espite tough times the demand for good horses has always remained strong. And who is it that breeds and rides these good horses? This Foundation Mare’s story demonstrates the relationship between quality horses

and quality horsemen. It is about a line of tough horses and their breeders, owners and riders that keep on keeping on.

This quality mare stood at 15hh and was typical of Chan’s progeny, with a good head set and a swan neck. She was a brown with ‘a bit of white, but no significant markings’. Born in 1962, she was the type of stock horse that created the groundswell of enthusiasm that was to become the Australian Stock Horse Society nearly ten years later.

From her sire, CHAN SUE - FM HSH inherited the qualities of his Radium blood and the conformation, toughness and peculiarities of his maternal parentage. Nothing is known today about her dam – ‘a Glengarry Station Mare’, but she was one of a fine band of mares that had been selected and tried since the Croakers purchased the property in 1919. Being near neighbours to the Haydon family, many of their mares were by the Haydon stallions.

For this Foundation Mare the quality horseman was Ken Brown. From Bunnan near Scone, this octogenarian is a founding member of the Australian Stock Horse Society, a Classifier, a Judge and a past President of his local Hunter Branch. He was recently recognised for his contribution to the breed with an Honorary Life Membership.

Ken is recognised as being knowledgeable on the bloodlines of the breed, which is quite remarkable as he explained that he never kept any records - except in his head. He is known as a cattleman and campdrafter and with great understatement he explained that he also used to play polocrosse for the Singleton club and ‘probably had a few trophies about somewhere’.

With no time for showing, Ken focuses his horses on doing the cattlework for which they are bred. During the week they work stock on the property and on the weekends they played polocrosse (in earlier times) or competed in campdrafts. His decisions as a breeder are therefore based on a sound knowledge of the ability of his horses.

He recalls those earlier days: ‘Back then, 200 horses was a big field for a campdraft - but there was a lot more cattle work done on horses,’ Ken said. While there may have been fewer competitors it was still tough to win, as over that period there were strong

e was a beautifully tempered horse with an elegant appearance, but his promising showing and campdrafting career was cut short by injury. Chan was by the legendary sire Radium and out of Frank Scanlon’s good mare

Witzy. In 1945 Frank gave the horse as a young foal to his good friend and manager of Glengarry station, Jim Callinan.

This property in the Upper Hunter Valley needed to breed many horses to work its 20,000 acres, and allowed Chan to realise his potential as a sire. Chan improved the quality of the already good Glengarry horses to the point where their reputation made them the horses to have.

Their great cattle sense was complemented by their great conformation. Chan put good “fronts” on his progeny. They were known for their fine throat, graceful swan neck and head carriage resulting in a good length of rein. These “fronts” led to a fine shoulder and lightness in the front-end – essential for activities requiring speed and turning.

They were special horses that needed special handling to get the best out of them. But they not only looked good, they were work horses - tough work horses. They were very intelligent, “business-like” in their approach, outstanding to ride in rough country and had the character necessary to get through the working week.

Glengarry was a commercial farm and not a horse stud, so they only bred to their own mares and the “no outside mare” rule for Chan meant that by today’s measures, very few of his progeny made their way into the hands of others.

The Chan bloodlines were in big demand but limited supply. The few people who were lucky enough to get hold of his progeny obtained a genetic base for developing successful studs. People like Ken Brown, Terry Blake (Rosebrook Stock Horses), the Quidong stud and Philip Kirkby all acknowledge the importance of this family to their breeding success.

Joy Poole OAM writes, ‘When the Chan mares started to appear in outside studs and the Chan colts started being used, the breed really exploded.’ (ASHS Journal July/August 2001).

Chan has only 70 progeny listed in the Australian Stock Horse Stud Book, but has a large number of Foundation Horses amongst them. His two Foundation Stallions and seven Foundation Mares have resulted in 9,599 descendants to date. While we should be careful of attributing too much to a single individual who is some generations back from today, it is notable that many of the top heritage campdrafters over the last 50 years have Chan in their pedigree. In the next few issues we will cover several Foundation Horses by Chan.

This Foundation Mare is by the Glengarry station sire, Chan. Since this influential stallion was born in 1945, there have been troubles and hardships on the land that have tested both men and their horses.The working horse of yesteryear is often now the performance horse of today, competing in a range of disciplines.

Chan is one of the most influential stallions of our breed.

