Brenton and Josh Taylor putting their three horses through their Unicorn paces at the Melbourne Royal.
No-one who grew up with it will ever forget it.
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The measured clip-clop of the stately Clydesdale pulling the baker’s van, or the milko’s, as they went about their daily rounds.
If you were home sick from school, or during the holidays, the biggest treat was being allowed to sit, what seemed so high up on the cart, and staying there until the end of your street, when you had to surrender the reins and come back down to earth.
Not that you needed to really hold the reins, their leather burnished by years of handling, because that grand old heavy horse knew exactly how many houses to go in each street before stopping and waiting for the driver to return.
For me, that was 60 (plus a few) years ago, but even today, the sound of the Billabong Ranch coach trotting down High St always, and immediately, transports me to a small town childhood and an equally childish delight in being (in my imagination) in charge of such a massive, but majestic animal, with his feathered hooves and kind and calm face.
These days there’s no billy at the front door to be filled by the milko, no baker swinging through the wide open back door with his “hey, ho, missus, what will it be today?” as he dumped his wicker basket on the table and whipped off its gingham cover to reveal the day’s delights.
But a Clydesdale, any Clydesdale, is a living treasure of those quieter, slower, more peaceful times, which is why the Melbourne Royal success of the Taylor family was an opportunity too good to pass.
Three generations of Taylors with their majestic heavy horse at this year’s Melbourne Royal.
Three generations of the Echuca family have taken three of their heavy horses to Melbourne and cleaned up in the Clydesdale competition.
There’s something almost regal about these legendary draught horses going through their paces, and seeing them pulling traditional carts around the showring, is a rare window into another world.
Josh Taylor, his father Brenton, and 16-year-old daughter Lily, took 12-year-old Narioka Carlyle (known to his mates as Jimmy), 21-year-old veteran McMurchie Blair (yes, Macca to the gang in the paddock) and Narioka Monitor (a.k.a. the 13-year-old Bailey) with a swag of ribbons in events such as the champion delivery in a traditional vehicle (a.k.a. my childhood memories), or success in the pair of Clydesdales, the team of three and the unicorn – which has two horses on a pole and one in front as the lead.
But the moment which may have made Josh Taylor a little misty eyed, was when Lily was declared winner of the Wee Willie Junior Handler, under 18 years.
Which was named for William Matheson (Wee Willie) from Scotland, who judged Clydesdales at the Royal five times and worked on Australia’s largest Clydesdale studs in the early 1900s.
“I won that award 23 years ago, so it was really special to see Lily receive it, you don’t see that happening very often,” Josh said.
It’s a family affair when it comes to getting three seriously big horses and a lorry to Melbourne for the Clydesdale competition.
“Lily also won the presentation award for her age – where you have to prepare your horse by washing, clipping, plaiting and leading it out,” he explained.
The Taylor family’s equine enthusiasm stretches back to Josh’s great-grandfather and his work with the legendary Lighthorse Brigade.
“It was easy – and probably inevitable – to get hooked, I spent years as a youngster watching dad work with them, going to shows, meetings and just kept on doing all that,” Josh said.
Lily Taylor followed in her father’s footsteps from 23 years ago and took out the prestigious Wee Willie award.
“We did take a break from showing at the Royal for a few years, and this is the first time we have had multiple winners, so we’re a bit hooked all over again and keen to get more of those broad ribbons,” he grinned.
“And we certainly didn’t expect to do this well, in fact, we were way behind schedule on the restoration we were doing for our market garden lorry as our delivery vehicle.
“I reckon we were putting the final coat of paint on it as we were loading up for the trip – we probably should have put a ‘wet paint’ sign on it when we got there – so we were blown away to have this much success.”
But the Taylors had no time to rest on their laurels.
Instead, they had to pack up their ribbons, get the horses back to Echuca, unpack the show gear and repack the pioneer regalia and head for Barellan and its annual Good Old Day Festival – held at the weekend.
Turnaround time from Melbourne to Barellan (just 340km up the road from Echuca) was less than 24 hours.
The Barellan event is a three-day volunteer-run gathering celebrating Australian pioneer heritage and the nation’s largest gathering of harnessed draught animals.
For the Taylors it was back to work, and school, first thing Monday after a lot of driving, competing and showing, but good old Jimmy, Macca and Bailey were simply back in their Lancaster paddock for a gentle bit of grazing and a much simpler time ahead.
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