9th November 2001
Colin, Bec Dean, and myself enjoyed an eye opening experience on the weekend of the 20th October 2001 - just one week before our fundraising auction at the Tooma hotel. The 3 of us traveled up the hills to see local horseman Sandy Freckleton. His property is in the heart of the Upper Murray and jam-packed full of horses. Sandy said at last count he had 250 horses ranging from Skewbald, Piebald, Brumbies, Arabs, Thoroughbreds, and Clumpers - in fact you name it and there was probably one on his property.
The reason for our visit was that Sandy donated a Brumby weanling filly to auction at the charity night in Tooma. We thought we had better get to work on handling it and making sure it was quiet enough to pass on to the winning bidder. We thought it was only fair that because Sandy was good enough to donate the horse, we would stick around and help him get a couple of horses back on the right side of the fence. The horses had got through in the heat of a violent storm. He also had a 4 year old colt that was starting to work out what his whistle was for, so he needed to be marked - there were already enough stallions running around.
After chasing the horses around with a 4WD, 2 dogs, and Colin, Bec and I on foot, it became obvious that the 3 of us would never break the 4-minute mile. I'm sure the horses were laughing at us each time they bolted past in the wrong direction. Just as we were exhausted, annoyed and ready to give up, the pair trotted through like they knew where to go all along.
It turned out being a day that was a comedy of errors for one reason or another. Bec was the only one not to have been injured. As well as the Brumby filly that was donated to us, Colin bought another Brumby, and both of the horses needed to get a quick lesson in handling so that we could get them on the float. Time was running short and Col had to get back to Corowa to work that night. The 2 had never been caught before so it made for an interesting couple of hours. To make a long story short I got kicked in the knee by Col's Brumby, and Col got kicked just below the most tender area by the colt that had to be marked. Not long after that the same colt struck out with its front leg and struck Sandy in the arm - crushing it on the fence post. I'm sure it knew what was coming and thought it would get a few victories in on us before we got started with the delicate operation!
Bec Dean took care of the foal for the week, teaching her to lead and generally getting her use to human interaction which takes us right up to the end of the next week and the charity auction at Tooma Hotel on the 26th October.
The night started off a little stressful. Bear was nowhere to be found, the certificates for the winning bidders hadn't been printed and the pub was absolutely jam packed full of people. Locals of the area could never remember the pub being so full. Warwick Phegan (my Dad) and I started the auction at about 9:00pm. All the locals were very generous and we ended up making $6,000 for the night, which was a terrific result from a small rural community. They really got together and supported us.
After the auction I fired the music up and played for a couple of hours and the place was thumping. Its is a bit hard to have a drink and sing, so I didn't have a beer until about midnight but I certainly made up for lost time. In fact a few of us, including Bear, Colin myself and others drank and laughed 'til sunup at Bear & Robs guest farmhouse. At that stage it seemed too late to sleep, so once Sarah, GiGi, Tom (Bec Deans friend), Bec D, Ian and Bek G woke up we saddled the nags and went for a 10 hour horse ride all through Bear and Robs property. It was absolutely breathtaking. I am just sorry that I didn't think to take the camera. We rode to 2 of the most beautiful water falls and basically rode and relaxed through the day before we traveled down for Korey Livy's show at the Tintaldra Hotel that night. As you could understand, by the time we reached the Pub again we were pretty buggered. We managed to fire up again but had a relatively quiet night and hit the sack at about midnight.
The next morning I was the last one left at Tooma. The rest of the crew had made it home after Korey's show that night. Bear, Sarah, GiGi and I saddled up again to get the cows in. Well I say saddled up loosely- GiGi rode all day on one of Sarah's ponies with no saddle or bridle - but with just a stick! It was really something to watch - a girl bolting along as quick or as slow as the rest of us, rounding up cows and turning with no saddle or bridle - it was incredible. After the cows were safely in we rode to the neighbour’s property, Roger and Amy Patton to say g'day. Bear ended up inviting the Patton family back home for a late BBQ lunch and after that she put on a natural horsemanship lesson on how to load a difficult horse
It was actually Bec D's horse 'Brumby' that was the difficult one. He isn't normally hard to truck but he decided he didn't want anything to do with my float. I was going to drop him off at Bec's place on the way home down the river, but 5-km's out of Tooma on the way to Tintaldra I ran into some dramas. I was on top of the highest hill on a dirt road when I felt a hell of a whack and a loud bang. I got out of the car thinking that what a pain in the neck it was going to be to change what I thought was a blown tire. It was a blown tire all right, well at least the front one was, but what had me scratching the old cranium even more was that the entire wheel behind it was missing.
The float was leaning on about a 45 degree angle and the horse was looking at me as if to say 'what are ya doin'?!' I thought 'now what am I going to do?'. I was just about to back 'Brumby' off the float and ride him back to Tooma (I forgot to say that my jockey wheel broke a couple of days earlier), when I realised that I had some spare lug nuts, so I thought I would try and find the wheel and see what sort of condition it was in. I found the wheel in long grass in a paddock adjacent to the road and it was in almost perfect condition. Then I asked Brumby to hold his breath and stay perfectly still while I jacked the float up and put the wheel back on. From there I nursed the float back to Bear's who was rubbing her eyes seeing me again, and I had to leave Brumby there. I pumped the front wheel up (it must have gone down with the added pressure of the back wheel flying off because it wasn't blown) and nursed the float all the way back to home in Wirlinga outside of Albury/Wodonga. Because it was late at night and I had forgot to check the petrol level, I was running on the empty light from the high side of Tallangatta (approx. 40km to home). Talk about an eventful weekend !!
To bring where we are right up to date, my cousin Justin Turton and I traveled 7 hours to the other side of Sydney last Friday (2nd Nov 2001) to pick up my new horse truck. She's not a bad old girl - struggles a bit going up hill but she covers some ground on the way back down !!
It was a bit of a lonely trip home cause we didn't have a UHF and it got even slower when we realised Bear was camped on the other side of Tarcutta 2 hours from home. We called in to share her fire and have a drink before kicking the old truck in the ribs for the last leg home. All in all it was a 20-hour round trip so we were well and truly ready for bed when we got home.
That's all for this travel tales. There are a few photos in the photo album of the Tooma auction. The album is a new edition and will also be updated regularly.
Danny Phegan
9th November 2001