We were up early today to head to the Katherine OUtback Experience. Which is run and presented by Tom Curtain who is the owner of the farm and also a award winning country singer. We were invited onto his cattle farm to see how they train some of the animals around the farm and to hear some of his songs.
It started with them demonstrating how they break in young horses. It was amazing to watch Tom work. He knew exactly how to read the horses mannerisms and had such a great manner with them. All of his training is about building trust and keeping them calm. He managed to saddle this horse up but that was as far as that ones training was going today.
The next horse was bought in with one of the other staff members. She showed us a horse that was deemed unrideable who is now up to much more advanced training. He could follow lots of commands and even lied down and let her nap on him. I got to go in and give him a pat which was amazing.
We then got to see and feed some buffalo, a donkey and a goat. We also heard a few of Tom songs throughout these sessions.
Next it was onto the bigger arena. We got to watch Tom work with multiple horses at once and watch how he trains them to follow different commands. They worked so well together. It was so beautiful to watch.
Lastly Tom worked with the dogs. He ended up having 10 dogs out all following different directions and waiting. Some of them were so sneaky and kept leaving the barrel the were meant to be on. But one word or growl from Tom and they were back where they should have been. So good! Then Tom finished off with some guitar playing while riding a horse and then standing on one. It was such a great show.
After the show we headed across to Katherine Rare Rocks. This is a small shop run by a guy who has been collecting rocks for over 40 years. He had some pretty cool stuff. He only took cash so we could only pick up 2 things.
We got some washing done in the afternoon and then headed to Marksies Stockmans Tucker night. The night started off really well. It was a beautiful setting. Marksie and Peggy the hosts were so lovely and we got chatting to them about many things. However as it got dark the bugs were so bad we had to leave. When i say bugs i means beetles and moths and so many of them. It was a shame but Peggy and Marksie were so kind and understood and gave us the food takeaway and a promise that they would look after us if we ever go back. The food was delicious and the experience would be well worth it in the dryer months when the bugs go away.
