Aussie Horse Hero Who Sheltered Pasturemates from Fire Nominated for Bravery Award

by Fran Jurga | 18 September 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Retired Australian police drum horse Paddy with his officer/owner.

Maybe you'd better grab a tissue before you read this post.

A retired police horse from Australia named Paddy has been nominated for the RSPCA's Purple Cross award, which is given to animals who exhibit behavior that we humans would interpret as "courage".

I hope you will follow the link to the story and read it in its entirety, but this is it in a nutshell: a retired 19-year-old Clydesdale police horse is out in the paddock as the horrific "Black Saturday" wildfires threaten his owner's property in the state of Victoria.

The owner, a policeman, is busy hosing down his house. Paddy, meanwhile, rounds up the sheep and goats in the paddock (which in Australia is what we'd call a pasture and can be many acres), and shelters them from the fire and heat under his huge frame.

Every once in a while, the owner comes down to the paddock and hoses Paddy down and makes sure he is all right. He said afterwards that Paddy never moved despite the embers falling from the sky and the wind roaring up the valley.

When the small animals try to go astray, Paddy rounds them up and nudges them back under the shelter of his huge body.

And so the fires passed.

In his owner's words: "He stood there and did what I asked him. If you can have that sort of communication, all the big parades and the big accolades we've had as gendarme can't compare to that because that was when the chips were really down. I asked him to do something and he said, righto, I'll do that. And that's what he did."

So Paddy was nominated for the RSPCA's prestigious award.

Sadly, news reports from Australia today tell us that Paddy stumbled and fell on Tuesday while out for a hack and was euthanized.

Please click here to read the moving story about Paddy, which was written before his untimely death.

The Purple Cross originated with the Purple Cross Society, which was formed to support the horses of Australia's famed Light Horse Brigade. If you are interested in horse history, there is no better reading than the exploits of this brave crew of horsemen, particularly during their Middle Eastern campaign during World War I, including the battles at Beersheeba and Gallipoli. Their story is marred by tragic suffering and loss and decorated with gallantry and superior horsemanship.

Also of historic interest: Paddy served as a ceremonial drum horse with the Victoria Police in Melbourne. The use of mounted police in that city dates back to 1836, making it even older than the late, great Boston mounted police in the USA, which was recently shuttered by city budget cuts so that Ted Kennedy's funeral had no horse escorts.

Make-Yourself-Watch-It Video: Veterinary Heroes of Australia's "Black Saturday" Bush Fires

by Fran Jurga | 7 April 2009 | The Jurga Report

The last time I checked,we're in a lull between disasters here in the United States, except possibly for the Alaskan volcano causing a lot of respiratory sensitivity in horses. Hopefully, not too many horses were affected by the earthquake in Italy.

But if I log onto Twitter, I'm sure to find that something has gone wrong somewhere.

I have hoarded these two videos from Australia, and waited to post them now because we all know that the spring fire season and the winds will be starting soon, and it's good to have some sobering reminders of how bad things can get.

But on another level, veterinarians have been taking a bashing lately on many fronts.(Have you read the blog "badvetsdaily.com"? Now there's someone with an ax to grind!) There's nothing like a disaster to bring out the good vets...or maybe it's to bring the good out in every vet.





Meet Australia's Drs. John Butler, who lost his house to the fire, but not his will to help animals, and Judith Mulholland, who drove from afar to help out however she can during the crisis.



Dr. Jude made this mini-documentary soon after the February 22nd disastrous wildfire ripped through a once horse-happy suburb of Melbourne. Click here to visit her terrific website.



Finally, here's a horse owner re-united with what looks like an Arabian stallion in pretty good shape. The owner seems somewhat in shock still that her horse is in such good shape, while so many others are dead. She is a very lucky woman.

For Australia to have suffered the terrible insult of the equine influenza epidemic last year that shut down racing and showing and breeding, as well as a terrible drought and now to have this disaster to overcome, is quite a burden.

The economy is not any better there than it is here, but the people have surely shown us what strength of spirit and love for animals is all about.

Brumbies Steal the Show at Australia's Equitana Asia-Pacific

Written by Fran Jurga | 19 November 2008 | The Jurga Report at EquiSearch.com


As the curtain rose today on the Equitana Asia-Pacific exhibition in Melbourne, Victoria, Australian horse lovers must have breathed a sigh of relief. Just a year ago, the blockbuster event had to be canceled as Equine Influenza (EI) swept through the neighboring state of New South Wales and, further north, through Queensland.

As thousands of horses sniffled and coughed, racetracks shut down, rodeos and shows were canceled. All horse transport stopped. You couldn't even trailer your horse to a trainer or ship a mare to be bred. It was the first time the highly-contagious disease had been known in Australia. It gripped the nation's equine economy by the throat and held on for six months. At one point, there were doubts that Australian horses and riders would be allowed to compete at the 2008 Olympics. It was a dark time.

Equitana was one of the many events canceled but it was re-scheudled for this year. This huge festival of horsedom includes exhibitions, a giant trade show, clinics, nightly circus-like performing horse acts, and the creation of a re-united tribe, for a few days anyway, that is relaxing and enjoying the shows.

How would you choose between clinics by Australia's Olympic eventer Clayton Fredericks, the USA's natural horse-couple of Pat and Linda Parelli, or the Danish dressage rider Andreas Helgstrand? Tough one.

I know one clinic I wouldn't want to miss. Greg Powell is the man from snowy river, himself, a brumby (Australian for wild horse) expert who has been active to save the wild horses of the New South Wales mountain ranges. Greg has been working with a program called Youth Off the Streets that involves troubled kids in the training of brumbies. I think I would make time to listen to anyone who says things like:

"As a society we (should be) embarrassed about what we've done to our wild horses," he said yesterday in an interview with The Age newspaper as he prepped his crew of brumbies for his Equitana show. "The street kids get swept under the carpet in the same way." They say that three months out with the brumbies is worth five years of counseling and therapy.

Madeleine Pickens, are you reading this? (See Monday's post on this blog about Texas equine activist Ms. Pickens, who is working to "adopt" the 30,000 or so wild horses currently penned by the US government; she's going to need some helpers when and if her plan succeeds.)

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Age about Greg, or click here to go to his web site.

And call me if you can tell me how he got four wild horses to pose for that picture.