Heritage Horse Tales ~ Gunnadorrah Tom Thumb

"I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe." (~ Dalai Lama)

Gunnadorrah Tom Thumb

The first Gunnadorrah Station rescue occurred in November 2006. Only a truckload of horses were chosen, because of time, space and $ constraints.

Dr Sheila Greenwell and Andrew, the young truck driver, saved what horses they could.

Two things differentiated the then colt, Tom Thumb (as he was later named), from the mob - his size and his colour. He only stood about 13hh and when rescued, at around 2yrs of age. He is now rising six years and is about 13.2hh in height. He may be from older part Welsh Mountain/part Arab stock. Hard to tell. We have found some environmental stunting in our heritage brumbies - their offspring often shoot past them!

Tom Thumb carries the silver gene as is technically a chocolate taffy, a subsection of the silver dapple colour.

He is registered with Dilutes (formerly the United Palomino White Buckskin & Dun Assoc. Ltd), and was DNA tested to see if he was homozygous or heterozygous with the silver gene. He is heterozygous.

One of the biggest characteristics about Tom – even when he was wild – was his ability to be “a-political”. He bore hardly any bite or kick injuries from his time in the yards and the truck. He got on with just about every other horse. Later, as a mature stallion, another characteristic came to light...his exceptional herding ability. Tom will muster just about anything that moves, from cattle to goats to dogs to horses three times his size. If it’s not an organised group, he’ll organise it. He loves nothing better than herding other animals when at liberty in a large paddock. That is his passion and his gift – and he has passed it on to all of his progeny thus far.

Dr Sheila Greenwell decided to hang on to Tom. From the start he was a pretty special and eye-catching little guy. Hard to believe that wild horses like Tom still roam our WA outback, on stations and in the bush. But they do.

In 2009, Tom was sold on to OHHAWA members Fred and Rachel Watkins, of Watkins Horse Handlers at Bakers Hill, near Perth. Fred educated Tom to saddle and was impressed from the start with the gentle natured, showy stallion. (Tom was even happy to leave his girlfriends to have lessons!) He has a very calm and friendly temperament without being overbearing.

He is good with mares and can still be paddocked with geldings (with pinto gelding Mocha in above photo) – a very rare thing. Again, he was the only horse from the Nullabor rescue to survive three days on a truck with 12 others and not have a mark on him!

(Above - Margart River Ag. Show Grand Parade, below, Tom being ridden at O'Leary Clinic)

The year after his rescue, Tom had a guest spot with several other rescued horses at the Margaret River Agricultural Show. Here he proved that the thinking brain of a wild horse was clearly on board. Tom handled all the sights, sounds, engines, carriages, animals and hoards of people as if he had been doing it all his life. Although he had NEVER been to such an event before, he took the Grand Parade in his stride and regarded the throng of cattle and show ponies with barely even worth a second glance! In fact he was so calm, the Commentator on the loud speaker during the Grand Parade mistook the feisty bay gelding in front of Tom as a stallion, and thought Tom to be a gentle gelding!

Since then, Tom has gone on to be a demo horse at a couple of clinics including a John O'Leary clinic where the presenter's dressage trained wife was so taken with Tom she rode him over an obstacle course and "collected" for the first time. Tom sailed through it all with flying colours.

In early 2008, Tom was mature enough to serve his first (small) group of mares, and several very attractive foals resulted, some dilute like their sire and all with his exceptional character and strong herding instinct! Tom lives happily with the Watkins these days and is standing at stud to select mares.

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Story by Katherine Waddington. See photos at left of Tom following his rescue, as well as photos of some of his first season's progeny. Photos courtesy of Fran Jackson (X Factor Photography), and KA Waddington.