Bill Mahncke approaches the paddock with a biscuit of lucerne in each hand and holds them out to his eager girls.
Like excited school children they rush up to the fence when they see what is coming.
“You can’t expect them to do something for you, if you don’t give them a reward,” the 84-year-old horse trainer and farmer explains as he doles out the hay.
Bill regards these Clydesdale horses with great affection.
Like his father before him, and his grandfather before him, he visits them each day and the trust they show indicates the affection is returned.
His ancestors would harness them for work, but these days for Bill, the pleasure lies in showing them.
A young foal, only one-month-old, boldly snuffles into his hand, looking for her own reward. Mares can be very protective of their offspring, but it appears the contact with Bill has calmed their interaction with the visitors.
These are the workhorses which helped pioneer farming in the Goulburn Valley, pulling early farm implements and harnessed to earth moving equipment, they scoured out the first irrigation channels.
Now days they are mostly polished up for public displays, drawing crowds at agricultural shows and special events.
They still retain their majestic presence.
Gentle giants, Bill calls them, because one of the things he likes is their placid nature.
He jokes that they would have to be calm, because you couldn’t stop them if they weren’t. “They’re bigger than you!”
Intelligent? It’s a moot point for Bill; he debates with his horsewoman daughter, Bev Bell, about that because he says if you train them the wrong way, then they will do the wrong thing. Like children, he says.
Bill’s grandfather harnessed three Clydesdales to take fresh vegetables from Burwood to the Queen Victoria Market in the Melbourne CBD.
His dad similarly loaded up vegetables from the Mt Waverley district. He was one of the last to transport vegetables to market in this way.
Cauliflowers, cabbages, onions and parsnips were loaded onto a lorry pulled by the horses.
Manure from the horses was used to fertilise the vegetable crops.
Clydesdales originated in Scotland and were imported into Australia in increasing numbers during the 1850s gold rushes.
The Lavereen Stud, founded in Goorambat in 1920, is one of the oldest continuing on the same property across Australia, and is run by the Trewin family.
Bill Mahncke’s first job was to look after a stable of horses in Camberwell, before getting work on a farm at Maryborough where horses were also harnessed for work.
He moved to Wangaratta and eventually the family moved to Picola, where Bill still lives and farms the 150 hectares of grazing land and crops.
Daughter Bev Bell is secretary of the Clydesdale Association, which is running a National Clydesdale and Heavy Horse Festival at Werribee Park on January 18 and 19.
Her family plans to show several horses in the led sections.
Festival president Bill Jackson said January’s 17th festival will have a particular focus on entertainment for children and families and the more adventurous can have supervised contact with the Clydesdales.
They are expecting 80 to 100 horses from Victoria and interstate.