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The 5 hour Greyhound coach journey was for once and real pleasure as there were only 10 people on the coach and once we reached Newcastle there was only myself and another guy from the UK named Richard that continued to Tamworth were l got off and made my way to the YHA about a 15 minute walk from the coach stop.
From Office boy to Cowboy in 5 easy steps Our pick up from the YHA was planned for 10am so once up and ready l had time to take a quick tour of the local area and my daily intake of fresh coffee. Once back at the hostel Hilton from Leconfield Farm was there ready to take us the 50km drive through the countryside to our home for the next 11 days. What should have taken us a bout and hour ended up being about 4 hours as the group needed to stop for beers and other goodies as we were to be in the middle of no-man’s land during our stay at the farm and the next planned visit to Tamworth was on our return, it was also a re-routed drive as the heavy
rains that the area had had in the past week had made one of the shorter routes to the farm un-passable. So 7 of the group climbed aboard the Jackaroo Bus and the rest followed in their own vehicles. Hilton as you can imagine enjoyed the journey to the farm across mud and rain filled tracks through the rolling hill as he was amused by the driving of the Campervan and two cars that followed us. We even managed to skid along one of the roads with the trailer sliding along side us at one stage. The trip to the farm seemed to go one for ever as we passed farm after farm. We finally arrived at Leconfield and a warm welcome was waiting for us. Brian at a ripe old age of 86 and the owner of the farm and founder of the Jackaroo School 26 years ago made sure we settled in ok.
Welcome to Cowboy Country So once we arrived we were taken to our home on the farm. The 4 guys, Myself, David, Joe and Michael along with Laura, Bec’s and Vanessa were staying in the wooden house by the creek. Pinky’s
as the house is called was complete with a large communal area with open fire and loads of seating. There was a outside toilet straight out of a western film and two showers in another block outside. Mel and her sister Vanessa parked their campervan behind Pinky’s and made that their home. Lotte, Taylor, Jessica, Marina, Sanne , Stephanie and Eva were sleeping in a bedroom dorm at the main farmhouse where we had our meals. During our stay everyone has jobs to do on a rota which could be milking, cleaning jobs or even serving dinner.
Whip-crack-away or not as the case maybe! Once unpacked and showed around the farm building it was time for lunch and then the day was ours to get to know each other. So of course that meant cracking open the beers and start Whip lessons with Hilton. Hilton the stereo-typical cowboy dressed in the compulsory uniform of jeans, check shirt, cowboy boots and hat tried to show us how the crack the whip, not that easy as by the end l had at least 3 marks on my body were the end of the whip hit me rather than
crack. Having said that it was loads of fun and a couple of the guys did manage to get to grips with it.
After dinner it was time for the group to chat around the huge bonfire outside Pinky’s with marshmallows, beer and some great music provided by ME. During the evening Hilton chatted to us one by one about our riding experience along with our height and weight. This was done so he could match us up with the horses on the farm.
Stage One - That’s your horse now go and catch it My first day on the farm and myself and David were on the rota to milk the two milking cows Rosie & Trinity, this meant being ready at 6.30am and with the help of Suzie one of the members of staff we got to work, well this was after the both of us managed to find and get the two cows into the milking pen. Once in their place we washed their teats and greased them up along with our finger and got to milking, Rosie was the easiest one to milk and after the both of us filled our
metal buckets we filtered the milk and placed it in the fridge to cool down. After washing up it was time to release both the cows and their calves for the day and head for breakfast.
After breakfast it was time to have some horse lessons which included putting on a Holster, Saddle and Bridle. It was time then to be given your horse that would be yours whilst on the farm. Hilton took great delight given me the only English person on the course ‘Thug’ (Short for Thugalina), she was a beautiful white mere. Once everyone was appointed their horse it was time to go into the paddock and catch it and put on the holster. Not that easy at first as nerves and trying to remember what way the ropes on the holster go, also every time l got near Thug she walked off two steps. After a few minute Thug and me had become best mates and it was then time to brush her and place the saddle on her. I never realised how bloody heavy these saddles are and once on her the fun really started, tightening the girth up tight. It was then time
to remove the holster and put on the bridle, this was of the thing l was not looking forward to as l have always been a bit afraid of. So here goes, right hand down between the ears and pull up the bridle and first time, Thug opened her mouth and the bridle bit was in place. After doing up the buckle it was time for me to get my riding helmet on and the group then took their first ride over some of the nearby land. We all thought at first it would be a 10 or 15 minute ride but no we were so happy when we realised that our first riding lesson would take us out through creeks and even up steep hills. Now to ride up hills means that you need to stand up in the saddle and have short reigns whilst holding onto the horse’s mane, not easy at first especially when the first hill took us about 15 minute to climb and by the time we reached the top everyone said how much the back of the legs and sides ached. Once back at the stables it was time to remove all the gear
and wash down the horse’s and let them loose for the evening, not bad for day one. After dinner we all made our way to Pinky’s and relaxed for the evening this time in front of the fire inside and chilled out for the evening.
