The Local Issue 58 November 9, 2015

Page 38

38 News

www.tlnews.com.au

A dingo took Hugh Jackman’s smalls, and other horsey tales Words: Kevin Childs | Images: David White

W

ITH an almighty thump of his great hooves the white stallion rears up. And up. Sand in the round ring scatters as Jack rises, his coat glowing in the light.

A few minutes ago he was “dead.” Flat out on the ground as his trainer said “dead boy”. Then at the command “cranky” the four-year-old Clydesdale pounds the sand first with his right front hoof, then the left, followed by a regal bow. Backing up, then coming forward and forward Jack performs stylishly, then is told to lie down while trainer Bruce Gleeson uses him for a seat. And slips him a carrot. In steps fellow trainer Evanne Chesson, her two whips are wands as she gets him to rear. “The best rearing horse in Australia,” says Bruce. It’s hard to disagree. “He started off horrible,” says Bruce. “Didn’t like the harness. I used to muck around with him and one day he just twigged.” It was quite a “twig” because the trainers refused an offer for Jack from the Gold Coast Movieworld on the elegantly simple basis that it would only mean money, while this horse is something wonderful. Jack has been a hit in advertising, taking a pedestrian crossing leading to Myer glass doors, a gift card in his mouth. Throw in a dingo called Jedda, who ate Hugh Jackman’s underwear, and you have the thread of seemingly endless yarns to mark the launch of their latest venture Silvery Brumby Trails at their property at Shepherds Hill, near Lauriston. According to 66-year-old Bruce this all began after he had been farming using horses for somewhere between 15 and 20 years. “We grew varieties of wheat which we got after it had been thrown out by an experimental farm. The seeds dated from 1835 to 1952. I was driving up the road to Maldon with four horses when a film company went past. `We’re doing a film in town,’ they said, ‘do you want a job?’.” That was the start of an animal training career that has included monkeys a crow, kangaroos (six are needed for each shot), buffaloes and camels. Bruce tells of Marbuk, a 198-centimetre tall kangaroo who was something of a star for Evil Angels. “He used to come up like Arnie Schwarzenegger going boom! boom! boom!. We had a punchball hanging on a tree and he would be over there working out.” Bruce grew up on 10 hectares at Warrandyte, then a region outside Melbourne in which to roam free, but now, he says, too trendy and too expensive. Two years ago he bought Shepherds Hill Farm, settling in with 110 horses including some former film stars. Then there are the eerily squawking guinea fowl, which are apparently excellent at keeping snakes away, some furry llamas that come when called and “about seven” dingoes. Most of these are at a second property of 104ha where he is building rough-hewn huts for what he calls a mountain cattlemen type of experience for Silver Brumby trail riders. After riding through the nearby Wombat State Forest they will be able to sleep in cots, gazed on by a couple of authentic looking boars’ heads, with tusks rampant. Bruce will be able to regale the riders with tales of moviemaking, including films such as Silver Brumby, one of the all-time top five horse films, in which a mare played a stallion and now has a deserved retirement. Others include Australia, Tomorrow when the War Began, Phar Lap, Ned Kelly with Heath Ledger and Evil Angels - none of the crew could pull weights equal to a baby from the dingo’s jaws. Evanne worked on the ABC’s first colour series, Ben Hall, and has just finished The Legend of Ben Hall. Her work in films with animals was recognised by a unique AFI award in 1997. Apparently in the US an enclosed area is needed for animal stunts, whereas here they are done in the open. And, says Bruce, Evanne is the only person in Australia who can do this. “As a liberty trainer she would be the best in the world.” As well as keeping the magnificent Jack, the trainers retain the name Silver Brumby, which Warner Bros had wanted. Evanne became close to the late Elaine Mitchell, author of the story, who gave Evanne the naming rights. Beside the animals there is an astonishing collection of horse-drawn vehicles: an 1836 English mail coach, a landau, a brougham, four Cobb & Co coaches and a magnificent Bible-black hearse. With Bruce stepping sombrely ahead in 1890s burial garb, black Friesian horses drew the hearse bearing a Daylesford woman to rest in the Franklinford-Yandoit cemetery, with the undertaker telling Bruce it was the best funeral of his career. Trail riders will be invited to mount Orlando Bloom’s horse Red from Ned Kelly or one of five of Heath Ledger’s mounts. There are also Andalusians and a new breed called Worlander. And in future someone will doubtless ride Witchetty Grub, now a leggy five-day-old foal cheekily bumping against his mother, Black Jellybean. Both horses were born of semen from Holland, artificially inseminated. Witchetty Grub gets his name from the system of categorising these Dutch Friesian horses: a name starting with w, x or y was needed. The passion of these trainers is contagious. So is Bruce’s delight in always using premetric measurements. As a horseman, he seems from a past century. When this is put to him he quickly says, “no, 200 years ago”.


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The Local Issue 58 November 9, 2015 by The Local - The Heart of the Highlands' community publication - Issuu