Firstly I suppose, it is the convention of "homepageology" to write up a little self biography which tells the world the select pieces of information that the owner of the site wishes to divulge, splurge, or yell in as many hideous colours as possible. I'd hate to just fall into line with what everyone else does, but I'm not really creative enough to think of a novel way to go about it. So, thus, I shall just ramble.

I grew up on a farm on the edge of the Victorian Mallee where dust storms fill your house with expensive topsoil, farmers lean back on worn old machinery squinting with the rays of the falling sun as they gaze across many thousands of acres of crop, and where it's still possible to drive home blind drunk from time to time. I come from an area called Wooroonook, which is the Aboriginal name for the locality.

Wooroonook consisists of three muddy, weedy, smelly lakes, only one of which is ok to swim in through summer. The other two are great for ducks though, if hunting takes your fancy. There once was a township at Wooroonook. It was a three pub town, I believe (or perhaps even four but I don't think anyone really knows.) There is nothing left of it now apart from some peppercorn trees and the old church, which is privately owned. The fire brigade, however, is strong and is the main focal point to bring all the citizens of the area together. It's generally the done thing, that if you live in the area you must get involved in the fire brigade. Numbers are essential, because if we don't have enough members we will lose our truck.

There is much enthusiasm currently as we have just received a brand spakin' shiny new truck. Last year we attended more fires than we had in the past half a dozen or so years, mostly in neighboring localities, and on several occasions had too many people turn up to fit on the back of the truck! It was pleasing to see, as we have been lacking in volunteers.

Oh, rambling 'tis a fine art... Fire trucks! Time to drag myself back to the topic.

In humble old Wooroonook my family owns a farm which is diverse in the industries it accommodates. We have broadacre dryland cropping, breed fat lambs and grow wool, and have hens for AAA egg production. It consists of around 1800 acres of land, about 1500 sheep (although this varies wildly according to the time of year), and about 7000 hens (some under production age.) Besides that, we have three dogs, four horses, lots of budgies and parrots.

Of the three dogs, only one really works for her tucker. That's Penny, our pure Kelpie sheepdog. She's sired by an Elfinvale dog that gave us many years of faithful service, but was widely known for his tentency to take a chunk out of visitors. He died two years ago, and Penny took his place. While she was brought up carefully to be friendly with people, considering her breeding, we're still a little wary that she'd nip. She's about 7 or 8 years old now, and thankfully the only damage she's done is to put a rather nasty gash in the neighbour's bitch's leg. She took an opportunity to taste another neighbour's denim clad leg one day when he stepped within the circle that her chain allows her to roam. No damage was done however.

Her father, Harry, was notorious in the area. He had a badly torn ear from a fight with another dog, broke a neighbour's leg when he tried to take a bone away from two dogs that were fighting over it, bit my dad on the bum once when he was starting the lawnmower... and there's a photo in the Donald pub of a neighbour's tooth-marked rear end, the result of trying to jump onto the back of the ute to keep his bitch safe when old Harry approached aggravated.

Then there is my very goofy Kelpie dog who I call Jim. Mum calls him Jimmy, Dad calls him Dumb-Dog (which I'm convinced he thinks is his real name), and Tony calls him all three things plus various colourful labels which I won't delve into. He's basically just a big, soppy pussy cat. He's totally pathetic working sheep, just has no idea whatsoever, but is adorable as a pet. He's fantastic as a guard dog, because he comes out looking ferocious when a strange car/person comes, but we know he'd never hurt a fly, so we don't have to be concerned and he is always running loose. He never strays from the house too far, so we don't have to worry about him chasing sheep or getting run over on the road. The one thing he is exceptionally good at is rounding up loose chooks. Other dogs we've had tend to kill too many, but he's very gentle and chases them to us so we can catch them. Pity he doesn't do the same with sheep.