Stage Two - That calf need pining down and tagged, oh yes we need to remove its balls too!!! One of the highlights of working on the Leconfield farm is to go cattle mustering. These means getting your horse ready and ensure you’re all packed for a whole day out, so after breakfast and making our lunch to take with us it was time to take the long ride about 2 hours up and down the hills of Leconfield to one for the furthest paddocks on the property. Once at the holding station we were split into smaller group and had to get any of the cattle in our path down the hill into the valley below, this meant making lots of noise and making sure your horse is behind the cattle at all times, not easy especially when sometime you can’t get the horse moving or it wants to
go faster or even in the wrong direction.
The hills and valleys seem to go for ages and once we got our herd of cows moving they seem to just follow each other until finally got them all to a watering hole, once every team were back, Hilton then gave us our next instruction to move the herd up between two hills and into the holding paddock. So the group were split into 3 teams of which two of the teams were to ride on either side of the herd moving up and my team to be behind and make loads of noise to move them up and keep them going. This was where the real fun and games started as yet again trying to maintain your horse moving behind them and without leaving any gaps for the cows to run out was quiet a feet in its self. My team slowly moved the herd up with loads of singing and shouting until we finally got to the paddock and the last cow was safely in. We then dismounted our horses and settled down for lunch before the afternoon’s fun and games started.
Our next task was to put
any mother and calf pairs together in another holding area, this was done by watching the herd and see if any calf’s feed from their mothers or if they rubbed themselves against each other. Then a couple of us moved in towards the pair and by making noises and slowly walking in between the herd managed to get the pair apart from the rest and walk them along the paddock fence and into the holding area. Once this was done and 10 pairs were separated we then indentified any unmarked calves.
We had 4 unmarked in total and these were put into a small paddock with a small gated holding area were the calves were put. Hilton then went into this area with the 4 calves and with a rope tied up one of the calves back legs and tied the rope around the calves’ body. Once we were ready myself and David were given the job to get the calf on the floor and hold it down.
To get a calf down you need to be on its right side and with your left hand grab its left ear, when you have done that you then with
your right hand grab its nose and push it towards its left side and hold tight. Then David had to grab the calf’s flank from the right side too and pull it up so that the calf falls down and then quickly moved behind the calf and put his right leg on it lower leg and then pick up its top leg and pull tight and keep it tight all the time the calf is down. I then keeping hold of its nose with my right hand pull its top front leg up with my left hand and keep it there. So easy , well hell no, after chasing the calf around and panting like a race horse we managed to get it down, but soon lost grip of it and it was again running around with us chasing it.
Finally we had him down and in our grip, Sanne then sat on the calf to keep him down. Taylor then had the job to use a piece of equipment then clips out a triangle shape from the ear, she had to do this to the tip of both ears and halfway down the right ear. This is the
making for Leconfield Farm. The Vanessa had to us a clip gun to put the yellow farm identification tag on it left ear. Once this was done Jessica did the same to the right ear using a white microchip tag. So you can imagine the amount of blood that was flying everywhere. This was nothing as the next job was to remove the testicles of the male calf and this was done by Hilton with us still holding the calf in place and he simply squeezed the testicles in his hand and using a very sharp knife cut a small slit and a testicle popped out and he then pulled it towards him until the long tube was tight and he cut it off. This was then repeated until he was de-balled. Hilton then removed the rope from under the calf and after the count of 3 we all jumped up and the calf slowly stood up and we let him re-join his mother in the other holding area.
This was repeated until all four calf’s were tagged, the worse one’s to catch by the way are the females and l even got kicked in the arm and l
am still sporting a giant bruise, but it was so worth it. We then sent 3 pairs into a different paddock next to the holding area to join about 50 other cows and then the rest were let back into the paddock they had come from. It was then time to make the journey back on our horses to the sables and enjoy the sun set from the top of the hills. Once back it was time to de-saddle and wash down our new best friends and we then made our way back to Pinky’s for a much needed cold beer.
