29/03/2023
About John
THE PRESENT
Still training a few horses for clients at our facility at Stanwell and give private lessons. Have a bunch of youngsters that I am working with. Conducting clinics across Queensland on Horsemanship and Cattleworking skills.
Steel Duck our resident Stud is one of the best horses I have ridden. The best part is heโs a producer! His foals are smart and good looking.
NCHA Heritage Hall of Fame Inductee- 2019
In June 2019 I was inducted into The Heritage Hall of Fame at Tamworth for my contribution to the cutting horse industry. This award was a huge honour.
AACC EMERALD
I was at the Australian Agricultural College Corporation, Emerald as a Senior Horse Instructor from 2003- 2013.
I taught Advanced Horsemanship to the Beef Cattle and Horse students who came to Emerald from all over Australia. Instruction extended to the College's working beef cattle properties at โBerrigurraโ, near Blackwater and โNarayanโ at Mundubbera. I also spent some time at the Longreach Campus helping out with Horsemanship instruction there for 6 months.
I also have instructed at various other locations including St Brendans College, Yeppoon, conducting Schools in both Cattle Working and Horsemanship.
I started College horses at the college facilities while teaching and also took in clients horses for training at home as well. If any of these horses showed enough ability, I competed on them at local shows. Students were taken to a few Central Highland Ag Shows to compete including Aggrow Emerald and the annual Comet Campdraft and Cutting.
Instruction included basic horsemanship/horsehandling and cattle handling skills to 3rd year Veterinarian students and Science students from the University of Queensland. This was done at Berrigurra, (Blackwater) along with John Bertram, Beef Cattle Extension Officer DPI Goondiwindi.
Beginnings
I'm not sure where my passion for horses came from, because it wasn't shared by anyone else in the family. The closest my father ever got to a horse was at the bookmaker at Randwick Racecourse, which is near the area of Sydney I grew up in.
Early training! I recall a racehorse trainer lived beside us with stables behind his house. His name was Mr Cole, and he had a grey lead horse that he would sit me up on. My earliest memory of horses was this. My family had friends on a grain and sheep farm at Tullamore in western NSW. Xmas was often spent there as a kid and this was a great experience for me. They had a few horses which included an old bay mare called Dolly. Four of us kids would ride this mare till we had enough.
Between us we couldnโt get her away from the homestead, so the oldest of us worked out we could drag her to the front gate with the tractor and gallop her back to the homestead. This worked well till Alan's mum caught us doing it.
First Horse
It wasn't until I left school at 15 to take up an apprenticeship in electronics that I was able to save up the money to buy my first horse.
First horse - roping at Bathurst aged about 17. He was an ex riding school gelding and I cant remember his name now. I had enough money to buy him for $300, but not enough left to buy a saddle.
I borrowed a saddle from the riding school south of Cronulla to ride him home to the Eastern suburbs of Sydney. That was about 30 km and I remember took it about 7 hours.
For 3 years I had no saddle and rode ba****ck every day. I made up a surcingle and bag for some comfort.
I did everything on this horse, rode him everywhere. I had him stabled at the now famous Inglis stables at Randwick and he was fed the leftover racehorse feed each day. He was shiney and very fast at anything we did! How I survived riding this horse down busy streets with no saddle in Sydney is something of a miracle.
With my friends we would ride to Matraville Pony Club and compete in everything. I remember I decided the gelding could be a jumper as well. Still no saddle, but would run him at 4-5ft jumps, grab the mane and somehow suvive. Looking back, it was good grounding and the best way to establish balance. Being close to Botany Bay and beaches we often swam the horses after our events then ride back to Randwick in the dark up Anzac Parade.
First exposure to Cutting
Im sure it was 1969 that I went to a horse show at Penrith with my father. I donโt remember a lot of detail except seeing my first Cutting event. I still have vivid memories of Max McTaggart and El Grando competing at that show and I decided then and there I wanted to to do this.
My father said forget it, you were not born into this and it's just not possible.
I religiously bought and read every issue of Hoofs 'n Horns which of course spurred on my interest and desire to be involved in this side of the horse industry.
