HORSE TRAINING

Hello again. I have been back at the station with my daughter Jade who is home from Germany. She has been helping me with the horses and is here riding Dennis above. I want to get some of my horses sold so we're putting in extra effort to get them all working well. Dennis is a Clydesdale/Quarter Horse and has a wonderful temperament. We spent 3 days playing games with the horses then I found Dennis was sore as was Dakota and we had to leave off the training as Jade headed back to Adelaide. I floated the horses into Iron Knob and eventually got a physio therapist to treat them.

Desensiting Dennis to the plastic bag. He wasn't overly worried about it.
When training the horses I usualy teach them the 7 PNH games, establish Level 1 and 2, then gradually advance to 3 and 4. I start them off in a halter then progress to the snaffle. I teach them turn on the forequarters, hindquarters, sidepass and back. Once these are established I progress to doing rollbacks, spins, renvers and travers. I try to establish rythm by doing transitions and patterns. I also teach them to float so they will willingly go into a float on their own and I can  do up the back, then go and tie them up..

LIFE IN THE FIFTIES in a small Country Town

The movie "Calamity Jane' was what stated me wanting to be a cowgirl. The love of horses was in my blood from generations back. My mothers 3 brothers were jockeys, one a top jumps jockey in SA and then a race horse trainer in Adelaide, Dave Kelly. Her great grandfather was also a jockey. My older brother John wanted to be a jockey but grew too big and ended up a race horse trainer and breaker.

I grew up in a small seaside town in South Australia, Port Kenny and also Venus Bay. Venus being the nicest as it had lovely beaches. My father Douglas was a fisherman as was his father Harold. We lived in Venus Bay when I was very young and even lived for 6 months in a tent on the beach. My parents were very poor and didn't have enough money to buy a house so my Nana and my mums sister bought a house in Port Kenny, where we eventually moved and lived. My mother had 4 children about 18months apart, a boy, girl, boy, girl. as did her sister Mona whom she was quite close to.
We lived next door to to my fathers sister Brenda and her husband Len who had 9 children. Then next door to them was a cousin of dads, Dudley who had 4 children. It was a very small community and had a General Store, Post Office, Hotel, Police Station and a Primary School.
As we didn't have television in those days we had to make our own games up and often played marbles, hopscotch, hyacki, knuckle bones, cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers and circuses.

It was always a big event when the Circus came to town, so exciting! One day we all had to stay inside as they elephants were loose and walking around town feeding...a bit scary as we thought they were wild. My older brother would always head to the grounds and help out as like me he had a love of horses and animals. I wasn't allowed as I was 'a girl'. One time at the circus they asked for some children to ride the horses and stand up on them bareback with a harness on. Well my brother had his hand up and was picked to my envy. He was just standing up on the horse while it was cantering around the circle when they whisked him off in the harness to the ground, he was hanging on for a while to the surcingle  with his bum in the air as he really wanted to stand up, but had to let go, it looked quite funny and everyone clapped.
Another show to come to town was the bucking horses as a sort of rodeo. My uncle Robert used to ride and do well. We also had the Buddy Williams Show (singing) and Slim Dusty. There were also dances held occasionally but we never went as my parents weren't interested.

My mother taught me to read before I went to school so that when I went I knew quite a bit but was much better at English than maths. I was usually in the top 3 in the class. I was quite good at running and high jump and would win the cup at sports day. To tell you the truth I was quite competitive too. I often used to win the three legged race with June my friend. Sports days at school was a big day for the children and we would sometimes compete against the next small school Mt Cooper. We had a horrible head teacher at the time he would sometimes grab us by the chin and shake our head. My brother and I used to think up ways we could stop him like dribbling or licking his hand haha. I was once called to the front is assembly as I was late for school ( I had to put our horse Billy back in his yard as he escaped) He made me stand in front of everyone, so embarrassing for a quiet country girl.

