Amy left home at 17 to study fine arts and travel the world
in 1993, but her ties to the Yambuk farm remained strong.
ABOVE “Stikla, one of our
original mares from Denmark
— and Laena’s mum.” LEF T
Well-used tack — despite
their small size, Icelandic
horses can easily carry adult
riders. BELOW Young horses
in a hurry. FACING PAGE
Amy with favourite Laena
(left) and Aria.
Amy HAldAne grew up with a procession of exotic
creatures arriving on her doorstep, but it was Icelandic
horses that stole her heart.
As a young girl, she recorded secret hopes in a school
diary about running her own stud. Now a 34-year-old
mother of two young boys, she recently found the book
and was surprised to re-read her childhood fantasy.
“I don’t even remember writing it, so it was obviously
a while ago, but that’s one dream that has come true,” she
says with a smile. Yet Amy still feels like pinching herself
when she considers the enormity of the task she has taken
on: looking after a herd of around 60 Icelandic horses on
her family’s property at Yambuk in south-western Victoria.
The horses’ history can be traced back to the settlement of
Iceland in the late ninth century, when Vikings arrived
carrying precious livestock in their longships. The island’s
isolation and strict import controls have resulted in one of
the purest horse breeds left in the world. “There’s only one
breed of horse there — the Icelandic horse,” Amy says.
However, in Australia there was no such thing until the
Haldane family came along. Roger, Amy’s father, is like
a modern Doctor Dolittle, and has often introduced
exotic animals to the farm. Roger, and his brother Clyde,
played a vital role in the growth of the alpaca industry
beyond South America. They also brought Angora goats
from Texas, Boer goat embryos from South Africa and
once even chartered a jet to import a rare breed of milking
buffalo from Italy. Amy’s sister, Thea Royal, now runs
Shaw River Buffalo Cheese with her husband Andrew.
“Life has certainly always been colourful,” Amy says.
“If there was something interesting happening — like
quarantining, vet visits or embryo transplants — we didn’t
have to go to school as there was so much to learn at home.”
Roger’s frequent trips to the far corners of the globe
seemed to instil an adventurous streak in his eldest daughter.
Amy left home at 17 to study fine arts and travel the world
in 1993, but her ties to the Yambuk farm remained strong.
The untimely death of her uncle in 2005 further
strengthened that bond. Clyde had been in charge of the
family’s Icelandic horses, and when he succumbed to cancer,
there was no-one to care for them. At the time, Amy was
living in New Zealand and raising her young sons Axel,
now six, and Valin, three. She hadn’t ridden a horse for
more than 15 years, but relished the challenge.
Thea agreed to run the marketing side of the business; the
arrangement enables the sisters to combine working with
parenting. “We are both better at some things than others,
so we can work to our strengths and interests which makes
it so enjoyable; our styles complement each other very well,”
Amy says. “I’m the eldest of five kids and left home to study
at university when I was quite young, so I am enjoying
getting to know Thea and my other siblings again as adults,
and watching my children grow up with their cousins.” >
