"Cattle kings ye call us, then we are kings in grass castles that maybe blown away upon a puff of wind...”
Patrick Durack 1878

Fossil Downs Performance Horses is situated in the north of QLD, we breed only a very small amount of foals per year working on the theory of quality rather than quantity. We believe that maternal lines are very strong and that great mares will produce great foals, on that note we only keep mares that show a lot of ability and/or perform, have great temperaments and have a depth of breeding that will hold the test of time. We have tried to breed these mares to the best ASH stallions we can find matching type, temperament and genetics to suit the individual mare.

We work horses and cattle for a living so first and foremost we look for horses that we enjoy riding to work, they must be tractable, comfortable to ride and show natural cattle sense. Due to our work commitments we are unable to compete as much as we would like and really only get to at the most 10 campdrafts per year. However our horses have been taken on by friends to campaign, Wayne and Rachel Bean took Lilt through her challenge year and enjoyed success on her at Rocky Rush, Gary Faulks and Kate Townsend took Rhythm to Paradise Lagoons and made the final of the Acton Superbeef on her.

I have grown up in the Kimberley in WA on Fossil Downs Station, hence the name. Fossil Downs was settled on the 3rd of June 1886 by William Neil MacDonald. This overlanding feat from Goulbourn NSW to the Kimberley WA is considered the longest droving trip in the world and took the the MacDonald brothers 4 yrs to track across the continent to finally arrive at their destination. Fossil Downs remains in the original family to this day. I have spent a lot of time with notable horse people such as Theo Hill, Wayne and Linda Hingst, and Wayne Robinson, also attending clinics with Ray Hunt, Ian Francis and Mark Buttsworth. My partner Stewart grew up in southern QLD and has spent the majority of his years on properties throughout the NT, as headstockman, manager and he has also run his own contract mustering business.

We welcome you to our site and feel free to contact us with enquiries on our horses.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Stewart Boyce & Amber Henwood
PMB 62
Mt Isa 4825 QLD
0747484818
amber.henwood@bigpond.com

 

 

 

 


Visitors

 

 

 

 


Special thanks to professional photographers Narelle Wockner, Tricolby and Jess Doherty, whos photos feature throughout this website.



June 2009
Camooweal draft was on the last weekend of May and what a great weekwnd it was, Gary Faulks won the Maiden on Rythm, Stewart won the Novice on Senator, Lilt got sixth in the Ladies and made the Novice final. Both the very "maiden' maidens went well Aria ran an 82 in the Novice missing out on the final by one point and Flute on her first start ran an 80 in the Maiden.
Unfortunateley the Monday after Camooweal Starmaker tragically killed herself in the yard, very upsetting for us as she was a terrific filly.
Normanton draft was on the 5th -6th of June, Senator got second in the Novice and Rythm second in the Ladies. Ballistic went to a new home in North QLD.

May 2009
After a long and "wet" wet season with many flies, bugs and insects we were finally able to get to Winton draft on Anzac weekend where Rythm yet again got second by one point, this time in the Maiden draft. Senator and Lilt made the second round of the Open and Aria had her first start in the Maiden on  a tough little steer.

Over the wet Fire n Ice found a new home in southern WA, where he now resides and Regalo a new home in northern WA. I hope that Jo and Bonnie have heaps of success and fun on them in years to come.

Julia Creek was on the 15-17th of May,  finalled  Rythm and Senator in the Maiden and Rythm in the Novice.

December news
Comara Goldfinger  is going great guns down south. Goldfinger was purchased by me from Julie Tonkin as a two year old. After Warwick Gold Cup Julie took Goldfinger back to NSW to campaign him over our “wet” season. He has had two outings so far, at Guyra he made both Open finals and the next weekend at Nundle he placed second in the restricted Open with 2 89’s and made the final of the Open. Needless to say everyone wants to know who the new kid on the block is!

October news
We decided to take some holidays and go down to Chinchilla and Warwick drafts. Rhythm ran and 89 in the first round of the Ladies draft and won the cut-out with a 24. Lilt made the novice final and Goldfinger missed the open final by a point.

We had our first venture to Warwick in 2008 and we were really happy with the results. Lilt missed out on the ladies final by 1 point but made it back into both second rounds of the Canning Downs and the Gold Cup. She ran an 87 in the first round of the Gold cup but unfortunately a bad bullock was on the agenda for the second round! However there were 700 plus horses in the 1st rounds and they only took 250 back into the second rounds. Both Cheetah and Goldfinger made the second round of the Canning Downs

While we were away Snowie produced a lovely Holmrose Lawmaker filly which you can see on the foal’s page.

September news
Sensation foaled a lovely bay filly to Holmrose Lawmaker she can be seen on the foals page

July news
Rhythm went with Gary Faulks and Kate Townsend down to Paradise Lagoons where Gary made the final of the Acton Superbeef on her, again huge numbers so we were really pleased to see her in the final

 

"There are three kinds of men: the ones that learn by reading; the few who learn by observation; the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence."


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