What I See with Peter Fiorenza: How the history of our animals are intertwined with our own

Have you heard of the great Australian racehorse Carbine?

History tells us he was a champion New Zealand-bred thoroughbred racehorse that raced in Australia during the late 1800s through to the early 1900s.

The bay stallion not only won every major race in Australia at the time, but went on to become a successful sire.

According to Wikipedia, Carbine is responsible for no less than half of the 65 Melbourne Cup winners from 1914 to 1978.

These include Think Big, Rain Lover and Phar Lap.

Also, it’s important to mention, an incredible eight of the nine horses to earn $10 million or more in stakes such as Makybe Diva and Sunline can all be traced back to this one horse.

And Australian champion, Winx, too, is related to Carbine via both the sire and the mare.

You could say that up until relatively recently, most of Australia’s thoroughbreds could have been descendants of Carbine.

Today, though, the introduction of Arabian and Japanese horses has, somewhat changed things in respect to breeding.

Why am I writing about Carbine?

Well, the other day I was doing some research about border collies.

Does that surprise you?

I was interested to know if the border collies in Australia were the same breed as border collies in Europe and America.

And what I found out was not dissimilar to the Carbine tale.

According to elkan.info, Adam Telfer (1859-1940), who lived in Northumbria, near the border between England and Scotland, was revered as a world-renowned sheepdog breeder.

His father, Walter, was the winner of the very first recorded sheepdog trial in 1876.

Legend has it, Telfer owned a dog, Old Hemp, who he went on to breed, and is regarded as the father of the modern border collie.

“Hemp was a natural herder who could move and control sheep with a mere look ... (his) progeny sired many champions and, through them, the ancestry of many border collies across the world can be linked to him,” said the online blog.

I’m sure there are many more historic tales about dogs or any animal pets, for that matter, but I reckon this one sits right up there alongside Carbine.

It’s amazing to see how the history of our animals is so intertwined with our own, and tells us so much about ourselves and others.

Thank you, Adam Telfer, for helping to create my best friends.

Peter Fiorenza hosts Fiorenza on Sunday between 10am and noon on Radio MAMA