When I was about five I was running back from the toilet (the backyard dunny) and fell over and cut my leg on a piece of glass. My parents had to drive me to Elliston about 60km away to the doctor who stitched it up, 12 stitches and gave me an orange for being a good girl. :-) I have the scar still.
My mothers sister Mona used to come and visit often and bring our cousins John and Joy, then Anne and Kenny so we spent some happy times growing up with them. My Nana would sometimes give us a tube of condensed milk each and we would head to the sandhills and lay around sucking on our tubes hahaha. yum. We also spent a lot of time in my childhood with my Nana. She had her old homework book and was a beautiful writer in cursive and decorated her nights homework with wonderful drawings, which we would try to copy when we did our home work. She owned the local store and Post Office and sometimes I would help behind the counter serving which I thought was a wonderful priviledge. We would occaisionally get a free icecream or lolly for helping.
Often she would give us a fishing line and some bait and burley and we would head to the jetty for a days fishing, coming home for a quick lunch, then back down again. Our reward was fresh cooked fish, trevally or whiting. Nana was the best cook for fish.

HOMEWARD BOUND

G'DAY ALL, well Im on my way home to South Australia tomorrow. First Im going to Lismore to visit the University my eldest daughter Michelle is studying at. We are having lunch together then she is showing me around the Uni, I will stay the night with her at the Caravan Park. The next day I will be going over the Great Dividing Range to Tamworth then on to Cobar. Will then head to Broken Hill and down south to Port Augusta then further south to Port Lincoln where my parents are living. All up about 2,400km That will make my round trip about 8,000km from June 12th Until August 21st. Then its back up to the station and into training my horses. Goodnight all.

My Trip from Mt Ive Station North to the Gulf then East to Townsville

G'day, I am travelling about Australia at present and am in Queensland at Noosa, heading south gradually. I will update my stories when I can. It may be a bit spasmodic as I will be on the road a lot. I have travelled 4800km from Mt Ive Station to Kingoonya, Alice Springs, Threeways, Barkly Homestead, Cape Crawford Barkly Homestead, Mt Isa, Townsville, Rockhampton, Rainbow Bay, Gympie & Noosa since June12th 2011 and have another 2600 to go before I get back to the station in South Australia. The weather has been mild 22C with no wind. Tony my little German Schnauzer is travelling well. Im travelling in a Ford Ute with a canopy. I have a swag inside plus a gasstove and food and water, plus bare necessities. From Noosa I travelled south straight through Brisbane to Coolangatta on the Gold Coast. I pulled up there at the front beach took out my gas stove boiled the billy made a cuppa and a sandwich and sat at the table and chairs provided. It was a glorious sunny calm winters day. I went for a walk along the beautiful beach there then packed up and headed south for Coffs Harbour and Nana Glen where my daughter Michelle was living. that night I camped in a private camp grounds near Woodburn. Most places I camped at usually charged me $10-$12 a night but I would often find a free camp. Only if I was desperate for a shower would I pay. The next day I travelled through Grafton ( my favourite place to live in Australia) and arrived at Nana Glen just in time to recuperate from the flu. I spent 2 weeks in Nana Glen visiting some of my favourite restaurants and coffee shops at Woolgoolga, Coffs Harbour and Sawtell. From there I headed north to Lismore and camped by Michelle at the Lismore Palms Caravan Park which has a lovely setting near the Wilsons River. After a couple days with Michelle I then ventured west to Tabulam and along the Bruxner Highway to Tenterfield where I had a lovely afternoon tea at a local tea gardens on the way in. I then checked in at the Tenterfield Saddler as one must then continued on to Glen Innes where I camped in my ute in a quiet back street. Next morning  I was on the road early heading for Inverell, Moree, Warialda, Walgett then on to Bourke where I camped the night by the Darling river not far from Kidmans camp. The River Gums there were quite old and large, great spot. From Bourke I headed south along the Darling on the Wilcannia-Burke road which was dirt but a very good road. I camped the next night not far from Tilpa by the river.  I travelled through Wilcannia the next morning then on to Broken Hill down to Port Augusta and back home to Mt Ive station in the Gawler Ranges west of Iron Knob. I left towards end of May and arrived back end of August.

