Re: Pat Ritter. Books
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:47 pm
'The Drover' - Page 4:
Mervyn Barrington, his uncle, cleared bore drains for a living, using draft horses to tow a delver. A delver is steel constructed ‘A’ frame appliance with wooden wings on either side. Up to 14 draft horses towed the delver through the bore drains to clear silt or rubbish and allow the water to flow from the bore head along miles of drain to water stock.
From an early age Harry possessed an ‘eye’ for a horse. Shape, conformation, colour, head shape, distance between the eyes, sensibility and most important the horse’s personality.
There were rogues and also well behaved horses, much like humans. He reckoned when he harnessed his uncle’s draft horses and hitched them behind the delver he spoke in their language; he knew each by name and had them eat from the palm of his hand to do what he wanted them to do.
His hands guided the draft horses through miles of bore drain, clearing roly-poly bur which blocked the water flow. If the roly-poly was not cleared from the bore drain, the drain became blocked and water overflowed from the drain out across the land, thereby stopping the water flow to the end of the bore drain.
He learned young in life, hard work never killed anyone.
In between working for his uncle, he helped his father in droving cattle or sheep, mainly as the horse tailer. His job as a horse tailer, to ensure all of the horses were shod regularly; feed and watered and to load and unload the pack saddles from the packhorses. Pack saddles were used to carry most of their equipment and food. Another chore he did was feed and take care of the dogs; at times he attended to ten dogs.
His father taught him how to work from dawn until dusk without complaint and to do the job right in the first place so that way there were no mistakes and the job need not be done again.
After Harry worked for his father and uncle for a couple of years he was earnest to go out on his own as a drover to prove he could do it. By this time he’d acquired three horses, one to ride and two to carry gear in the pack saddles. With his three dogs and horses; he had his first droving plant.
His first droving contract actually came by accident or opportunity.
One day while he was helping his father move one thousand sheep from a property west of St George to Dirranbandi, a truck overturned on the side of the roadway not far from where they were droving. The cattle crate on the overturned truck held six bulls that escaped from the crate. Instinctively, Harry whistled his dogs and in no time stopped the bulls from escape.
‘Who are you?’ The truck driver called to Harry.
‘Harry Williams.’ The shy 13 year old lad replied.
‘Obviously you know a thing or two about cattle – how about taking these bulls to Bollon for me. I’ll pay you.’
‘Oh yeah alright,’ his face had a grin from ear to ear, ‘I’d better ask me Dad first though’. His father agreed.
TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK CLICK HERE: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766
Mervyn Barrington, his uncle, cleared bore drains for a living, using draft horses to tow a delver. A delver is steel constructed ‘A’ frame appliance with wooden wings on either side. Up to 14 draft horses towed the delver through the bore drains to clear silt or rubbish and allow the water to flow from the bore head along miles of drain to water stock.
From an early age Harry possessed an ‘eye’ for a horse. Shape, conformation, colour, head shape, distance between the eyes, sensibility and most important the horse’s personality.
There were rogues and also well behaved horses, much like humans. He reckoned when he harnessed his uncle’s draft horses and hitched them behind the delver he spoke in their language; he knew each by name and had them eat from the palm of his hand to do what he wanted them to do.
His hands guided the draft horses through miles of bore drain, clearing roly-poly bur which blocked the water flow. If the roly-poly was not cleared from the bore drain, the drain became blocked and water overflowed from the drain out across the land, thereby stopping the water flow to the end of the bore drain.
He learned young in life, hard work never killed anyone.
In between working for his uncle, he helped his father in droving cattle or sheep, mainly as the horse tailer. His job as a horse tailer, to ensure all of the horses were shod regularly; feed and watered and to load and unload the pack saddles from the packhorses. Pack saddles were used to carry most of their equipment and food. Another chore he did was feed and take care of the dogs; at times he attended to ten dogs.
His father taught him how to work from dawn until dusk without complaint and to do the job right in the first place so that way there were no mistakes and the job need not be done again.
After Harry worked for his father and uncle for a couple of years he was earnest to go out on his own as a drover to prove he could do it. By this time he’d acquired three horses, one to ride and two to carry gear in the pack saddles. With his three dogs and horses; he had his first droving plant.
His first droving contract actually came by accident or opportunity.
One day while he was helping his father move one thousand sheep from a property west of St George to Dirranbandi, a truck overturned on the side of the roadway not far from where they were droving. The cattle crate on the overturned truck held six bulls that escaped from the crate. Instinctively, Harry whistled his dogs and in no time stopped the bulls from escape.
‘Who are you?’ The truck driver called to Harry.
‘Harry Williams.’ The shy 13 year old lad replied.
‘Obviously you know a thing or two about cattle – how about taking these bulls to Bollon for me. I’ll pay you.’
‘Oh yeah alright,’ his face had a grin from ear to ear, ‘I’d better ask me Dad first though’. His father agreed.
TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK CLICK HERE: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766