The Chan Effect

A son of Chan, RED RAY - FS HSH. No photo of Chan himself has ever been found.

Foundation MareCHAN SUE - FM HSH

ASH Reg: 105194

Article by Lindsay Ferguson

D

H

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Sire chan 02 - WH

radium 02 - WHcecil 02 - WH

black bess 03

witzy 02medlow 02 - WH

part arab mare 01

Dam glengarry station mare 01

unknown sire

unknown dam

CHAN SUE - FM HSH Colour: Brown

Height: 15hh

Lifespan: 23yrs approx (1962-1985 approx)

Breeder: Croaker Brothers, “Glengarry”, Wingen NSW

Performance: Stock horse and campdrafter

Progeny: Six registered progeny, the most notable being the mare BROWN SUSIE LUKE - HSH and the stallions, BROWN HIGHWAY - HSH and RIALDA MYALL - HSH.

Wingen, NSW

Brown stallion RIALDA MYALL - HSH (BROWN MY WAY - IS HSH/CHAN SUE - FM HSH) was born in 1982 and has 57 registered progeny.

competitors on great horses. Ken was up against the likes of Jack and Bob Palmer, John Stanton, Maurice O’Neil and Theo Hill.

The association between this man and horse began in about 1970 when Ken bought her from a good friend who had

acquired the mare from Glengarry Station. Ken describes her as a ‘good stockhorse’ and she was classified in the early days of the Society, receiving the big “A” brand on her hindquarters. At Glengarry she had done a lot of stockwork, the perfect

background for campdrafting. She went well – from only two starts she won a Maiden campdraft at Merriwa. Unfortunately she injured her back doing stockwork at home and was retired for breeding.

Ken Brown’s breeding objective was to breed good working horses that he could use on his cattle and also compete successfully at campdrafting. In his own words, ‘I bred for fun and sold a few.’ Looking back we can say that he certainly did that and has been doing it well for a lifetime.

Ken explained that the Chan line was strongly influenced by his dam’s side. He said, ‘They were not known for being quiet horses, but they were quite OK if you looked after them. They couldn’t be forced into things and you had to let them do it themselves. But, they were tough as iron.’

CHAN SUE - FM HSH’s first foal in 1973 was by the Hooke’s stallion MYRA BRONZE - FS HSH. He was sold, registered as RUNNING A BRONSON - HSH and sired four mares. This line continued for about three generations but has seen no registrations in recent years.

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Above: Bay mare BROWN SUSIE LUKE - HSH (VALENTINE STUD MASTER LUKE - FS HSH/CHAN SUE - FM HSH) was born in 1975 and has nine registered progeny, including stallion BROWN MY LUKE - HSH. Below right: Brown stallion COMARA MAESTRO - HSH (ABBEY - FS HSH/CHAN SUE - FM HSH) was born in 1976 and has 17 registered progeny.

For her second foal Ken took her to Taree to a top stallion of the day, Tom Fahey’s VALENTINE STUD MASTER LUKE - FS HSH. Ken had never seen the stallion but liked his bloodlines and was impressed with his performance. The brown filly that resulted in 1975 was named BROWN SUSIE LUKE - HSH and turned out to be a stunner. She had a short but successful show career in Led classes with Vicki Mascord, winning Supreme Led Exhibit at the 1984 Sydney Royal Easter Show and later at the Melbourne Royal Show.

A leg injury in 1987 meant the start of a long breeding career which produced nine foals. Her first foal was the colt BROWN MY LUKE - HSH who sired 60 registered progeny. Ten years after BROWN SUSIE LUKE - HSH won the Led class, this son won the Champion Ridden Horse at the Sydney Royal Show. Another of her foals, BROWN MYGIFT - HSH (by BROWN MY WAY - IS HSH) won the 1993 Australian Stock Horse Society National Maturity (Series 4) and was equal fifth in the 2000 Warwick Gold Cup for Ken MacCallum.

Her other progeny, mostly by Brown-bred colts or by other sons of ABBEY - FS HSH, have matured into good performers and broodmares. Her last foal is BROWN VICTOR - HSH, by BROWN VICTORY - HSH. This gelding, ridden by Ken MacCallum, won the Maiden Campdraft Series Plate and came third in the final at the 2009 National Championships and is still being campdrafted by him today.

