About Tamarang

“Tamarang” is situated approximately 40km from Tamworth, in northern New South Wales.

Tamarang from the beginning

Modified from an original article written by Nikki Allen for the Eye to Eye Yearbook 2005.

Shooting foxes provided enough money for Richard Bull, “Tamarang,” Tamworth to import his first quarter horse from the United States.

A keen rider with an interest in the cutting industry, he bought a mare called Sable Pay (imp) in 1974 and she arrived in Australia a year later by ship after travelling via England.

At the time it was a gamble but Richard says he was following his heart rather than using a business mind and the thrill of owning a horse from overseas was achieved.

He described himself as starry eyed, having just finished Agricultural College. The cattle market was flat and shooting foxes was profitable.

"The fox skins averaged $27.40 and the weaner calves averaged about $26 that year, we got more for the fox skins than the weaner calves," Mr Bull said.

Riding at pony club in his younger years and mustering cattle on the family property had initially sparked his interest in horses. And it was after reading one of his late father Clive’s National Geographic magazines featuring an article on cutting horses that he decided the sport was for him.

The article was about King Ranch Quarter Horses and it sowed the seed that has resulted in Mr Bull’s contribution to the horse breeding industry in Australia.

“I had a burning desire to breed cutting horses, and looking back on it, it was silly at the time (but) if has paid off… you are pretty lucky if you can live your hobby,” Mr Bull said.

Sable Pay (imp) turned out to be a wise business investment and the mare, from Gay Bar Sable by Magnolia Pay, bred on and produced some outstanding horses. She was the grandmother of Dreams of Oak, a top performing and producing mare who is the dam of Shes A Dream, a futurity winner which was sold to the US. Another of her progeny, Teak n Oak, won more than $100,000 in campdrafting.

“I sold three colts out of her (Sable Pay) and that is how I bought Docs Freckles Oak (imp),” he said. Mr Bull bought Docs Freckles Oak (imp) by Docs Oak from Freckles Fancy in partnership with Jim Page, Grafton.

“Jim is the best partner you would have on anything, if something went wrong it was our idea, and if something went right it was my idea,” Mr Bull said.

Freckles Oak was born in 1981 and was purchased when he was a few months old and his training was started in the US. He was rising-four when he arrived in Australia.

“I didn’t see him before we bought him, I had seen his father work and several full brothers to his mother work,” he said.

The late Hamish McCallum, one of Australia’s best horsemen and cutting trainers, made the final selection in the purchase of Docs Freckles Oak, after looking at a number of colts Mr Bull had picked out on pedigree.

“Hamish said to get some money over there (US) before someone else sees him after he looked at him in Utah,” Mr Bull said.

Mr Bull described the stallion as a “freak” that could do anything in the performance industry.

“He wasn’t just a cutting horse, he broke down the barriers for quarter horses with a lot of the campdrafters who believed that cutting horses couldn’t run around in circles and chase cattle,” Mr Bull said.

Aside from countless accolades for himself and his progeny in the cutting pen Freckles Oak progeny have dominated the campdrafting scene.

Sadly he passed away in 2003 and now Mr Bull has 26 of his daughters in the Tamarang brood mare band to continue the legacy.

“He was like riding a super charged rocket with fine tuning, and when you were cutting he didn’t have any respect for cattle, he always knew he could beat them,” he said.

“He had so much talent that he would dare a cow to get past him.”

One year he decided, at short notice, to take him the Warwick Gold Cup, Australia’s premier campdrafting event, but had just two weekends to qualify. Docs Freckles Oak had never campdrafted but easily won the maiden draft at Willow Tree, and easily qualified for Warwick.

Tassa Lena (imp) by Smart Little Lena, from Little Tassa was the next horse Mr Bull imported. Australian cutting trainer Graham Amos, started Tassa Lena and reported that he was the most intelligent horse he had started on a cow.

Tassa later made the final at the futurity in Tamworth despite being nine months younger than the other horses.

Mr Bull also bought several colts by Smart Little Lena that were started in the US but they were not what he wanted so they never made it to Australia.

In the meantime he bought Acres Destiny (imp) and kept him with US trainer Guy Woods for the futurity in Fort Worth, Texas.

Initially he had planned to buy Laker Doc, a US horse, but something about Acres Destiny caught his attention. Acres Destiny is a sleek black stallion but when Mr Bull first saw him he was a fluffy little grey horse that resembled a bundle of fur.

He was shown in the US and had the highest aggregate leading into the semi-finals at the NCHA futurity in Texas.

“Acres is just the talk of the town in the campdrafting industry from one end of Australia to the other, and his progeny are cleaning up in the challenges too,” he said.

The most recent addition to the Tamarang stable is Whos Top Cat (imp) by High Brow Cat, from Play Who. Mr Bull has high hopes for Whos Top Cat and he certainly had people talking after his debut performance in the NCHA Derby in September 2008.

“There is just something special about Whoey. Being by the stallion that produced five out of six US Futurity winners between 2003 and 2008, we are expecting quite a lot from him,” he said.

Mr Bull said the breeding game is a big gamble rather than a perfect science.

NCHA Director Brian Cobcroft presenting Richard Bull with his certificate of induction into the NCHA Non Pro Hall of Fame, 5 October 2008

“A horse with a weak pedigree may be a good horse, but the chances of it being a successful sire are slim,” he said.

The techniques in buying and importing horses into Australia have changed over the years and long trips by sea have been replaced by a quicker plane flight.

However, the research to find the best horses is a never ending obsession for Mr Bull. “I spend a lot of time studying pedigrees, the horse must match the pedigree and a great pedigree on paper doesn’t mean that a horse with poor conformation and no performance will breed on either,” he said.

Now the internet makes it easy to look up horses all over the world and chase pedigrees on databases but in the early days Mr Bull relied on sale catalogues.

“I used to get every sale catalogue and read every magazine,” he said. And during his trips to the US he would visit the American Quarter Horse Association office in Amarillo and use the computer to view pedigrees.

“I am lucky because all of the horses have been successful but Freckles Oak was the horse that kicked the door down and broke the barriers between the quarter horse and stock horse industry,” he said.