By this stage I now owned a Simco western saddle and was very proud of it. Around 1970 I saw a cutting school was to be run by Ronnie Kellum at Cobbity near Sydney. Ronnie K was the horse trainer for King Ranch in Australia at the time. My gelding had done everything else at this stage so I thought I could add Cutting to our resume!
Well I remember very well the start and the finish of that 3 day school. Ronnie asked us to warm up our horses which we did at high speed, bouncing off the rails, raising a lot of dust and showing this fellow how much we already new about this. His final words to us at the end of the school still ring in my ears. "If you all learned that you know nothing these last 2 days youโve done well."
Changing Direction
I guess you could say I have had 2 careers in my life, my Technical Trade and my Professional Horse Training career. One indirectly lead to the other, driven of course by my passion.
After completing my apprenticeship with AWA in 1970 I was employed by the NSW Government as a technician with the Technical Services Branch. I started in Sydney in 1971 and was transferred to Orange. I become the manager of the Orange Depot and had 5 technicians and 1 apprentice to look after.
The workshop was located in the grounds of Bloomfield Psychiatric Hospital and this was spread over 600 acres, complete with an 18 hole golf course. There was a good set of cattle and horseyards there which I made use of.
I started to break in and ride young horses in my spare time, some of them belonging to others making them my first clients. It was during this time I realised my desire to work fulltime in the horse industry.
I applied for a couple of bush jobs which involved riding horses but was unsuccesfull, but by the mid 1970โs I had a number of my own horses in training, mostly quarter horses.
I had a War Beaver gelding I purchased from Robert Baldwin called Hexam. He was my first succesfull show horse. Pleasure classes, reining and working cowhorse was his go and we did well together.
I spent a fair bit of time with Peter and Kate Costello at Cowra working horses and the odd day at Wyangala Dam being dragged behind one of Peters clients speed boats.
Peter got me started by organising the lease of King Ranch Furlong for me. He was one of Peters early cutting horses and riding him taught me how a horse should feel working cows.
The desire to put cattle and horsework together was well and truly set by now. Every chance I had to muster and ride was taken, which I guess set my direction. I really didnโt have enough experience at that stage to commit to a full time career so I kept on doing my Govt job which I finally resigned from in 1975.
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Starting as a Professional Horseman
My first fulltime position as a trainer was with Kanga Cattle Company based at Orange in NSW in 1978. My job had me breaking in and showing around some local shows with the Company's Quarter Horses and stallion, Bar No Money.
It was a great job and the manager Sandy Brown was a good fellow to work for. It was freezing cold during winter and colts never warmed up, so had some hairy rides there at times. We mainly rode horses belonging to Kanga, but also started some from around the local area. A fair bit of cattle work was done as well. Kanga Cattle Co. bred Chianinaโs, tall cattle that often stood higher than the young horses we rode.
It was 1979 that I moved to Queensland working at Kolora Quarter Horses at Maryborough. I was mainly involved with breeding and pasture management there.
The climate of southern and Central Queensland did a lot to keep me wanting to be north of the border. I took up the use of a horse training facility 10km south of Maryborough and started a number of young horses for local clients. All sorts of horses were trained there. I still had King Ranch Furlong and was showing him in local cuttings and the odd reining. My other horse, Euroka Durango, was used in all other events including English and Gentleman Rider.
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Establishing a Career
1980 saw me take on a breaking and training position at King Ranch, Macquarie Downs, Leyburn. Les Rudd was the Horse Manager there and most of the young horses were by Peppy Snake and El Pajote.
We would attend a number of SQCHA Cutting events in SE Queensland. Some of the broodmares used at the Ranch were sent down from Brunette Downs and many were by Mentiroso, nice types, big strong 5 to 6 year olds that had never been handled. The company policy was that they must be ridden prior to joining the broodmare band.
It was tough going, but excellent experience. The horse facility there was built on a sand ridge and I spent quite a bit of time spitting sand out of my mouth trying to ride them.
