Welcome To
On The Farm
After
years of breeding Angus cattle on our beautiful properties west of
Esperance, as a family we made the decision to breed horses suitable for
use on the farm, working the cows, and away from home, as mounts for
pony club, campdrafting, eventing---whatever equestrian pursuit they are
needed for at any particular time!
We
decided that the Australian Stock Horses was the breed for us; purpose
bred to work stock, but versatile enough to allow our children to enjoy
pony club, polocrosse and hacking at local shows.
We
are not aiming to breed horses that will event at Olympic level, though
Australian Stock Horses have shown they can do that, or to win gold
cups in campdrafting, but we are aiming to breed horses that will work
at home, quietly and calmly getting the job done and allowing our
children to do the job safely, and then calmly and quietly get on the
horse float, go to town, plaited and brushed, and allow them to enjoy a
dressage test or showjumping round. Safely and happily!
Up
until now, the horses we have already had have had to do exactly that;
stock horse one day, eventer the next. Ranging in size from 11hh to
16.2hh, we have been blessed with a range of equine friends to suit our
children, aged from five to 17, as they have grown up on the farm.
But as those horses have aged, we have seen a need for more horses like them, and so the breeding operation has started.
After
a search for bloodlines that suited our needs, we purchased two
fillies, Cunnamore Slingshot and Cunnamore Calibre from the Cunnamore
Stud at Mount Barker. We also purchased Easterly from the same stud. She
is a Brown Chans Way mare, and was in foal to Tinagroo Winchester when
we bought her.
We
also purchased a gelding, Cunnamore Huntsman, who at four years of age
slotted in to the family like an old hand, going to pony club, hacking,
doing a few dressage tests, attending the pony club riding camp, and
chasing a few cows at the local campdraft.
To increase broodmare numbers, we purchased Escholar October from the Esperance Senior High School's horse stud.
Recently
we purchased a yearling from Qualia Stud: Qualia Cufflink, by Binnia
Impressive Destiny out of Haydon Brooch. He is a lovely little chap and
we hope his bloodlines and temperament will work well with what we
already have, and resulting foals will be just what we are after!
So
that is that, the start of the stud! The first foal is on the ground
and in the process of being weaned, and the horses that we already had
continue to form the backbone of the team that carries out the stock
work and off farm work on a regular basis, but we are confident that the
animals we have purchased, and those that we are breeding, will
ultimately take their place as all rounders doing whatever they are
asked to do!