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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!



 

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The New Year Dawns!

Posted by DE&DL Henderson on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
January 1 is here. As I write, the New Year has been off to a scorching start---with temperatures outside the house soaring to way above 40C and focus has been on celebrating the year past, the advent of the new one---and plumbing! Making sure all stock are watered and cool, and even with a house full of guests and fun to be had, plumbing problems must be solved!

With two new foals on the ground, Miss Moneypenny (Poppy) and Whitehall (Hal), all hands are vigilantly participating in foal handling and horse management activities! It is all quiet on the stock work front at present, with weaning over, culled cows gone and calves marketed, so the focus has been on looking after the horses on hand as the pasture quality declines and the temperatures soar.

We have two visiting mares running with Cuffy at present; a lovely strawberry roan brumby (Cafe Latte) and a TB mare (Golden Chalice), both being bred with the aim of producing foals for polocrosse, which is so exciting to us as that is what Qualia Cufflink was bred for, with Jodi Tiver putting considerable thought and effort into matching horses with horses to produce offspring that can meet the demands of such a game.

Lofty (Black Tave) and Guiness are about to start serious work with the State Tetrathalon and endurance rides in their sights (or in the sights of their riders!), while some of the others are being prepared for a breed show in Esperance on February 16. The early mornings and late evenings in summer are such lovely times to work horses, and the school holidays mean there is not the mad rush to get the horses done in time to get the school books out!

It is a good time to work with the youngsters, take the horses for swims in the Big Dam, and take some time off to enjoy the local beaches---with our without the horses!