ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Zondrae's poem about men still using horses instead of helicopters to muster made me think of this adventure. I recently watched a cattle drive from an island to the mainland. Yes, the cattle have to swim through ocean to get to shore, mind you it's only belly deep at low tide. They yard the cattle near the island's bank, wait until low tide then push them in small groups through a v shaped yard into the water with riders riding on either side of them to push them in the right direction til they get to a bit of a mud flat then a bit more water, another mud flat, etc until they get to shore - about half to one kilometre all up I guess. There was a lot of mooing and bawling cos the first few didn't want to go, men were whistling, whips cracking, dogs barking, water splashing, geez it was exciting! Finally a few did as they were told, then the rest of the 400 head followed in a line. Next time, the property owners are going to take me in their boat so I can take better photos.

And I just know Marty and Martyboy are going to make some sort of joke out of the photo title ...

Is that a confused face Martyboy? "Cattle drive across the ocean" (the comment at the top of the photo, not the bottom) ... I thought you'd pick on that for sure!

Hi Kym - that would be a sight to see but is not unusual I seem to remember they muster horses in the Carmargue area of France in similar fashion and this video clip is old but amazing how they saved over 100 horses from floodwaters by swimming them out.

It always amazes me how animals are such good swimmers even elephants and they just do it - no swimming lessons. Even the littlies can do it. How is that so? Humans don't have the same knack. We have to be taught.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8iSYMkFO2A

Cheers

Maureen

One of the things on my bucket list is to see the swimming of the Chincoteague ponies. I read the stories "Misty of Chincoteague", "Stormy, Misty's Foal" and others (by Marguerite Henry) as a child and thought it was just a made-up story, but it is true. Every year it happens and I'd love to see it.

It's amazing how fast horses can swim. My daughters often played on their ponies in the creek, cantering into the water, jumping off them, etc. The ponies would wade through the water, slow when walking, but when they got into deep water, they just motored like they had an outboard under their tail! When we took them to the beach, we were flat out holding them to stop them going in the water. I'm sure the little bay mare wanted to swim out to the islands.