By Christine Ellis, Director Ahern Shires and Clydesdales
If you’ve ever travelled the Kings Highway from Braidwood NSW towards the coast you might have seen some big horses grazing in the paddock. They are our horses, and they are both Shires and Clydesdales.
That’s my day job – my other job, well really more of a passion – has been looking into the history of Shires, Clydesdales, and other ‘heavy’ horses in Braidwood and surrounding districts.
This is the story of one Clydesdale (Alma) who made an amazing impact on the breed in this district and beyond. It’s also a story of a wonderful coincidence and a ‘down-the-rabbit hole’ moment (or two), and how 170 years after Alma first won his class in the old country, he is being honoured with the naming of The Alma Cup for the Grand Champion Led Heavy Horse at the 2025 Braidwood and District Heavy Horse Show.
In 2024 the first Braidwood and District Heavy Horse Show was held. It wasn’t the first Show in the district to feature heavy horses; the Braidwood Show has been accepting heavy horse entries for over a hundred years, and in the 1850s there were numerous ploughing competitions featuring draught horses. However, it was the first to exclusively present heavy horses to the public and to showcase their versatility though led, ridden, harness, long-reining classes.
It was a success – over 25 horses entered and over 150 members of the public came to the event. So successful that it was agreed that this wouldn’t be the last Show, and off the back of that success, the Braidwood and District Heavy Horse Association was formed. Its purpose is to promote and educate the community about the role these horses have played in our community and to organise an annual event to showcase them.
At the same time as the 2024 Show was wrapping up, I was reading a locally written book on the Clarke Gang, written by Peter C Smith. It’s a great read and really gives you an insight into the early days of Braidwood and surrounds. But it was a short paragraph about The Hon. Hugh Wallace’s stallion ‘Alma’ that caught my eye. In the book, Peter Smith mentions Alma was a Clydesdale stallion and the advertisement in the book from the Goulburn Herald of 1856 mentions that Alma won the ‘Best two-year old stallion for agricultural purposes’ at the Royal Agricultural Society Show in Carlisle (UK) in 1855. He also goes on to talk about how Alma and his offspring started the downfall of the Clarke Gang (p145). I won’t go into that story – Peter Smith has recounted it in a great amount of detail, and if you want to know more, please get his book and enjoy the read.
What I wanted to know was how did Alma get to Wallace’s property Nithsdale at Ballalaba; what impact did he have (if any) on the heavy horse stock in the district and do we have any of his progeny still in the district.
The Hon. Hugh Wallace, who the main street in Braidwood is named after, moved to the district in the 1840s. He established a farm at Ballalaba called Nithsdale after an area in Scotland. In 1855 he bought the champion (unnamed at Carlisle). Wallace transported that stallion (now called Alma) to Australia on the clipper ‘Catherine Adamson’ and Alma arrived in early 1856. An article in Bell’s Life in February 1856 says that ‘valuable additions to our imported stock’ were made through the safe arrival of Alma.
In every article about Alma, his victory at Carlisle and the fact that he was a magnificent dark bay stallion, is mentioned; and clearly, he passed on those traits to his many progeny. Alma went on to produce many fine horses in the district and beyond, standing at Nithsdale for many years, and later at Wagga Wagga, Gunnedah and Armidale. Again, his advertisements always mention his victory at Carlisle and refer to him as the prize stallion. Many of his progeny also went on to stand at stud. This includes Young Alma, Phaudrig, Black Prince, Major, Iron Duke and Romeo.
Alma was still standing at stud in 1879 when he was listed in the auction for the entire Boorolong Draught Stud, which included several colts and fillies by him and another draught horse named Salisbury Tommy. At this stage he was 25 – an incredibly respectable age for such an active stallion!
Alma has captured my imagination, and I think there is so much more to say about him – and pictures, etchings, drawings would help to complete the picture of a magnificent dark bay Clydesdale stallion. If there is anyone out there who can help unravel or add to some of this story, please get in touch.
I would also like to say thanks to the National Library and their fantastic resource Trove, the Braidwood Museum for their amazing records and knowledge, Peter C Smith for having started me down this path through his book, and also to ‘ShedGirl’ –who is a relative of Hugh Wallace and helped to fill in some gaps.
The 2025 Braidwood and District Heavy Horse Show will take place on 3 May 2025. You can find out more about the Show, as well as The Alma Cup, here.
