At just 36 years of age, Aleks Berzins is at the top of the tree in the world as a horse teamster having been one of the key drivers behind the record team of 62 horses pulling a tabletop wool waggon at The Good Old Days Festival.
Aleks Berzins operates the Marlie Draught Horse Stud, at Exeter, NSW and brought a 32-horse team to Barellan in southern NSW for the Australian and world record attempt.
Although the idea was conceived only a year ago, the team itself has been a long time in the making, according to Aleks.
“To get the team here has been a build up over a few years. Last year we were sitting on the waggon after doing 35 horses, were really happy and it seemed very doable,” he said.
“I knew Don Ross who had driven the Australian record 50 horse team with Blue Bunyan in Queensland (in the 1980s), so the seed was planted to match it for NSW and Barellan.”
Aleks has 50 horses at home with mares due to foal soon plus a few older horses who couldn’t make the cut for the big team.
He puts the value of the horses, harness and wagon of the world record team of 62 horses at $1 million.
“Over half of the team are registered Australian Draught Horses, five registered Shires, three registered Suffolk Punch, registered and unregistered Clydesdales and Percherons,” he said.
Aleks sat in the driver’s seat alongside two of Australia’s greatest horse teamsters, Bruce Bandy, of Barellan, and Steve Johnson, of Lake Cargelligo, NSW.
“We are just trying to take it in and enjoy it – the preparatory work has been done so the pressure is not really on. Sitting up with Bruce and Steve, I do think I have the two best blokes in the world next to me so there is a lot of confidence in knowing the horses are good,” he said.
“Having done the hard yards before it’s a nice feeling watching it come together as it should.
“We put a lot of confidence in the leaders – it takes a long time to build. For Steve and Bruce, it has been years upon years and for me too – it can be 10 years in the making to get to this point where we have the horses. This was the year to do it.
“It’s hard to get that many horses to do it – you can risk it and hope that it all works but we know it will work.”
Aleks admitted the build-up of excitement to the record attempt had been enormous.
“We had put the number at 54 at the end of the last year. I was talking to Don Ross’ wife in Queensland this year and she planted the seed about the 60 as Don had aimed to drive the 60 horses.
“We have lost Don now, so I put together a few more horses and revamped the energy to make sure we got the 62.
“It’s just an honour to do it with the other two guys.”
From leaders to drivers was around 76m in length, and driving the big team around the Barellan showground arena meant turning to the left for most of the time.
“I only have one set of reins – the majority of the team other than the leaders are tied in making all horses in the hands of the leaders. There are a couple of sets of reins, one into the body of the team and one into the shaft and pin. Everything else is at the peril of the leaders up the front wanting to get the chains tight and hold them in there,” Aleks said.
Collecting and repairing the mountain of harness was a mammoth and expensive job.
“Every horse has its own collar. Even though it might be easy to get 100 collars, it’s not as easy to get the right collars to fit the right horses. We have a lot of two- and two-and-a-half-year-old horses, and we have been trying to find the collars for them,” Aleks said.
“Plus, as they work, they get a smaller neck as they get fitter, so it has been a challenge.
“One day we had 40 horses going and I ran sums of costs involved, working with conservative figures of costs to buy the horses and harness, and we are well over $1 million for the team of 62.
“We had never really thought about it, but we were rolling around with a million dollars on the ring there.
“That just shows what you can do when you love something so much. It’s nice to be able to do things with a bunch of blokes who are passionate about it at the same time.
“To us it was important to do it right, to have the horses drive and work as a team. It was really important that we weren’t just trying to chase a number.”
Aleks contributes his horsemanship skills and knowledge to his greatest mentor, his grandfather, Sid Samuel, a passionate breeder of Belgian and Suffolk Punch draught horses.
“Steve Johnson and Bruce Bandy, who have been doing this forever, and the whole horse community, have been mentors, I’m learning things all the time.
“It’s really special to achieve this with two great mates – I put the challenge out there if anyone wants to break this Australian record bring it on because I can’t see it happening.”
Ends
Captions:
- Aleks Berzins is a third-generation draught horse breeder and took the reins of the record-breaking team at the Good Old Days Festival at Barellan. Images Kim Woods
- Aleks Berzins brings up another section of four horses to be harnessed in the record team.
