Australian Stock Horse - Chalani

this month on fei equestrian world we travel to the kingdom of Cambodia to witness an unusual development program the first step to be allowed to go outside and to build this future for the commuters we meet a rising star of the dressage world I always try to look at all the big riders and find something I wanna emulate and a shining star in the vaulting world but first to southern Australia Australia is a nation with a very proud heritage and its equestrian history is no exception in a nation where the horse was integral to its early success in many walks of life it's perhaps no surprise that the Australian stock horse bred from horses shipped originally from England is still very much part of the Australian equestrian scene many didn't survive because obviously that's a pretty long journey to come out by ship in those days and someone all picked up in South Africa and brought over but the majority of them came straight out from England majority of them in those early days were what we would now call thoroughbred with a smattering of Arab a bit of Welsh pony a bit later on and Hackney pony just to add to that when the first settlers arrived nothing was known of the continent and exploration needed horses with very particular characteristics it started out in the colonial days where explorers were crossing the Blue Mountains for instance through some very very rugged country looking for grasslands for cattle these horses had to be ridden day by day day after day after day without much in the way of a change of horse they had to do long distances they had to stand up to wear and tear if they lost a shoe they still had to carry on there were no replacement vets or anyone out there so they had to be tough they had to be able to go for many many days and the stamina and the toughness is certainly one of the attributes of the breed as the country developed so too did its horses the cattle work certainly meant that these horses went into the outback some very unknown terrain a very rough terrain where there were wild Bulls scrubbers as we used to call them into bush country into mountain country so you've got the slightly smaller horse in the mountain country and the very long striding horse through the flatter country but again toughness toughness to be able to take a rider carrying weight carrying supplies so that meant he had to have a very strong back we also needed a horse with the right shape of shoulder and with it carry the saddle without having a too-tight this sort of thing so a lot of detail going into the selection of these horses to do the job a lot of those out there areas never had roads never had more than a bush track going through them and harness horses the heavy horses that pull boilers and and generally allowed civilization to develop didn't come to a lot later and they eventually came side-by-side but they didn't do the work that the Australian stock horse is noted for as Australia developed into the modern nation it is today the stock horse could have disappeared into obscurity but this is clearly a breed with staying power he certainly evolved from that tough using horse into a leisure and sporting horse now and in many areas Australia there are still places where the horse is all that is used in conjunction sometimes with filly copter but in the closer to metropolitan areas we have Australian Stoffels is used for all ranges of disciplines eventing dressage high-level dressage high-level venting show jumping but then we also have some traditional Australian sports that they excel in and one of these is polar cross we also have specialized sporting events now for the Australian stock horse competition itself which is very very specialized and that's campdrafting which is a sport traditional in Australia which shows off the horse that is able to do cattle work but also working stock horse classes where the rider demonstrates the usefulness of the horse a lot of events that are quite highly specialized we walk out there we we have a um we get told what to do by the judge and she likes to see a bit of cracking just the quietness the temperament and so we just go out there crack a few whips any pace they don't react to it and we go on from there we go galloping we can create galloping any pace it's both character that's who they are is the braid is definitely the booth and then the right of bond as well they trust you immensely we're still using lines that are being tested in modern sports today they're strong they're they've got the mind that we want they've got the balance which the critical things for us mind balance and toughness so all the rest comes together if you've got those things and so we believe that that translates very very quickly into the same qualities that you need in the other disciplines as proven by the performance of these horses the slightly taller ones get selected by people who choose to go eventing and even though they haven't been selected specifically for jumping this is just a natural thing that stockist has always done a lot of stock horses have that residual endurance there but as we call this the breed for every need it's certainly the case that Australian stock horses some of which I've bred myself have been used in endurance and have actually completed against Arabs we've had horses go to Dubai and compete against the Arabs themselves these are Australian stock horses still doing it the attributes that have made the Australian stock horse such a key element of the country's past look set to provide it with a certain sporting future the breed is going from strength to strength and it's now being exported to several countries the Polar Cross is taking off in about 17 countries around the world there are now World Championships horses are being exported for that we've also got horses being exported all around the world now for polo some of our polo lions are just incredible for me it's like having old-fashioned values an old-fashioned horse but with all the quality there that old-fashioned people I mean well anyway we've quality you breed a quality animal with the mind with the balance with that toughness they're not contradictory items to breed for it just means that you're going to take longer to get there so long as you've got a vision and you really know what you're wanting to produce you will get there

Channel: Chalani Australian Stock Horses

Views: 12,014

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: fei, tv

Id: _oBUJOvlx4g

Length: 8min 8sec (488 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 07 2011