Mick & The Lighthorse Show

A show not to be missed

Meet Mick and his team at Ooraminna Station Homestead and watch them entertain you with his Donkeys, mule, horses & working dogs.

A history lesson in real life....

"A lot of horses came from the country areas, and so on, and they were part of families and working stations and they never came back, so we've gotta remember them too: the horses, their sacrifice, both on the Western Front and the Middle East."

The hardiness and endurance of Waler horses in Palestine and Sinai in World War I became legendary.

Mick says this was largely because most had been bred in the harsh Australian outback.

"So, those horses could stand up to a bigger day — less water and less feed — than the European horses," 

However, it's often overlooked that the majority of the horses Australia sent to the war — somewhere between 130,000 and 160,000 — served on the killing fields of France and Belgium.

The average life expectancy for a heavy horse such as Deets on the Western Front in World War I was six weeks.

Riverina Light Horse practise a number of cavalry drills such as tent pegging. 

Mules and donkeys were also pressed into wartime service and became part of an estimated eight million horses, mules and donkeys that were killed during World War I.

Most perished from the extreme conditions they endured.

"We're trying to preserve the history," Mick, who said animals have a crucial role in modern-day remembrance.

"And I think that's a better way to educate people, rather than walking into an old museum.

"They can come and see it, smell it, feel it."