Miniature Pony Stud Tour

Saturday the 12th of June.
By Jan Baldock

That was the day The Central Goldfields Miniature Pony Promotional Group had their stud tour. (First event for the group).

We set off nice and early and the plan was to meet in Daylesford where we would car pool.
Seven members of our very small group converged on John and Wendy Scerri of Spargo Creek Miniatures.

It was a bitterly cold day with rain and very sharp biting winds however we were not deterred. Wendy and John gave us a very informative tour of their property.

We walked down the lane between the paddocks and were given a running commentary on many of the ponies before reaching the bottom of the lane. Many of the ponies along the way acknowledged Wendy by showing off with their own special antics.
At the bottom of the lane Wendy called to a huge herd of ponies in the far paddock. On hearing and seeing Wendy, the ponies, came galloping flat out up to see her. It was a beautiful sight.

We heard little anecdotes on several of these ponies before heading back to the stables and having a look at how 'it' gets done at Spargo Creek.

Before departing we were invited to a morning tea of beautiful home made scones and jam and cream and hot drinks and whilst the group tucked in we continued to chat with John and Wendy.

We were very comfortable sitting and chatting but it was time to move on so we said our goodbyes and headed down the road to Small Packages Miniature Ponies in Lara.

Here we were met by Heather and Brian Cofield and Adrienne Johnston and her beautiful boys Blake and Dillon. Again we were taken to see the ponies.

We went into a paddock with several very quiet ponies. It became very clear just how quiet these ponies were as Dillon who is just 2 years old and Blake who is 4 years old wandered around the ponies on their own touching the ponies as they wanted with no objections from the ponies ,in fact very rarely did the ponies 'even blink'.

Heather and Adrienne gave us details on many of the ponies breeding histories as well as their Showing history. We then left this paddock and made visits to 2 further paddocks and on the second paddock Adrienne realized that a pony was missing. Heather had unbeknownst to Adrienne, sent a pony away for 'Breaking to harness' and Adrienne was not supposed to know. ..OOPS .

While we had been viewing the ponies Brian had cooked a Barbeque lunch, which we enjoyed immensely followed by a huge wine trifle. Once again we were all feeling very relaxed and comfortable enjoying the company of our Hosts.

We then moved on to visit Wendy Chirgwin and Maree Stringer at Callais Miniature Ponies literally just down the road from Small Packages Stud.

It was wonderful to see Wendy in the paddock with the stallion and for us to watch as this Stallion was put through his paces, no headstall, no lead rope and then for Wendy to have a game where she would kick the soccer ball to the pony and he would return the ball.

We continued looking at the ponies and learning a little about their Showing or breeding history and every so often Maree would prompt Wendy on the names of the ponies as the ponies have paddock names which are quite different to their Stud names.

We were given a brief rundown on treatments for different ailments that ponies may be afflicted with and shown over the Stables then once again headed off for afternoon tea where we continued to chat around the outside fireplace until late. It was after 5.30 and dark and still very cold when we said our farewells and headed home after a great day.

The generosity and hospitality shown to us by these 3 groups of people from Spargo Creek ,Small Packages and Callais Studs was wonderful and somewhat humbling. What a Day.
A huge thank you to Maureen and John Judd for organising a great day.