Heath Ryan and Southern Cross Nova at Quirindi 3DE
Tamworth is fast becoming a real centre of equestrian excellence. The great facilities at AELEC provide the perfect venue for all sorts of equestrian pursuits and over the past two weeks there has been eventing action at Tamworth ODE and the Speedcheck International 3 Day Event at Quirindi.
However there may be another good reason to visit this part of the world if you are serious about eventing, and that is Southern Cross Warmbloods. Owned and operated by Norm and Judy Hindmarsh this warmblood stud, located at Daruka, breeds horses who successfully compete in dressage, showjumping and eventing and the Hindmarsh family have strong connections to the eventing world. Norm is the Technical Delegate for both the Tamworth and Quirindi events and both daughter and son, Emma and Andrew, compete
The Southern Cross warmblood breeding programme first began at Narrabri NSW in 1983, at a time when warmblood horses were quite new to Australia. The foray into breeding performance horses started when Norm bred one of his thoroughbred mares to Heath Ryan’s Ludendorf, an imported Oldenburg stallion. Ludendorf became an important bloodline in Australia at a time when there were few imported stallions and chilled semen was just starting to be used successfully. As a competition horse Ludendorf also proved his worth during a limited career, being ridden by Heath at Advanced level in eventing and Grand Prix in dressage while the most successful of his progeny was the dressage horse, Londoner, who competed Prix St Georges with Heath and Grand Prix with Mary Hanna.
A few years later Norman purchased Domherr Echo, a half-sister to Kibah Tic Toc, a legendary horse in Australian eventing circles. Ridden by Matt Ryan, Kibah Tic Toc had a long and prosperous career competing for Australia including an eighth place at Badminton in 1992 and individual and team gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
By the late 1980s the first progeny of the Southern Cross foundation mares had started to compete. One of these was Major Dundee, who successfully competed to two star eventing and represented both Indonesia and the Philippines before his untimely death from colic. Throughout the 1990s other Southern Cross horses consistently placed in all disciplines; Southern Cross Banjo at three star eventing, in dressage Southern Cross Caterina reached Grand Prix ridden by Dot Wasson and Southern Cross Lyra was outstanding in World Cup Showjumping, campaigned by Alan McCusker.
Two year olds at Southern Cross
In 1999 the stud relocated to Tamworth NSW to acquire more land and a higher profile for their horses. The current property at Daruka was purchased in 2002 and Judy Hindmarsh continued with the tradition of naming foals after celestial stars, which was very apt for Southern Cross Warmbloods. Situated 12 kilometres from Tamworth on 40 hectares with another 25 hectares leased, the property is well grassed and shaded by native trees providing natural protection for the broodmares. As well as providing agistment and coaching services, Southern Cross is a working horse stud able to provide on-site breeding services, either by artificial insemination (AI) or natural mating.
From 2000 onwards brood mares were purchased which featured gene pools to enhance the breeding program of Southern Cross Warmbloods and a diverse range of specific stallions were sought out and used. In the past thirty years the Hindmarsh family has looked to produce a broodmare herd that features some of the best warmblood genes with an emphasis on temperament, performance and conformation. Today they have between ten and twelve mares by sires such as Salute, Ludendorf, Wunder, Duellshultz, Valuta, Domherr, Royal Hit, Earle, Dutchman, Budweiser, Aachen, Grannus, and their home bred own Southern Cross Dorado (below).
According to Norm “Southern Cross Dorado represents the future of performance horse breeding in Australia. He is a 16.1hh chestnut colt whose pedigree has many of Australia's most influential sires. His conformation is excellent with good bone and length of rein. Southern Cross Dorado has three exciting paces, an extravagant walk, a superb trot and a balanced and elevated canter. He also shows fine technique over a fence. Southern Cross Dorado exhibits a calm temperament and a willingness to learn and please”
The other stallion standing at stud is another home bred colt, Southern Cross Regor (above). Regor is by Jive Magic the super sire owned by Heath and Rozzie Ryan and his dam is Southern Cross Carina, by Valuta. Carina is out of another of the stud’s mares, Southern Cross Caterina, who competed successfully at dressage to Prix St George level who, in turn, was out of the foundation mare Domherr Echo. So this stallion’s impeccable pedigree can be traced back four generations to the matriarch of the Southern Cross Warmbloods stud, Domherr Echo
Norm and Judy took some time out on their visit to Rolex Kentucky to visit Alcatraz
Norm and Judy have not only bred good performance horses but also some good riders! Their son Andrew campaigned some Southern Cross horses during the early 2000s and he is now back in the saddle after a few years away. He is trying to juggle his job in mining with eventing and is enjoying competing against younger sister, Emma. Emma rode at her first one day event at the age of 12 on Southern Cross Orion and a few years later competed C.P. Brown, a horse purchased from Annabelle Armstrong which helped her progress up the eventing ladder.
In 2007 they won the Pre Novice Eventing horse and rider and three years later the Junior Eventing Horse and Rider of the Year. Since then Emma has ridden mainly home bred horses up to 2* level, including Southern Cross Lyra, Southern Cross Aurora, Southern Cross Nova and Southern Cross Nashira.
Last year she won the Philip Dutton Scholarship at the Mid Western event, enabling her to experience eventing life in America at Philip’s yard early in 2013 (read Emma's blog here). Her first stop was Rolex Kentucky to meet up with Phillip who was competing there – not a bad place to become acquainted with the ways of American eventing! Norm and Judy also took the opportunity to visit one of the world’s top 4* events and accompanied Emma to the event then enjoyed some time in San Francisco taking in the sights.
Although she spent plenty of time cleaning stables, Emma found the experience in the USA invaluable and hopefully a step towards her long-term goal of representing Australia.
“I would love to ride for Australia at the World Equestrian Games or the Olympics” says Emma and it is more than likely that, if she does, it would be on a Southern Cross horse
Emma and the home bred Southern Cross Nova Photo: ESJ Photo
