October
AugustAt first sight
Growing up on a vineyard in north-west Victoria, horses were very much part and parcel of my everyday life. Every farmer had at least two horses and all were giant, powerful, lumbering beasts that were used to pull ploughs and carts.
Each day when I got home from my small rural school I would get the next day’s morning wood then wait for my father to finish working with the horses.
My job was to unharness them and walk them down to the lucerne paddock. While they grazed I would muck out their stables, then bring them back, feed and water them and bed them down for the night.
Although I was fond of Doll and Bell, our two big, gentle bay mares, for a 10-year-old they represented only work, which too often prevented me from playing with my friends.
However, my feelings for horses changed irrevocably when a school friend invited me to his home one Saturday. He told me his uncle Ray would be there, so his father would be too busy chatting to worry about farm work.
When I got there, I leant my bike against a tree and began walking towards their home. As I brushed through some shrubs I saw my friend and his father on the lawn talking to a man who was grooming the most beautiful horse I had ever seen. It was a small, fine-legged, compact chestnut filly with two long white socks on its hind legs and a large white blaze on its forehead.
For a while I just stood staring in amazement. My friend introduced me to his uncle Ray, who seemed somewhat amused by the astonished look on my face but greeted me warmly
“Is that a racehorse?” I blurted out.
“Well, a sort-of one,’’ Uncle Ray replied, smiling.
“Do you race it?’’ I asked.
“Quite often,’’ he replied,’ “and I usually beat it. In fact it would be a good horse for a young bloke like you to learn to ride on, as it doesn’t go too fast.’’
With that he lifted me on to its back and led it around the yard. I had never felt so proud and happy in my life.
Little did I know then that many years later my friend’s Uncle Ray would train Gala Supreme, ridden by Frank Reys, to win the 1973 Melbourne Cup.
Swan Hill (Vic)