When the going gets tough...the trusty stock horses still do their job in the bog! They aren't corralled in the barn stables like dressage or cutting horses waiting for the rain to stop... The stockmen and women keep riding their wetback horses in the rain of the Bareback Obstacle showcasing the skills of Australian horsemanship. The crowd does not go home or seek the shelter of the bar but remain spectating, garbed in waxed-skin coats and Akubras to applaud the feats of skill as riders handle their horses to jump and straddle logs, climb steps, stand with four points on a block, cross a seesaw or lay down in the wet sand, while a whip is cracked above their head.
Spectators also peer over the campdraft arena fence, where the field resembles a duck pond awash with mud and slush. Here they focus on riders wielding whips to cut targets on the ground, seeing a splash of water rise and a paper roll flying into the air after the crack sounds like a gunshot on water. The stock horses also jump hay bales as the stockmen crack sideways at high pole targets and as the horse disappears over the bale, cut paper flutters in the air and a vapour trail appears at jet speed along the disappearing length of the flailing whip. How is it possible that in such atrocious conditions, a rider like Stephen Connor can score an almost perfect round striking 20 targets? The answer is simply that he is a true Australian stockman.
Connor led the Stockman's Challenge field into the finals at Corryong in Victoria's legendary high country with the highest score for the preliminary events because of his standard of all-round horsemanship skills. It was reported that a champion rodeo all-round cowboy from Queensland had entered the challenge but after inspecting the Bareback Obstacle course, decided he couldn't possibly do it and cancelled his entry!
The Brumby Catch final is the greatest stock horse event in the world. Catching wild horses is not a game like the American Wild Horse Race, where a shankman and a mugger wrestle a bronco for the jockey to mount and bound around an arena but rather a science of stock horse skills. There is a strategy to assess the arena and behaviour of a wild brumby before a catch is attempted, relying on a harmony of horse and rider pitted against it.
How does a stockman approach the brumby? What direction will they run the brumby? Is it likely to be a runner, a baulker or a kicker? Will the halter rope be positioned onside or offside for a hand catch? Will the rider accelerate on a bend and shadow the brumby along the arena fence as it tries to escape? Will the rider wait for a straightaway run and gauge their speed to be at the shoulder point for the hand catch by the end of it?
Enter the legendary Stockman's Challenge champion Scott Bandy riding an equally illustrious bronze chestnut Australian Stock Horse stallion called Knight Top That and we have Brumby Catch Masterclass 101 commence. The crowd are all eyes as Bandy approaches the brumby colt at a trot to drive him across the arena and around the perimeter in an anti-clockwise direction, slowly closing the distance until they are at the gallop. Now shadowing the brumby, with the halter poised in his right hand, he presses the black brumby on the bend, drawing to its shoulder and as it tries to accelerate to escape (rather than baulk and double-back), he deftly places it over the head as Knights Top That slackens their pace. The brumby runs on but the loose halter loop tightens on its head, before Bandy reaches down and adjusts it, to secure a full head halter.
After the catch, the control phase begins with the brumby trying to take the lead but Bandy, who is built like a power-lifter, draws the rope in, so the brumby is beside the stock horse and they start circling. This reduces the avenue of escape and as Knights Top That works his magic to perform a trademark 'whirlpool' manoeuvre, making ever reducing circles, the brumby is bulwarked to a halt.
Is the brumby subdued? Is the colt dominated into submission? Not until Bandy places his hand on its wither, does the brumby soften and submit to his predator. Then the dynamic duo take the cowed brumby on a controlled lead and turn to halt and salute the judges.
This champion combination of stock horse and rider have won three titles at the Man from Snowy River Challenge. This was Scott Bandy's unprecedented fifth title at this event and unlikely to be equaled, if ever.
Bandy stunned the large crowd by announcing his retirement from challenges at age 40, together with that of his champion 17-year old horse Knights Top That. He paid homage to his 'slender stallion that can' and addressed the crowd: "Anything you want him to do, he will do it.You can just trust him so much to do the right thing and come through with the goods," he added "When your luck comes around, you just have to take it and use it . He's been strong in the competition and Brumby Catch."
The Man from Snowy River Challenge was full of mud and slush in 2014 but was as wonderful a display of Australian horsemanship as ever in the nation.
James Vereker 2014 © All Rights Reserved