‘In those earlier days,’ said Ken Brown, ‘if you wanted to breed a campdrafter, you bred to ABBEY - FS HSH. I was totally satisfied with his progeny.’ So the third foal, born in 1976 was registered as COMARA MAESTRO - HSH. This brown colt was sold to a fellow near

Dingo in Queensland whose family, some years later, put the colt and a number of his fillies into the regular horse market at Rockhampton.

Laurie Jones of Theodore in central Queensland appreciated the ABBEY - FS HSH bloodlines, having had a Eulabah colt that had died. ‘In about 1984, I saw an article in the paper promoting the sale and I was interested, as the ABBEY - FS HSH progeny were starting to get hard to come by,’ said Laurie. ‘At the auction, the fillies went for a few hundred dollars, but I was pushed to nearly $6,000 to get the stallion.’

COMARA MAESTRO - HSH had been out of work for a long time but Laurie took him mustering and also got Don Cross to take him to the Taroom Golden Horse Shoe campdraft. Laurie recalled, ‘He was a bit over 15.1hh and very fast. One day I galloped him back home over a kilometre from the yards and my dad driving the vehicle beside me clocked him at 60 kilometres per hour.’

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Laurie described him as a lovely natured horse that nicked well with his local ‘Scantlebury’ mares to produce ‘very good workhorses – brilliant at mustering.’ There are only 17 progeny registered by this colt but many more were bred. Laurie had him about eight years before he died of an illness.

BROWN HIGHWAY - HSH, born in 1979, was another colt by ABBEY - FS HSH. This bay colt was a promising campdrafter and had done a lot of runs locally when Michael Clarke rode him for Ken at the Warwick Gold Cup. He broke

his fetlock during his run and although the injury mended it always troubled him.

Being on only three and a half legs limited him a bit in his stallion duties; nevertheless he produced 85 progeny, before dying at the age of 19. One of his very good daughters is the campdrafter BROWN PEBBLES - HSH. She has won over 20 campdrafts and is now producing promising foals to very good sires.

21 of BROWN HIGHWAY - HSH’s progeny have the Brown prefix, but he has sired foals for more than 20 other breeders. One of those breeders is Neville Holz who bred four foals by him. ‘He was a particularly smart horse – who has produced quite a few good ones,’ said Neville.

Neville’s BROWN HIGHWAY - HSH progeny have had success in numerous

disciplines. NEVLYN RICKY was a brilliant sporting pony and campdrafter. NEVLYN TIM - HSH was an outstanding campdrafter, being one of Simone Harvey’s main horses when she won the ABCRA Lady Rider of the Year in 2005 and 2006. NEVLYN JEM was a very clever polocrosse mare who played at a high level, winning the Champion ASH mare at the National Polocrosse Championships at Condobolin.

BROWN HIGHWAY - HSH left a few registered colts – but only one of Ken’s, BROWN VICTORY - HSH, has continued to

breed on. This colt, out of the REALITY - FS HSH mare PRIM ROSE - HSH, has sired 63 foals to date and is still stood at stud for Ken Brown by Ken MacCallum at Moonan Flat in the Hunter Valley. Ken MacCallum describes him as having ‘a beautiful neck and shoulder, very light on his feet and still competing successfully. He is a wonderful horse.’

In 2008 he won the ABCRA Open Horse of the Year for Ken Brown. He has won 14 Open campdrafts in the Hunter district and in the last couple of years has placed second at the World Championship Campdraft at Sydney Royal Show and second in the stallion campdraft at Paradise Lagoons. This year he came equal second in the stallion campdraft at the 2013 ASHS National Show.

Like his sire, BROWN VICTORY - HSH was used a lot by Ken, but has also shared

his genetics with other appreciative breeders. Some of his progeny are now producing the fourth generation from our Foundation Mare. The colt BROWN TWO WAY - HSH has sired 17 foals to date for the Dwan family in Allora, Queensland. Another son, BROWN HIGHWAYMAN - HSH, is being used as a sire by southern campdrafters David and Amanda Reiter, with five of his foals now carrying the Montarna prefix.

For CHAN SUE - FM HSH’s fifth foal, Ken crossed the mare with his own stallion BROWN MY WAY - IS HSH (by ABBEY - FS HSH). This mating produced another colt born in 1981, registered as HAREWOOD CLAYTONS - HSH. He changed hands and was eventually bought by Richard Tombs, who had a lot of campdrafting success with him. In all, he sired seven progeny, with the descendants now into the third generation.

