Our Foals ... and how we came to be breeding them

(view each year's foals by clicking on year on left)

Our very first foal, born in October 2003, was Lindenlee Trooper. Following a tradition we adopted from the long established ASH studs across the country, he was named after his sire, Kallenia Billabong (Once a jolly swagman...down came the troopers etc), but he really was a trooper from the start.

The first of our Australian Stock Horses (ASH), Oakview Skye, was agisted in Canberra during the bushfires of January 2003 while we built our house 'Lindenlee' in Carwoola NSW. The devastating fire, that killed people as well as horses, went right through our paddock.  We walked her out but were cut off by flames and had to go back, leaving her and her unborn foal to fend for themselves with the rest of the herd as we were evacuated. Then, he was nearly lost at birth, getting stuck and having to be pulled out during a storm.

      
      Trooper and Silver enjoying some hay at 1yo                 Ace and Tally at 1yo            Jack and Flight at 1yo

While we had only intended originally to breed the one foal from our good mare, we didn't want Trooper growing up alone, so in addition to Shenee Bullenbong Honey, who we'd bought to compete, we bought Eurella Vashti with her new foal at foot. By a well-performed stallion, Musk Park Chameleon, we named this new grey colt Lindenlee Quicksilver. And our ASH stud was begun.

We had struggled to buy Australian Stock Horses with good breeding, conformation and temperament at a price we could afford locally. After many unsuccessful attempts to buy a quality ASH mare at auctions around the country, we had gone five hours north, and down many a rough country road to get Vashti and bought Honey sight-unseen all the way from Melbourne, only to have her turn up a sack of bones in need of vet attention. A year later she was in show condition and competing.

We figured we weren't the only ones to experience this difficulty in buying quality horses and set about changing all that. Our aim is to combine the best heritage ASH breeding with correct care and handling from birth and to market them at realistic prices. And, rather than break in our own horses, we send each to the trainer best suited to them and only use the best in that field. For example, top local campdrafter, Ian Laurie, has started a number of our performance horses that have gone on to campdraft and play polocrosse. Michelle Ridely and Camilla Davidson, both of Braidwood, start our hacks and family horses using natural horsemanship.

We think this is the right formula and have many happy partnerships of our horses and their new owners to prove it. And it's a great comfort to know that our foals (pictured in these pages) are still well-cared for and valued by owners so pleased with their purchase they all keep us up to date on how they're going.

Click on the years listed in the menu on the left to see each in detail as they've grown up.