I think horses have a ‘Guardian Angel’

This writer is not a religious person by any means but I am a bit lost for an explanation for what happened to 53 harness racing horses over the weekend in at Durham Park Standardbreds.

Situated on 400 acres of rolling countryside thirty minutes south east of Ballarat, Durham Park was established by Bruce Edwards in 2006 and has quickly become one of the pre-eminent standardbred nurseries in Victoria.

Bruce had built up an outstanding band of North American, New Zealand and Australian mares and everything was on track for this years round of yearling sales when the fire struck late last week.

The staff had to leave in such a hurry there was no time to grab any clothes or possessions and there was just no time to even think about moving the horses.

When Bruce was let back in on Saturday afternoon, he was immediately confronted by evidence of the ferocity of the fire.

What he saw left Bruce numb.

" There was no fences, no sheds, no house, no water in the dams – just nothing."

" There wasn't one blade of grass you could see on the property."

" Unbelievably I came across the horses who seemed to have somehow survived the carnage."

" However before we could do anything, we were kicked out again due to the danger from the fire," Bruce explained when talking to Harnesslink today.

The next morning Bruce was allowed to go back onto his farm by authorities but he was quite nervous about what he might find.

" The noise and smoke from the fire was huge and with the helicopters adding to that, I thought the horses would be spread far and wide over the property as we had no fences at all and I wasn't sure how many may have survived the inferno."

" To my amazement they were still where they had been the day before."

" I thought getting halters on them and loading them on to the floats would be fraught with problems but they stood there like lambs and walked straight on."

"We had sixteen unbroken yearlings there but we caught them all with no problems and unbelievably they loaded onto Clayton Tonkin's truck as though they had been doing it all their life."

"We moved the whole lot in four hours over to Clayton and Emma's property and after we did a headcount we found we hadn't  lost a single horse."

" I didn't know some of the float people who turned up to help but I can't thank them enough."

"Special thanks must go to Clayton and Emma who were just brilliant," Bruce said.

Since the fire Bruce has been humbled by the offers of help from all over Australia.

" I have had over 100 calls from all over Australia offering feed, agistment and help which is really quite humbling."

" One call was from Alan Galloway and I was just gobsmacked by the offer he made to me" 

" Alan offered to graze the whole 53 horses we took off Durham Park on Sunday for six months free of charge.

"On top of that he gave us access to his barn complex so we now have somewhere to prepare our yearlings for the sales and there is accommodation included for my staff as well."

" I grabbed the offer as my staff lost everything in the fire and this will help them get back on their feet."

" The horses are being treated for smoke inhalation at the moment but will be moved to Alabar as soon as that has been completed."

"I can't thank Alan Galloway enough, he has been a life saver," Bruce said

Alan Galloway was also behind another initiative to help Bruce get back on his feet.

"Bruce has been a great client of ours for many years and we were only to happy to step up and help out."

" On top of the grazing and use of our facilities, Alabar Bloodstock has got together with Blue Chip Farms in New York, Pepper Tree Farm and Muscara Standardbreds to offer services to Art Major, He's Watching and Auckland Reactor.

" We hope that Courage Under Fire will join the offer in the next few hours."

All the money raised from the sale of the services will be forwarded to Bruce," Alan said.

At the end of the day, we should be really thankful that no human or horse loss their life in this fire.

Post fire we have been able to witness that great camaraderie that exists in the harness racing industry where industry participants will always reach out to those in need

As to how to explain 53 horses going through a firestorm and coming out the other end unscathed, that one I can't answer

Harnesslink Media