Stage Three - Miles of fences need repairing every year from Kangaroo’s The horse by now needed a much deserved rest to today after breakfast it was time to travel this time by four wheels to a paddock where Kangaroo’s and wild pigs have managed to make large holes in the wire fences. So our job today was to learn how to repair these holes. We went to work thinking this would be a boring day, but this still ended up a great day with some new skills, like how to tighten the wires without
cutting them. Patching up big holes and making it safe for the cattle and horses. So after a few demonstrations we were split into small teams and given areas to walk along the fence line and repair what we came across.
A few days later we were then given the task to completed remove a whole holding paddock behind the sheering shed and that included removing fence post and barb wire. Once the area was cleared myself and Hilton then repaired the gate that was leaning over. I dug a hole beside the fence post and once ready Hilton attached a chain to the post and his jeep to pull it forward a bit. Once moved and the hole filled in the fence gate was fixed as it was bowed in the middle and it was then put back in place.
We then went to work on place new fencing posts into the ground and attach new wire around the new paddock, whilst doing this Brain asked me if would be able to help him with some fencing work in a paddock about a half hour drive away as he had seen new holes in them and a
few of his cattle had escaped into another paddock, so l let the group and we took the drive up more steep hills and across roads that had not been use for quite a while. Once there l went to work on mending holds with new wire and even took up a few fence posts that had been pushed over and re-fixed them into the ground. The views from this paddock were just as amazing and the drive back with the sun setting in the distance was a true outback experience.
Stage Four - Are sheep really that stupid? Another muster experience we had was to bring a herd of sheep down from the hills using our horses once again, the only difference between mustering cows and sheep is that sheep are so stupid and this mad the whole experience even more fun. So after breakfast and our horses ready to go we headed off up the hills and to a paddock with about 50 sheep. With sheep they tend to follow each other and we had to use the fence as a barrier all the way back. So once all rounded up we made a
tight ring around them and pushed them forwards along the fence line back to the farm and into the pens besides the sheering sheds.
After lunch it was time for some fun and games with the sheep, first we took turns to go into the pen and try, and l mean try to grab one of the sheep and hold it still. Very hard when as soon as you get near to any of them they all run to the other side of the pen, and when you do manage to get your hands on one of them, their wool has loads of thorns and needles that get into your hands. So after about 10 minutes of running around the pen l finally got one and Hilton then marks its head with a green chalk. We even marked on BBQ as this was to be used later in that day.
We then herded the sheep into the shearing shed were we got a lesson in sheep shearing. So the first trick was to get into the small and very packed pen with the sheep and get hold of one by standing on one side and leaning over and
picking up its two front legs, once holding the legs l had to drag the sheep towards me and out of the pen and into the shearing area. Now the next trick was to lift the sheep up high and wedge its right front leg behind my right leg to hold it in place. Once l was ready it was time to shear the wool from around its head, face and neck. At this time of year we do not shear the whole sheep as this area is heading towards winter and they only shear in the summer. Once done and glad that l had not sheared its eyes off l released him into the ramp and it was back in the holding pen outside once again.
Now back to BBQ the sheep As you may have guessed BBQ the sheep was to be slaughtered t that, and most of the group were eager to see just that, unfortunately when we got to the slaughter shed the sheep had already been killed and skinned. What we did see was Hilton remove the inner’s of the sheep and being made ready to be hung in a white
sack for the next couple of day before being butchered.
Stage Five - Put all this together and that’s a real cowboy! Normally on this 11 day course you only get to muster one lot of cattle and one lot of sheep, however we were really lucky that we got the chance to muster three herds of cattle including a herd of 200 heads in one of the furthest paddocks.
On one of these musters David, Bec’s and I were asked to go up a range of hills and bring down any cattle we could find. The enjoyment and pleasure of being able to get our horses to canter up these hills and round up cattle and hold them in place whilst wanting for the rest of the group to appear is a memory l will hold for ever.
Over the past 11 days l have achieved some of the most incredible memories and been able to do thing that l know many could only dream off. I have yet again made some fantastic new friends and look forward to meeting up again and chat about the incredible stories that we were able to be
Boff the Best Dog
More energy that any humanpart of.
Also a big thank you the Brian, Hilton, Suzie and the staff for making this a dream a reality.
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Andrew
non-member comment
Balls!
Oh my, that poor animan. I can think of much worthier creatures for ball removal! LOL. Looks great love. Sounds mean but can't wait to see yer! Andrew x