09/06/2025
Today I came home to a sad reality. My darling Soncerae (Rae) has passed away.
Rae came into my life when I first started seeing the Bloke, and he knew absolutely nothing about horses and only a little bit about me. But he did know that I loved horses and had a soft spot for the "brownish ones with black legs". And so he had a surprise for me. A shy but well put-together little bay filly. Completely unhandled and not really sweet, but intelligent.
I named her Soncerae, which means morning star. She was a challenge to break in, and she never once doubted herself. Always advocating for herself, it wasn’t always a smooth journey. I found her as a 3-year-old standing in the yard with blood dripping down her nostril, with her face caved in on one side and a broken bone, and the previous alpha mare boxed in the corner, conceding to the new queen. A role Rae never let go of, she was always the boss mare.
She hated showing and competing, preferring to colic at every opportunity when she found herself away from home. She held out and never in her life tasted the water in Katherine. She preferred to panic her humans to death and force them to find alternative water for her. She hated rugs and show gear and all the prep. So she was quickly retired from that career.
As a camp horse she was unbeatable. Quick on her feet with endurance for days. It was impossible to knock up the feisty little bay machine. She loved cattle and lived for the thrill of blasting up on a bullocks shoulder and bouncing into them like she was playing Origin. The sharp snap of teeth soon followed if the offending beast didn’t get its feet in order and head back to the mob. She would get in the gravel and cut cattle but was just as happy tailing the mob. Always one to take on a challenge, no creek was too deep, no track too rocky, no hill too steep. She loved all manner of training through obstacles, and was a truly fun ride ba****ck and bridleless, with a rum in hand, we would hoon around the paddock.
She was a therapy horse and led the program with Corrections, teaching behaviour management and impulse control to high-risk criminals inside the prison. Adjusting the behaviour of grown men with violent tendencies, who soon learnt that you could murder a human, but you couldn’t bluff this little bay mare! She taught people things they had never before been able to grasp when a human taught them, and she changed lives.
She was the ultimate lesson pony, carefully teaching many young people to ride, stopping when they fell off, building their confidence by taking them through the obstacles, and packing them behind cattle. She was gentle with children and always completely safe to be around.
She was always fat and had a glow to her coat and was tough as nails. Never requiring hard feed, little rock hard black hooves and more balls than keno. She was truly special.
I am forever grateful that I had the chance to breed her to both of my stallions for the gorgeous Teddy by Jazz and her spicy little doppleganger Winona by Outlaw. Winny is only 6 months old and will be ok. She will be kept with her herd and supplement fed and will be paired with a surrogate mum and Uncle Bullet for company and affection.
Rae was over 20yrs old and I am forever grateful for the time we had together. I hold fond memories of being tired, grumpy and cracking the s**ts after a 14hr day mustering and sitting on my grumpy, tired, cracking the s**ts little bay mare and the Bloke pointing out that we were exactly the same person.
So now God has 3 of my incredible bay mares. I can only assume his musters gone to s**t and the cattle are all blowing under the chopper. Well, don’t worry God, she’s on her way! I’m sure Yasmin has the point covered, Noella is bringing up the tail and Rae will come sideways out of the timber, ears flat and ready to wheel them.
RIP Soncerae