Then there is the absurd merging of Penny and Jim to produce the young pup we have now, who we call Buster.  He's only 6 months old but he looks about 8 or 10 months.  He's just enormous, far bigger than his litter mates.  He's quite an adorable fellow, and has taken to sleeping under the house every night.  Grandpa takes him around the sheep every morning, and has plans for him to take over as the working dog as Penny ages.  I don't know that he's actually been let loose with sheep yet, but I've been told he's showing some promise.

I don't need to go into a description of my current horses because I've already typed up a whole page dedicated to them.  I've been involved with horses for over 10 years now and have enjoyed every minute of it.  My first horse was a crazy little appaloosa pony called Freckles.  I learnt how to stick on a horse, then eventually I went to pony club and realised if I wanted to really learn to ride properly I'd have to get a decent horse.  So, we sold Freckles and I bought Ben.  Ben was my first true love... awwww... I learnt so much with him, and it was a long time before I was able to part with him.  He went to a lovely young lady up in Rochester, and from what I hear he's living a life of relaxation while she has babies and so on.  I bought Jeanie while I still had Ben, and while I rode both of them, Jeanie was the better horse and she was the one I did most of my competing on, and I tended to just use Ben for fun and stockwork around the farm (he was a damn good stock horse!)

Then I was given the opportunity to get a hold of a cheap thoroughbred from the racetrack.  That was Wally, probably the best horse I ever had, however he never really got to prove himself because we had to put him down 18 months later.  After Wally died I was finally able to sell Ben, and I was given Alex for a while until I found a horse to replace Wally.  I liked Aleck so much that I bought him and I'm so glad to have done so.  About a year later I finally found my replacement for Wally, Teaka.  She's very much a female and a hell of a lot more trouble than any other horse I've had, but she's a challenge and I enjoy riding her.

I always had a wish that one day I would get a warmblood dressage horse from the Northern Warmblood stud in Victoria.  They were having a big dispersal a couple of years ago, getting rid of their large numbers of horses, and refining the operation to a smaller scale, and breeding only the elitest horses.  I jumped at the chance to get a cheap one, and bought an adorable little part Lippizzaner yearling.  He was little, but had the most fantastic temperament.  I decided that for my first young horse, it would be to my advantage that he wasn't enormous, and his temperament alone was impressive, so I bought him.  He's now a three year old and is being broken-in in stages.  He has been ridden twice, and hopefully I will take him back and get him finished off in July some time, then I'll be able to ride him occasionally, just lightly, when I go home on weekends.  Then over the summer I might be able to really work him for a month or two, then he can go back to light work until he finishes growing.  I'm in no rush to have him out competing and I'd rather let him mature a bit before he gets any stressful work.  His temperament hasn't changed and he's probably the best horse to handle that I own!

Another wish I always had was to breed a foal from Jeanie, so towards the end of year 12 I chose a stallion and got her in foal.  I chose the TB My Bobby Dazzler, and now Jeanie has a 7 month old foal called Sammy.  I couldn't be happier with him.  He's gorgeous, quiet and has great conformation.  He's also a real smartarse... but that comes wtih the breeding *grin*.  He's definately Jeanie's boy.  I'm trying to teach him to lead at the moment, and hope to have him weaned in the next few weeks.  Then Jeanie can go back to live with the other horses (she hasn't missed them, the snob,) and I'll probably let the colt and Allie batch together.

So basically, now I have five horses: Jeanie, Sammy, Aleck, Allie and Teaka.  I don't get to ride them much because I'm down in Melbourne for uni and it's a 3 1/2 hour drive one way to see them.  I do get to ride a friend's horse down here though, to keep me fit.  He's a lovely chestnut thoroughbred who reminds me so much of Wally it's not funny!  There's a photo of me riding him on my Dressage Squad page.

I was a member of Charlton Pony Club for about eight years until I kinda grew out of it.  I moved on to the Victorian Junior Dressage Squad, which I enjoy far more and am quite heavily involved with.  Unfortunately I don't have the opportunity to ride in the teams any more because I'm not currently competing, and I'll turn 21 next year so will be ineligible, but that doesn't mean I'm not still involved!  I've just created a web site for the squad to hopefully give us a bit more coverage.
 
 
 
 

To be continued….