of being able to use the drop down ramp... we even had one of the taller mares refuse to go through the beginning of the race as it had a bar overhead that she couldn't possibly duck her head to get underneath. And as much as my husband swore and carried on that we should have already been loaded by now he did say afterward that all the horses behaved really well and he was proud of me.

I, however, am proud of my horses. There is no panic there, just a calm sensibility about them. They will look at what you want them to do or where you want them to go, look to you for guidance and then get on with it. Not a single youngster rushed backwards down the ramp that day loading, not one step back. Granted there was a lot of stopping and having a look but we never went backwards.

I am in no way an expert horse trainer... but these youngsters sure make me look like one :)

Got to start somewhere...

Jimblebar Percherons was a dream. A few years back we were contacted by a man who had not one but two Percheron stallions, half brothers, who needed somewhere for them to go. A love for the breed gave us a love for the people who love the breed. We agreed to take on the two boys and so ended up with three stallions on our property...and that's where things started to get a little tricky. Needless to say it didn't work out. The boys only stayed on our property for six or so months before I had to swallow my pride and ask the owner to take them away...but that is another story...maybe another blog :)

So Jimblebar Percherons has only the one Percheron but he is such a delight and credit to the breed we will overlook that. Maybe one day down the track I will be able to get a Perchie mare, it has been my goal for many years now but circumstances keep changing and I fear sometimes that time will run out before it happens.

Kamilaroi Bombardier A264(M)

Registered Percheron Stallion

It was the year my husband and I got married that we bought 'Bardie' as we call him. I suggested 'The Bomb' as a shortened name, my husband gave me one of those "don't be ridiculous" looks and said that we would call him Bardie, "like the little grub."

I had never really seen a Percheron let alone spent time handling or riding one but I went along with it. I still had my childish fantasies of Friesians and they were almost like one without the huge price tag. Ben had spent time with them. Some of his favourite stock horses where Perchie crosses, working up in the gulf, bronco branding and such. We were after something to breed ourselves bigger workhorses for the cattle station we were on. Something that was solid, could do a full days work with no nonsense. He knows his horses so I trusted him with this call.

I've fallen in love with the breed now, you can have your Friesians :) The Percheron is an amazing horse, built for strength, agility and brains. They have been used through the ages, for knights, in wars, for farmwork, cattlework, vaulting, eventing and the mounted police. Their history shows that they are a versatile breed and for all that, highly under-rated. Part of this journey has been meeting like minded people. Anyone who has spent time with this breed always holds special memories in their heart and, quite often, still own at least one Perchie X. 

So I hope you enjoy this new adventure of mine, mixing horses with this technology thing. It is time I kept up with the world and the breed deserves more praise than it gets. I fear I am a poor writer but hopefully some great pics of our horses will make up for it :)