Three Years On
Angela Tiede, September 2025. Image: Waler gelding Newhaven Fisher, pin-up boy for Walers.
Today marks three years since the re-launch of our Public Record for Walers, this website. Did I know in 2006 when I bought my first Waler, Fisher, that this was in our future? Nope. Those days now so long ago seemed like such a small adventure compared with all that has happened since then. All thanks to Fisher, now heading into his senior years (me too) and still influencing so much in all kinds of ways.
I hope you agree that we have created a resource rich in content and photographs, one that informs and entertains and is easy to use. Would we like more stories and photos from other Waler interested people? Most definitely. Have we plugged the many knowledge gaps in our record of those horses on which the Waler studbook was built? No. But we are closer than we were when we started, every little step gets us further towards our goal.
Recently I had reason to dust off my film camera so I had multiple ways to photograph the last wild station herd of Walers before they are removed. Incredibly, there was an unfinished roll of film in the camera. With no recollection of the last time I used it I would have to wait until I finished that film and had it developed to see what treasures it might hold.
You guessed it. A photograph of Fisher was there, from 2009 when the Black Saturday bushfires had devasted communities here in Victoria. The film is old, but the photo shows the smoke haze on the horizon.
The boy is still in charge it seems, who knows what the next decade holds for us.
Some other photographs show the grim atmosphere of that time. Perhaps I put the camera down after that, lost in the grief and the reality of how life can change in an instant. Wondering each day if my property too would be engulfed in flames over that apocalyptic summer.
It just goes to show how important it is to record history. Without archival photos and articles such as we access to provide some of our content, we have no window to the past. We have no way to remember and celebrate that which has been achieved before our time, to provide a voice, as we do on this website, for our wonderful Waler Horse. If you too have an interest, please make contact. Join with us in telling the stories of the people’s horse, stories of the people, stories for the people.
