With a number of young Walers coming on at Treasure’s Walers, John’s dad, Doug is selling a mixed bag of horses. The following are for sale and Doug can be reached on (03) 5145 6353.

Nimbus, a grey gelding 15 HH born 1997. Mother, Kye, was my wife’s stockhorse. Father an appaloosa. Great grandfather was reputedly Ashton’s Circus horse. Nimbus is a good reliable strong horse.

Thunder, a bay Morgan brumby X. 15.1 HH. Born Sept 2002. Father, Joshua, imported from USA by Pauline Wallace, Marjorca, Vic. Still owned by Pauline. Mother, Stormy, a hardy brumby mare, my daughter’s pony. Thunder is a free moving strong horse, active, easy to ride.

Rocky, A chestnut Morgan stockhorse X 15.0 HH. Born 9/11 2000. Father Joshua Imp.Mother, Sunny, a part arab station stockhorse. We are still breeding Sunny to our Waler stallion. Rocky is a real goer.

Sprinkles, a grey gelding, 15.3 HH, half brother to Nimbus, out of a quiet thoroughbred mare. Born 1997. Sprinkles has been my horse for years, the one I ride to muster cows or ride on protests to Parliament house in Melbourne.

Major, a bay Waler gelding 15.0 HH from Newhaven Station, my first Waler. Born 2001 in the wild. A docile and strong plodder. Get the spurs on, and he comes to life.

This is to show you that a Waler can vary in size.

This is my great grandfather Harry Lewis Treasure and he stood at 5′ 10″ tall or 178cm or thereabouts.

Just about every day he saddled at least one horse because his job was to supply the mail and supplies to various gold miners all year round.

The trek began at Harrietville, at the foot of Mt. Hotham, and the supplies were to be delivered in and around the Dargo High Plains.

He needed to travel in all types of weather and conditions. So did his horses and this gelding would have been no exception.

He amassed large tracts of grazing country thanks largely to his waler horses.

Mayford — Filly

Born 2006 at the Treasure Family Property.

Dam - Omeo (foundation Newhaven mare)
Sire - Unknown (foundation Newhaven mare)

This little horse comes up to us in the paddock and is very inquisitive. She will make a great horse for a person with some experience and will grow to about 14hh or a little less. Seems very gentle and will be easily trained.

If interested email John.

The chestnut mare is ‘Omeo’ and we have named her foal with the two hind white socks ‘Mitta’.

Omeo’s first foal was a chestnut filly ‘Mayford’.

If you are interested email John

Tussock is a filly, born in 2004. She will joined this breeding season to Akbar, our handsome stallion.

Tussock stands at 15hh and the foal to be born this time next year will be around that height also. She has a lovely nature with a robust body. She will make somebody a very good and valuable horse.

This dear little chunky foal by Akbar was born September 2007 out of Newhaven Waler mare, Snowgum.

We’ve decided to call him Sapper which is an army term and relates back to trees, ie, sapling, which reminds us he came from Snowgum!

If you like the look of him, he’s for sale once weaned. Email John for more information.

You are a long way ahead of the game with any sort of animal training when you can spend lots of time with them and become their friend.

This photograph shows my grandfather, Jim Treasure, training his bovines with salt.

Loud calls of ‘Saaaalt … Saaaaho!’ travel long distances through the clear mountain air and hours later cattle can still be seen hastily making their way towards the open snowgrass plains where Pa has laid handfuls of rock salt.

These cattle are travelling from Castleburn to Dargo in north Gippsland, Victoria.

They are on their way to the Dargo High Plains for summer grazing and would have made the trip back to Castleburn around Anzac Day … four months later.

This droving scene is still common these days and the similar Waler horse blood lines to the horse pictured still tail the mob.

At the age of 14, I remember my little horse not hesitating to swim across this river and back again to bring a very young calf back to his mum.

The families of the mountain districts of Gippsland and the North East of Victoria occasionally would get together and organise ’social meets’. It may be a weekend ‘race meets’ or a ‘games days’ for the kids to play together.

This photo, at Mount St Bernard (south west of Mt. Hotham), shows members of the Treasure family and some of their work colleagues and friends all dressed up.

These Walers and their riders would have just arrived at the top of the Great Divide from the Dargo High Plains or Harrietville on a social visit. A very steep and arduous climb even now with the bitumen road.

These horses are typical walers. Solid bodies and strong chest, yet still agile and speedy enough to head off a runaway beast heading for cover amongst the snowgums.

Obviously these horses seen here are around the 15hh mark, but they do vary in size. Waler horses can be as small as 12hh and the larger up to 17hh.

It’s worming time at the Treasure’s. Kids, adults, pups, sheep, dogs and horses. We’re busy people, so our animals need to be easy to handle when it comes to worm tablets and pastes.

Our foal Whipcrack is so naturally quiet, that despite his lack of handling, he calmly took his dose then loaded straight onto the float to be moved up the road to a fresh paddock.

Just gotta go worm the kids now — Hopefully they’ll be as easy to handle!