In 1981 I was offered a position at Weyba Ranch at Noosa Heads with John and Donna Hoffman. This involved breeding, breaking and training horses by โMajesticallyโ. He was a Sugar Bars bred horse and John was keen on sprint racing. A lot of sprint races were held at Gympie racetrack then so that was the destination for these young horses. They were tough horses to break in but we got them going and after 4 weeks or so we would take them to the starting barriers. Riding them in a race training pad didnโt appeal to me as these youngsters once clear of the barriers would often drop their heads and go to bucking. I had a Robin Yates training saddle, fibreglass tree, seat covered in lambswool and fenders only thing on it. I removed the fenders as they could easily get hung up inside the barriers. This worked well for me as when we cleared the barriers I would drop my feet and double then with long reins not giving them the opportunity to buck.
Towards the end of 1981 I finished up at Weyba after nearly 12 months there. I stayed on the Sunshine Coast hinterland for the next 5 years breaking and training and showing. I was also doing a fair bit of horseshoeing to help keep food on the table in the early 80โs.
I was at a few different facilities till I settled at Brentwood Park, Eumundi owned by Chris Rowden. It was here that I started to ride some better bred performance horses and my showing career really got a big lift. There were a lot of breeders in the area that started to give me horses to break, train and show. I would show in any event the horses were suitable for.
My arrangement with Chris involved training and showing some of his horses. A few were by the great Peppy Doc Bar and some of these (all mares) were very successful 2 handed cutting and cowhorses. I was very busy and I wouldnโt have kept up with everthing without the support of my partner Julie at the time. Julie kept the stables and clients horses looking great as well as saddling and keeping them under me.
It would be a big job to recall all the owners and horses I was involved with there.
It was during this time I always had a number of sale horses to prepare for the annual Rockhampton QH sale in November. In 1986 I remember we had 22 horses at that sale. That was a big job. Myself and Ian Francis had a big number between us that year. Ian's training stables at Widgee weren't far away and we were often in touch with each other.
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A stint in NZ
Brentwood Park was sold at the end of 1986 and following its sale I went over to NZ to work for the National Bloodstock Agency.
My job was to prepare a bunch of standardbred yearlings for the annual Karaka Yearling Sales in Auckland. A very successful sale was held with their top yearling sold to the US market for NZ$120,000.00. I was offered a fulltime position there at Hamilton to handle more young horses and break these trotting bred horses to saddle.
I also was then involved in the breeding program (all AI) done to Northern Hemisphere breeding season time. There were over 400 broodmares and 5 stallions. A staff of about 8 were involved. The breeding was full on, with a Vet there every day. That job sure cleared up any lack of breeding knowledge or any old wives tales I may have had.
While in NZ I judged the NZ Cutting Horse Futurity at Karaka and a few cowhorse events that were held in the North Island. After leaving National Bloodstock later in the year I spent a month working at Taupo Station on the North Island. The manager there was keen on cutting and I broke a few horses for him and ran a cutting clinic there for the NZ Cutting Horse Association. Fishing for trout in Lake Taupo was a great experience, the scenery around the lake and the Station was amazing.
Through my contacts with National Bloodstock Agency I flew back to Australia with a plane full of thoroughbred horses flying from Auckland to Sydney. That was a different experience, I think about 25 head on the flight, keeping them calm during takeoff was stressfull for the handlers! Once everything was settled I went to the flight deck and spoke with the pilots. They said flying a planeload of horses was way better than flying people!
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King Ranch
On return from NZ I was at Rocky QH Sale with a few sale horses and run into Bruce Holmes who was managing the horse operation at King Ranch, Macquarie Downs where I had spent some time 7 years earlier.
Bruce asked me to come down to train horses at King Ranch. I headed straight there and trained with Bruce till King Ranch folded in Australia about 2 years later. Those mares we broke in 7 years before were still there in the broodmare band. Starting their babies wasn't as tough as riding their mothers! The sires were still the same as before. Between us we would prepare about 20 Sale horses for their annual Bull and Horse sale each August. Bruce and I also trained a Cutting Futurity horse each for the Ranch. My time spent there was really good. Bruce and I did a lot of cattle work with our young horses and this is where my approach to training young horses on cattle was consolidated. Bruce and I talked training constantly.
Funny thing occurred to me while I was working there as a horse trainer, I ended up with Ronnie Kellumโs job that he had at the Ranch 17 years earlier. Ronnie Kellum conducted the first Cutting Clinic I attended, back in Sydney, and maybe some of his advice was starting to take hold by then.
