Horses have played a major part in the life of passionate horseman Harold Clarke since he was a little boy of three, learning to ride his very first pony.
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He loved being in the saddle from that first moment.
As he went from boyhood to his teenage years and into adulthood, his entire life was to revolve around the equine industry.
Born in 1949 at Numurkah, Harold was one of seven children born to Alice Draper of Narrandera and Bill Clarke to grow up in the district.
He and his siblings attended Cobram Consolidated School until Year 8, when Harold ended his formal education and began working with his dad on the farm.
Initially, the family ran a dairy farm in Katamatite before buying 1500 acres of dry land at Yarroweyah where they grew crops and ran beef cattle.
Horses became a major interest and an important part of their business where they bred and sold highly prized Arabians.
His mum Alice was a keen horse woman living in Narrandera before her marriage to Bill.
She would occasionally saddle up her horse, Toby, a former racehorse, and journey down to see Bill at Picola, a distance of 281.1km.
She would be away from home over a seven-day period.
The much loved Toby died on their property at the grand age of 45 years.
Harold was young and fit and loved the work on the farm, especially working with the horses.
At the time, the family had about 50 horses and foals, so there was plenty for the young teenager to do, including breaking in the young horses.
It was around the age of 14 years that Harold showed an interest in becoming a farrier and pestered the first of three farriers about a job.
“I learned a lot from him!” Harold said.
He also went on to work and learn from two other farriers to achieve his accreditation as a fully qualified farrier.
Towards the end of the decade, serious drought conditions hit the region.
With 50 horses and foals to keep amid devastating falling prices, when foals were selling for as little as £30 each, the 1950-60s were difficult for the family.
“During the drought years, I would milk cows and then head off to shoe horses for the day. They were tough times!” Harold said.
“When we sold off our 90 cows and took on the horses full-time, we realised it was a good decision.”
The job of a farrier was physically demanding for young Harold, requiring a strong back, legs and wrists.
Harold began to show his skills and increase his knowledge to the point where often clients would call for his services over and above that of shoeing their horse.
Having been around horses all his life, he knew and understood them and, in effect, gained skills that weren’t exactly expected from a farrier.
He became something of a horse whisperer and on one particular occasion treated a racehorse with a bad back that nobody else had been able to fix.
“She would squeal with the pain, but I treated her and rested her for a month, and she went on to win a race at Seymour her first time back at 32/1,” Harold said.
“The happy owner still employs me to look after her horses today.”
Harold worked seven days a week, shoeing up to 25 horses a day, while also looking after racehorses in the area.
Some of his clients have remained loyal to him for more than 25 years, continuing until their horses had died.
They had confidence in his ability and could see he had a special affinity and love for the animals.
An unusual request some years ago from one particular client was her desire to have Harold train her Arabian stallion to bow at her wedding.
It took him just three weeks, much to the owner’s delight.
Today, Harold, now aged 77, has scaled back his commitments and works just three days a week. Yet, if heading for Melbourne he is up at 4am and returns home again that night, after a long day.
“I have quietened down a bit now. I rise at 5am and generally am in bed around 8.30pm to 9pm,” he said.
“I do travel a lot, however, to Kilmore, Donnybrook and Nagambie and as farriers we all have our own areas and I like to look after clients that I have known for many years.”
When he is not heading out on a job, he has crops of lucerne and oats to look after and just three horses, one whom he continues to ride today.
In chatting with Harold, I learned he had lived nearby to Tom Haynes when the two young bucks went bulldog riding and rode saddle broncs at local rodeos.
I asked Harold about the interest from the next generations in becoming farriers.
“Sadly, farriery is a dying art,” Harold said.
“When studying a course, there is too much theory and not enough practical experience for them to learn properly.
“Hard physical work is involved, and they find their backs start playing up.
“I understand, yet I go to the chiro or physio when I need to and have a spa bath, and then I am OK, despite more than 60 years on the job.
“I guess I have just got used to it.”
Undeniably he did become used to the physical toil of being a farrier, yet it has been his great love and respect for horses that has enabled him to continue on at such a wonderful age and feel good about what he does.
A father of four, Harold believes his kids had a good country upbringing, surrounded by animals while learning respect for some of nature’s gentle giants.
The four have all taken different career paths in life, each with success: Courtney, a DJ living in Portugal; Josh, an owner of three coffee shops; Luke, a welder in his own business, and Daniel, a Cobram physiotherapist.
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