The final foal was another brown colt by BROWN MY WAY - IS HSH, named RIALDA MYALL - HSH. Born in 1982, this 14.3hh horse performed well and has produced 57 progeny with their share of success as well.

Brian Cutler, a sheep and cattleman from Collarenabri in northwest New South Wales, played polocrosse for recreation. When looking for a new colt, he was put onto Ken Brown who sold the colt to him for $1,500. ‘He was a beautiful horse,’ said Brian, ‘I would take him to polocrosse practice and he would clean them up.’

Recognising that winning campdrafts improved a stallion’s popularity, he was sent to David Wilson who won a Maiden campdraft with him at Nevertire, New South Wales. David then prepared him to compete in Victoria. To David’s credit, he won the Open campdraft—against his own horse— at the Victorian Championships in 1986.

Brian said, ‘I was looking to breed good types for polocrosse and for the show ring. I was tough in my assessment of the progeny that I bred and I was not completely happy with the type that I got, so I put the stallion on the market. In hindsight, I should have upgraded my mares instead.’

Of his many successful horses, RIALDA RICCOCHET was a clever gelding who was played by the Australian Polocrosse team captain, Mathew Gleeson and won many champion polocrosse horse awards.

It’s a long way from central New South Wales to north Queensland, but Warren Jackson of Charters Towers next took the opportunity to purchase the stallion RIALDA MYALL - HSH.

At the time, Warren ran about 80 work horses and many thousands of Brahman cross cattle on his station. Located next to the Bassingthwaite’s Toomba station, he had similar Thoroughbred-based bloodlines to Toomba and was looking for the ABBEY

Ken MacCallum riding the stallion BROWN VICTORY - HSH (BROWN HIGHWAY - HSH/PRIM ROSE - HSH). This stallion currently has 68 progeny in the Stud Book and still stands at stud.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013 19

- FS HSH influence to improve his horses. He didn’t know about the dam’s bloodlines, but heard that they were also good.

In 1987 he purchased RIALDA MYALL - HSH as a five year old. In 1988 he was Runner Up in the North Queensland Management Council Open Horse campdraft finals. A year later he won the Champion ASH Stallion against nine competitors, then went on to win Supreme Led Horse

at the Charters Towers Show. Warren said, ‘He won challenges and Cut Outs but the best thing about him was that he was so quiet our 14 year old daughter could ride him, winning in competition.’

Warren recalls the progeny as ‘great working horses, quiet and agile with some good campdrafters amongst them that did well on our local circuit.’ MYOLA MY RETURN is a very versatile gelding from his final crop of foals. Warren’s daughter-in-law Genine is presently having good success with him in hacking, dressage, working, sporting, reining and working. One of his fillies, MYOLA YOLA has won the local ASH Supreme Exhibit twice in her career. RIALDA MYALL - HSH died of old age in 2004.

CHAN SUE - FM HSH stopped breeding and was eventually put down due to old age. With each of her six progeny contributing to the breeding effort, she now has 562 descendants (2011 figures). All her progeny ‘were of some use,’ Ken said. ‘Like any horse, how well they went mostly depended on who got them and what they did with them.’

As we can see, quality horsemen bought, rode and bred them. Most of them had the opportunity to perform well at the job for which they were bred. Ken believes the good progeny from CHAN SUE - FM HSH makes her a better than average broodmare.

Ken MacCallum, who has also worked with a lot of this line, says that ‘the family has no vice and big hearts – they are fantastic working horses.’ This proven ability has allowed CHAN SUE - FM HSH and her progeny to make a very positive contribution to the development of the Australian Stock Horse breed.

Ken MacCallum riding the gelding BROWN VICTOR - HSH (BROWN VICTORY - HSH/BROWN SUSIE LUKE - HSH), that has CHAN SUE - FM HSH on both sides of his pedigree.

Another year has come and goneWith many stories covered

About the horses of our breedOn which it all was founded.

Decades of dust cloud your photosAnd years may dim the mind

But I know that those who followWill think you very kind

To share your horse’s historyTheir heart, their soul, their mind

The little things about themThat are otherwise hard to find.

So to all the folks to whom I’ve spokenOver this past year,

For delving in your archivesMy thanks is most sincere.

- Lindsay Ferguson

20 AUSTRAL IAN S TOCK HORSE JOURNAL