there be giants

LAUREN MITCHELL spends an afternoon glimpsing a different way to live, with the Thompson family of Sandy Creek Clydesdales.

It’s a still summer’s day when Bendigo Magazine visits the Sandy Creek Clydesdales stud on the outskirts of Maldon. Horses stand with their head low and a back hoof cocked, waiting out the late afternoon heat. A stone cottage humbly fronts the dirt road, as it has for more than 160 years.

Jaimie Thompson has just returned from the school run with six-yearold son Billie, while husband Matt rolls up in a tractor, with two-yearold Hunter beside him, all tousled blond hair and gumboots. It feels both special, yet ordinary all at once. And you’ve got to think, how does a young family come to live like this?

“People assume this is a generational thing,” Jaimie says. “But Matt started all of this from scratch when he was a teenager.”

Matt grew up on a sheep and cattle farm in nearby Muckleford, and as a young teen got the opportunity to learn some blacksmithing skills.

“The bloke who taught me had a couple of Clydesdales and he said to me, ‘If you’re going to be a blacksmith, you should get yourself some

Clydies’,” Matt recalls.

He collected one, then two, as you do, then at the age of 18 was offered the chance to purchase a five-horse team after their elderly owner passed away.

“I jumped in the deep end a little bit,” Matt says. “I had no idea what I was doing for a while. Going from two to seven horses in harness is a pretty big jump and I had to learn pretty quickly, but when we bought the team of five, they somehow came with an old bloke. Somehow. And he said, ‘I’ll come out and help you’. He was one of the last farmers off the horses in his district. He didn’t get out until he was about 30 and his dad had them before him. He had a good understanding of how to drive them.”

Meanwhile, Matt was undertaking another, more formal apprenticeship: in heavy fabrication at Taits Decorative Iron in Castlemaine, on the forge, crafting scrollwork. It was good practice not only for this profession, but for the countless horseshoes he’d soon be making. “It’s a lot cheaper to make them yourself,” he laughs.

The next phase in the evolution of Sandy Creek was an invitation, via Facebook, to drive the horse-drawn wagons at Ballarat theme park Sovereign Hill. “It’s not very often you get asked if you want a job, so I thought, why not?” There, Matt met Jaimie, who was also working with the horses.

“I come from a family where my mum was riding while pregnant, so I’ve literally been riding my whole life,” Jaimie says. “I went to pony club for 17 years, did all the shows, competed at nationals, then got to the stage in life where I needed a job. So I stopped riding for a little bit and started doing the normal nine-to-five. When I couldn’t daydream out the window anymore and saw a job at Sovereign Hill working with the horses, I thought I’d do that instead.”

The pair joined forces to create their unconventional life in Maldon, raising their family, looking after their myriad animals, and fostering the dying trade of working horses. Sandy Creek currently has 26 Clydesdales and an active breeding program that will see another seven foals born this year. The horses are used to help educate people who want to learn to drive in harness. They’re regularly floated around the country to attend heavy horse shows; they’re often seen in Maldon for special events and the odd Sunday trek; and the foals are carefully matched with people wishing to purchase, around Australia and overseas.

Matt says for a horse that once shaped the nation, Clydesdales are now an anomaly among horse owners. There’s only 3000 registered Clydesdales left in Australia and under 10,000 world-wide.

“It’s a dying trade,” Jaimie adds. “It is a lost trade, what we offer and what we do with our horses. Because it’s such an old breed, you’ve got to think that the generation that worked with them, they’re older too now. They’re relying on their children to carry on the breeding programs, but you have to love it to do it because there is no money in it.” And, there’s a lot of work.

During COVID-19 restrictions, Jaimie and Matt took the time to focus on their breeding program, welcoming seven foals last year. “In the horse world, Clydesdales are one of the hardest breeds of horses to breed,” Jaimie says. “Because they’re born so big, their immune system is quite weak. They’re also prone to getting stuck. Anything that you think can go wrong in breeding horses, Clydies are prone to it. We have to monitor them 24/7 for three weeks either side of when you think the due date is. We take it in turns to get up every two hours through the night to check them. You can put monitors on them, but nothing beats seeing what’s going on. We did it from August to December last year and it was a long season.”

Matt adds: “A lot of small breeders do it for a couple of years then say, no it’s too hard. But if we don’t do it, and others don’t do it, no one’s doing it… Our generation looks at it and goes, why would I want to do something that’s going to cost me so much time and money? It’s our passion.”

Although, it very nearly wasn’t. Back when Matt was 18 and on the cusp of a life with horses, he was also passionate about football. A talented player with the South Bendigo Football Club, he was hoping to be drafted into the AFL. He’d done the TAC draft camp and was on the field the day the scouts came. Then, he broke his shoulderblade during the game.

Matt stopped training four days a week to recover, and while the scouts were returning to see him play, he says he lost the drive for footy, and chose the horses instead.

“Sometimes I think I’d like to be a footballer’s trophy wife,” laughs Jaimie, quickly adding, “No, I’d get bored.”

We leave the family to transport a couple of horses to Maryborough that evening, then prepare to drive yet others up to Sydney for a national show that weekend. As Matt says: “It’s a lifestyle.”

After attending Bendigo’s Lost Trades Fair this March, Jaimie and Matt will be busy with Clydesdale Adventures during the Easter holidays. Visit the Sandy Creek Clydesdales Facebook page or website for details.

Lighting Up The Holidays

The countdown to Christmas officially commenced with the lighting of Bendigo’s beloved Christmas tree.

As Christmas spirit filled the Rosalind Park Piazza, joyful crowds were treated to plenty of festive fun as part of the Summer in the Parks kick-off. Ahead of the main event, swimming star Jenna Strauch gave an inspirational talk about her career.