Killarney Station, Victoria River District, NT

my first horse experience here was when i was about i reckon eight or nine and i had an old horse there called mechanic he used to hang around the house and eat the lawn and and well i i sort of suddenly had got this desire i'm going to ride this ride this was and me and my sister we went down there one afternoon we managed to run it into a bit of a yard we found an old saddle and we put it on this old mechanic and little fellas and we crawled up the stirrify and i got on it and it threw me threw me off like bucked me off that was my first experience which you think would have put put most kids off but so i didn't have a kind of challenge to me i had i had to get that better of that horse i just kept kept at him i eventually ended up you know he i did some miles on him he turned out to be a good old horse so that was the beginning for me we use a lot of horses because it makes a cattle quieter they're easier to handle and i think you know the amount of the horse relates better to a cow on the ground than a machine i'm trent priest i'm from the pilbara head stockholm at kalani my name is chelsea walton and i'm from bark holden yeah they look for a place where there's horse work so you know we put our hand up there one of the things i love being at clan is going riding horses every day going camp drafting on as soon as we get a day off i like the family atmosphere the cattle work and the horse work it's part of the culture that it's a team effort and where you know it doesn't matter what way what what your position is in that team we're all in there and we're all doing out doing our bit kalani is 1.3 million acres and we're running running roughly about 45 000 head of cattle here now [Music] we coach a muster so we go out and we do that we block up a mob of cattle that we call coaches and they're the starting point and then we we walk those coaches along they're controlled by horsemen the helicopters work out wide and they bring they bring the cattle within you know before 500 metres of the coaches and then we have horsemen that trot out or someone we use motorbikes a bit and they bring that they bring the fresh cattle to the coaches so you know we keep the machines away you know the helicopters away from the coaches because helicopters cause stress they you know they stress cuddle they make them uncomfortable they're not happy having them around so it's really finding a balance between the between the old and the new like and still doing it properly and still you know still the priority is the welfare of those cattle brown and cattle are very sensitive so you don't like making a lot of noise around so you can work work them quietly and efficiently and i think that flows through you know the if the animal's quiet you know they're more relaxed they do better they do better on the pasture and that's you know from a business point of view you know cattle that are doing better that are relaxed aren't stressed i think that all horse work's a big play is a big part of making that happen [Music] oh i think it's just something that i believe in and i think it's it needs you know we need to see more of it in in this environment is is getting back to the basics and using horses and keeping cattle quiet and training people that giving them every chance to be if they do go down that road to be good at it and successful and i think we all have a responsibility to the industry to be training people and yeah when they finish with us yeah they go to somewhere else and they have value they can have skills that that you know value to their next employer or value to us for ongoing value to us or into the whole agricultural sector i think everyone needs to be has a responsibility to train young educate people like they come here very green at the start and then by the time they leave they're quite capable and you know you sort of got your stamp on them like they've been you know they come from kalani and they're half handy you know by the time they leave makes you a bit proud i guess by the time they leave here they should be able to change a tyre and unload a truck get around a mobile car lock up break the horse in chill horse they can't do that we'll we haven't done our job properly so when they arrive on station we well we will have a look at them on a horse put them on a horse we'll assess them yeah we give them a score from one to five with one one being a really experienced very capable horseman to five being a beginner so then we you know we do the same with the horses the really you know the horses are a bit touchy or you need experienced person on as that horse is a one and then a real beginner's horse is are five and then we we start from there really once once we you know i think we got an understanding of what their abilities are what you know what their potential is and then we start with the horsemanship school which is focused on safety being safe around the horse you know that's where you've got to start each person is giving given five or six horses for the for the year so that it's their horse they're responsible for that horse and i think that you know that adds another dimension to them they get a responsibility they they're allowed to build a relationship with the horse and they can take up take their horses to the local camp draft or rodeo or gymkhana or whatever they want to do well then we teach them how to look after the feet and how to put shoes on that can be a bit of a process there can be a few shoes that don't stay on very long but eventually eventually we get them to be competent with putting shoes on that might take six months so that's another skill they pick up we break our horses in between our mustering rounds so august september and then you know we think they're right like we give them a young horse and we help them break them in and we're doing it with them and showing them and then we you know we start matching personalities as we're going along yeah at the end of the process the breaking in process we've really worked out who you know which personalities are going to match and then we you know we let them know that's yours and that's yours and away you go and it just gives them a real sense of achievement you know they've and then they get to they get to work that horse in the second round mustering that also just broken in and you know they get to see it getting better and you know obviously we're always helping them and advising them don't do this and try that at kalani we have about 125 horses here and about 90 working horses two two stallions we have an australian stockholm stallion and a quarter horse stallion so we're we're sort of trying to get that that cross that quarter horse stock horse cross first we want a good quiet horse with the right temperament that we can put young people on and know they're safe and also know that horse can do the job you know with it with with a you know with an inexperienced person that horse is going to still work a cow and it's going to it's going to be handy we get to get rid of anything with sus you know that's that that's got a bad temperamental could potentially hurt someone [Music] we could have a kid as an example come here and do three years and leave with nothing nothing to show what you know what they've achieved or what they've done as far as a certificate they can put in their resume or something that has credibility they can you know they can have all this knowledge but that when they go to their next employee they have nothing to give them it's not in their resume so we encourage that certificate certificates and agriculture or whatever they really want to do and charles darwin university and are very very helpful there and they've got some very good lecturers that are on board and have the practical experience as well as the theory and they do a great job you know those kids don't get their certificate necessary unless they're confident yeah so yeah we we believe in educating people and the more we can educate them you know but you know your education's good we also got to have the practical side and you've got to find a balance there too like too much fury doesn't work in this environment stock camp or the we call it the bush camp or the mustang tower they've got about seven or eight people and then we have a wiener wiener crew which is usually four the age range between people that we generally get between 24 and 17 sometimes sometimes younger i think it's just having a positive attitude and that attitude yeah that never give up never give up attitude and you know it's never too hard i think that's the attitude we need but everyone's got different levels of experience and skill but as long as people are doing their best and really try and you know obviously they have like the lifestyle as well you know lifestyle fits into it [Music] one of the things i like about working here is all the horse work we get to do on a horse every day and i'm learning different things with everyone else and whatnot yeah yeah i love it it's a really nice environment to be in and um yeah the people i that's that's my favorite thing about kalani the people um i love that it's all horse work i love horses cattle work and all the people here it's very homely very family orientated a lot of the horses stuff you know everything sort of rolls around the horses so enjoy that phoebe i love being able to ride horses every day work cuddle every day and be around family and awesome people the lifestyle the horses and the cattle mustering and all that stuff i just love the atmosphere the people the life i love waking up early every morning working with cattle working with my dogs it's just a dream if i feel stressed or something bowing me i'll jump on a horse and go for a ride and i come back and i feel more relaxed and it gives me time that i sit up there and i think and they're just such good loyal friends you can get a lot done on a horse [Music] [Music] you

Channel: R.M.Williams OUTBACK Magazine

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Length: 11min 41sec (701 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 04 2021