Clydesdales on show at Easter festival

Victoria’s cultural heritage will be on display in Victoria’s north this weekend, as thousands flock to see old-world techniques in action.

NEWS: Moora Draught Horse Muster Preview Emma Iddison and David Felmingham with their beautiful Clydesdale horses. PICTURED: Emma Iddison and David Felmingham with their beautiful Clydesdale horses L-R Ben, Luke, William, Roy and Jack. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The Moora Working Draught Horse Muster will be back this weekend, as thousands of traditionalists flock to northern Victoria for the Rushworth Easter Heritage Festival.

Over Easter Saturday and Sunday, visitors will be treated to the annual Saturday parade, followed by the return of the popular horse muster on the Sunday.

Teams of Clydesdales will be ploughing, log snigging and pulling horse drawn vehicles in a throwback to earlier times.

Emma Iddison, based at Killawarra with partner David Felmingham after moving from Esperance in WA three years ago, will be bringing two of their Clydesdales, Ben and Jack, to provide wagon rides at the Saturday parade.

“We heard about it in WA, and it was a really iconic event that everyone wanted to attend, so when I moved over here, I thought it’d be great (to be part of),” she said.

“We believe in preserving the heritage of the Clydesdale, and we love to get involved in events like that so we can help bring their history to the public.”

After the pandemic caused the muster to “fall into a big hole”, festival secretary Lyn Reade said plenty of work has been done behind the scenes to bring the event back.

“People were coming up to us last year and asking, ‘why haven’t you got the horses?’, even though it was out of our control,” she said.

“So this year we’ve done a lot of work to get them up and running again.”

Visitors will be able to pet a Clydesdale mare and foal, while demonstrations of rope making, blacksmithing and old-world activities will on show.

The entry cost for the muster will be a gold coin donation.