It Seemed Sensible at the Time
Document © Angela Tiede. Image: Grand old gentleman, Dardanelle: a genuine ‘heritage stock horse’. Foundation generation Waler stallion, aged 30+ years.
Documenting history is a key focus for this website so I have decided to share a project that seemed sensible at the time, just after I had got involved with the Walers. Always looking to secure a more robust future for Walers a few of us decided to put our aspirations together into a formal proposal to the Australian Stock Horse Society and see what was possible.
We did not succeed in getting the foundation generation of Walers accepted, but a heritage section was established within the ASHS not long after this and was quickly taken up by eager members keen to get their horses recognised as such. I don’t claim to have influenced this, just a coincidence of timing perhaps, but have often wondered about what I genuinely believe was a missed opportunity for both breeds.
At an AGM I attended it was explained to me that unless the horses had an unbroken link to registered stock horses they could never be registered, in any section existing or to be created. I still see our foundation generation of Walers as an important missing link to our horse history, retaining original bloodlines long gone from any horse today (supported by DNA test results). Such a rich resource, surely to be celebrated and utilised, not discarded.
The moral of this story I believe is to always be looking to build on what is known, and to share that knowledge, so that new opportunities can continue to be explored. 2009 was long ago now, and who would have known then that this website would come along to provide a public conduit for the known knowns. Not me!
Images: Dardanelle’s son Ezekiel, and Ezekiel’s daughters Aria then Faith
