I recently spent a week in the Pilbara, Western Australia, riding with my friend Greg Steemson, from Liversage Saddles Australia. Whilst I had worked in the outback in my younger years, it was a long, long time ago, and out of Broken Hill in sheep country. Coming from the Ballarat region, I admit we are used to high rainfall, lush grazing and pretty soft easy country. The Pilbara isn’t soft, and Western Australia is huge. Western Australia covers an area of more than 2.5 million square kilometres – that’s about the size of Western Europe and one-third of Australia’s total landmass.
We flew to Perth, then drove up to Mt Vernon station which is owned by friends of Greg’s. Mt Vernon was one of three cattle stations we visited, all owned by the Day family and covering about 2.5 million acres. We rode every day, exploring the rugged rock strewn creek beds, mulga scrub and flats. The country was breathtakingly beautiful, particularly because of the recent rain. There was lots of feed, and from time to time we would see sleek fat cattle, along with wild donkeys and camels.
We carried hay and concentrate for the horses but generally there was plenty of grass. We would set up electric fences and sometimes use hobbles. We also used high lines for the horses, something I have not seen used before. It involved putting a rope between trees, and attaching swivels that the lead ropes were tied to. It was really effective and the horses could graze without becoming tangled.
The country was rough, and I don’t know how our soft Victorian horses would have managed. Greg’s horses took it all in their stride. One of the horses was barefoot, and used Scoot Boots which stayed on through water, mud and across all manner of terrain. I used mud straps but can report that they never came off, and only twisted once after crossing a really boggy patch. We used Liversage saddles, which are light weight and perfect for cross country, tough riding. We all used breastplates, which are a must for steep work.
