A beautifully presented eight-in-hand team of ponies pulling a miniature Cobb & Co coach captured the limelight as a crowd pleaser at the Good Old Days Festival.
Bernie and Heather Rice, of Katamatite, Victoria, bring their pony team along each year to the Festival as its main outing, with many months of preparation going into the outfit beforehand.
With their bright chestnut coats, flaxen mane and tails, the Welsh Mountain Section A ponies are known as the “A Team” with all names beginning with the letter A.
They are Appleby, Alf, Archie, Arlo, Aussie, Avenger, Astor and Aladdin.
Bernie bought the coach sight unseen from Mackay, Queensland, a decade ago, arriving in a furniture van, and it is now believed to be one of a kind.
“We spent the next six months restoring and modifying it to suit ponies. I built a front for the driver to put their feet, made the pole and swing bars to suit ponies, redone the upholstery, had it painted and sign written, and new tyres on the back wheels,” Bernie said.
“The whole configuration is unusual as not many people drive eight in hand ponies.”
One of the other ponies grew a bigger than the rest of the team so he carried a young rider and the Australian flag acting as an escort.
All perfectly matched, the ponies range in age from four to 15-years-old.
“The two outside ponies in the body of the harness are only four – it is their first time to Barellan,” Bernie said.
They come from three different studs – Ripplebrook at Deniliquin, Primrose Park at Picola and Jan Denny at Goulburn.
Bernie and Heather spent two months preparing the ponies, with training, shoeing, feeding, clipping, washing, and cleaning the harness and coach.
Bernie has been involved with breaking, training and driving heavy horses for 60 years.
“It’s been worthwhile and I really enjoy doing this. I love the atmosphere at Barellan and so many like-minded people. Everyone loves the ponies, camels and the heavy horses,” he said.
“I always dreamt of having a pony team. They are addictive and definitely a vice.
“Only three of them are ridden ponies as we don’t have any small riders anymore at home.
“I made a lot of the harness myself although the collars are Amish, while the reins were imported from America.”
Bernie and Heather also trained and contributed two camels for the 32 head camel team which set a new Australian record at the 2026 Good Old Days Festival.
They were also on hand to see their daughter, Kim and son-in-law Matt Fitzgerald do the ploughing demonstrations with their horses from Carnsdale Park Clydesdales, and their granddaughter Heidi Fitzgerald also take the reins on the plough.
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Caption: The Rice family and their eight in hand team of Welsh Mountain Section A ponies and miniature Cobb & Co coach. Image Kim Woods