My Life

One day a swaggie travelling in a horse and cart came to our small town and camped in a one room hut down by the sea. My brother would go and visit him daily and help with his horse. His name was Russian Joe and he helped put up the dog fence across Australia, which kept the dingo's up north and allowed the farmers to run sheep down south. North of the dingo fence they ran cattle.
One day my brother went to visit this old swaggie and found him ill, so he ran home and told our parents who took him to hospital. (he had diabetes) So this was how we acquired the horse. He was about 15hh and a bay gelding, 25yr old by the name of Billy. I was 9 and my brother 11. We would harness him up to the Trolley which he pulled and cart water for our garden. Our dog Bluey would be running alongside and one of us would be on Billy's back and one driving. We were in horse heaven. We would also go exploring in the bush with him looking for wild peaches (quondongs), which we would take home to mum so she could make wild peach pie. (yum)

Horses Down Under

G'day, My name is Cheryl and I come from a long line of horse breakers and Jockeys on my mothers side of the family. I was born in a small country town by the seaside, on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. My older brother and I were born 18 months apart and were both  madly keen on horses from infancy. My unfortunate downfall was seeing Doris Day as Calamity Jane when I was 6 years of age and from there I was hooked on being a 'Cowgirl' . My mother said I used to swagger around with my thumbs in my pants pockets saying " Im Calam".
We lived in a one horse town (we had the horse) with a population of about 15 families. My father was a fisherman but most of us kids preferred the land and country life. My brother and I thought we were very fortunate to have an Aunty who lived on a sheep station, therefore we got the opportunity to visit during May school holidays much to our delight as they had horses and ponies there.
One May holiday when my brother and I were visiting our cousins on the station (40,000 acres) my uncle got us all to ride the calves. It was a bit like a rodeo I guess. They would hold the calf and put us on and away it would go bucking. Of course we all fell off, but it wasn't far to fall and looked quite funny on film which we would watch in the next hols.
I was so excited being on the station. In the morning I would rise early and run up to the milking shed where I would watch my Uncle milk the cows. He would separate the milk to get the cream (which my Aunty used  as cream for the table or cakes or to make butter. ) He would lock the calves up overnight so the cows had plenty of milk then after milking in the morning the calves would have their turn. Then the cows would be let out in the paddock to graze. I loved poking around in the old wooden sheds, there was one for the hay to be stored, one for the horses to be fed with big long mangers to put the hay, one for saddlery, a blacksmiths shop, a couple of yards for separating the animals and the milking shed, which only fitted one cow at a time. I would then help with feeding the horses if they were in and the pigs, dogs and hens. I would then run back to the kitchen and have a wash ready for breakfast which was quite huge, usually chops  or heart or liver in gravy and onions with eggs and toast and a cup of tea or milk. Quite large to what I was used to at home but very enjoyable. They had a large rectangular table which fitted 8 people my uncle, aunty, 4 cousins and my brother and I so meal times were usually a noisy affair.
Then my older cousin would bring in the horses on a motorbike, there were 3 ponies and 2 race horses. My Uncle would saddle up the ponies for us and give us a ride in the yard. As we got more confident we rode around the paddocks. As I got older I would get the horses in myself and saddle them up.
In one of the holidays my cousin Joy and I who were the same age, 12 at the time, decided to go for a ride to the next station and stay overnight and ride back the next day. We packed food and water and headed off early.  We stopped half way and had our lunch then continued on without mishap. We were so excited to be staying with the neighbours as they had new things to explore and a huge orchard with lots of different kinds of fruit. (something that is hard to come by in the bush back in those days). Unfortunately we were a bit sore having never ventured that far on horse back before and had to eat out tea off the shelf. (standing up). ;- ( .
We rode home the next day and considered ourselves horsewomen after our big ride.

Another time my brother and I had a race on the retired thoroughbreds there. One was a black called Abdullah 20yrs the other was a chestnut Sherwood Glen 12yrs. We were out riding and my brother said 'race you to the base of the mountain'. Off we galloped and needless to say I won, Abdullah being the faster horse. My brother was a bit miffed as he wanted to be a jockey. I would ride nearly every day of the holidays when we were there. Sometimes we woulld bring in the cows for milking but usually just ride around the paddocks.
Another time Joy and I were out riding, she was on Blossom a black pony and I was on Abdullah bareback when we took off at a canter for home, but Abdullah thought it was a race and went for it we came galloping thru the gate to the sheep yards and veered right straight to the stone wall and pulled up with a sliding stop. I didnt have a lot of control being bareback, fortunately I stayed on but was so sore and bruised in unmentionable places the next day.
They were great times in those days, no TV or computers or WiFi. We had to invent our own games and make our own fun. Building cubbies, camping out and going on picnics up the mountain. Then in the summer, mulberry fights with the boys in the mulberry trees and eating fruit straight from the tree, playing tennis as they had a court, cricket and swimming when we went to the shack in Elliston.