Our Furry Friends
Host: Farrcombe Contracting
Written by Raine Farrcombe – Owner, Farrcombe Contracting.
I apologise in advance for all the stories of our furry family members. We own 27 horses and 16 dogs and each and every day they give us laughter, tears and great pleasure. We simply cannot imagine life without our furry friends.
Earlier this year Potter and I attended the annual Landmark Tamworth Horse Sale, this has become our yearly holiday as we spend close to a week at Tamworth each time we attend the sale. This year was super exciting for us as a young mare which we purchased the year before was entered into the challenge event. ‘Ann Henry’ spent time with NT based trainer Wayne Bean prior to the competition, Wayne also presented Annie in the challenge. Potter and I believed that Wayne was the perfect choice to prep and showcase Annie and her talents as he is an exceptional horse trainer and competitor. Wayne emphasizes the importance of taking young horses along slowly and never applied too much pressure to our precious mare. We entered Annie into the challenge as an experience for her and never in our wildest dreams expected her and Wayne to make the finals! The excitement of making the finals was the highlight of our week and although we didn’t place we could not have asked for more from horse or trainer.
Ann Henry in the finalist lineup at Tamworth (horse closest to the drawbar of float).
This obviously fuelled our excitement and so we went and purchased another two horses from the sale. This time we purchased a competitive mare for myself to compete on and a young two year old for Potter as a project. So far we are very pleased with these purchases as my mare has made finals every weekend and won me the Ladies campdraft at the Katherine ASHS Draft earlier this year. The two year old is very developed for his age and with the same breeding as Annie we expect a very big future for him.
A couple of weeks ago our canine family sustained a horrific injury. Tater, a young blue kelpie bitch that we bred ourselves sustained a ruptured eyeball while working in the yards. After a quick phone call to the vet from the satellite phone, I packed my overnight bag into the car with Tater and off we went on the five hour emergency trip to town. As the eye was ruptured it had to be removed. Tater is a very tough dog and has recovered well, she doesn’t seem to notice her 40% loss of sight but I cringe every time I see her collide with something.
A brave Tater on the trip home after her eye was removed.
Only two days after we returned back to camp after Tater’s emergency trip, our first litter of puppies for the year were born. This was Miley’s second ever litter, while last year she had six puppies this year she only had two. This is unusual for a Kelpie but we were a little relieved as our canine family is already up to 16. Two identical looking healthy boys were born under the dolly of our gooseneck trailer and they were named Starsky and Hutch.
We have a small crop of foals which will need to be weaned and handled later this year. I thoroughly love this job as I enjoy the challenge of learning the different personalities of the foals and yearlings. Our three foals Scallywag, Rumour, and Bedrock all currently live at my parent’s place. We had hoped to send some mares to stallions during the last wet season, but due to flooding at Newcastle Waters Station where our horses are kept during this time, we were unable to get them out to take to QLD with us. No doubt we will attempt this again this upcoming wet season.
My new mare.