Beeble's Story

                      “Toucan one can’t” – our childhood days

Hello, my name is Beeble ....... B e e b l e......... strange name but I’ll come to that later. I’m one of two. I’m not two of me, I’m number two of two. That is, I am a twin. I was born 12 years ago, alongside or to be correct, after my twin.

My brother Praze came into this big wide world with gusto, determined to start some adventures from the word go. He couldn’t work out why everyone wasn’t making a big fuss just of him, they were waiting for something else to happen – and then I arrived. Somewhat quieter, not nearly as brave looking, but none the less wanting my share of this wonderful new world.
Praze was definitely stronger than me initially, and braver, maybe a little brighter or at least a little more eager. I may have been a bit on the timid side, always following wherever he went, but hey, I was still me and a full partner in the arrangement, so just as important.

So there we were, two little long legged gawky things looking very alike, almost two peas in a pod.
I say almost, but thankfully not completely. Praze has a white star I have a white star, Praze has a white snip on the nose I have a white snip on the nose, Praze has three white socks and I have three white socks. But I chose to be slightly different, so my three white socks do not match his. He has two on the front, one on the back; I have one on the front and two on the back. Thank goodness – I couldn’t go through life exactly like him could I?

Muddled yet? Yes? So was I – often.
We first of all belonged to this lovely lady called Lois. She ran the Duloe Arab Stud in Cygnet Tasmania, but we were named after a little village in Cornwall – Praze an’ Beeble. As the Stud originally came from Cornwall, so when came on the scene, this village of two names was selected – for sentimental reasons I suppose?

Maybe we should have been named after a double barrelled Aussie town?  …… Wagga Wagga, Port Lincoln, Byron Bay or other doubled ‘twin like’ names such as: Kit and Kat, or Tom and Gerry…..... and for a while, Jill (our owner) certainly tried hard to find a different name – but Praze and Beeble kind of stuck. .
Mind you she sometimes calls us ‘the Wright Brothers’ – (who unlike the famous aviators, can’t really fly but you should see us try) after our breeder Lois Wright. 

We are of the Crabbitt Arab line, the smaller (but smarter if you ask me), more rounded, heavier boned Arab. Sometimes hard to tell we are actually Arabs, until you see us flying across the paddock with our tails and noses stuck in the air and our beautifully extended leg action.

We are bays but our Mum was black and Dad a golden chestnut. We looked instead like our grandfather ‘Indian Treasure’, who lived in the paddock across the road from us. We were able to chat to him a lot in those early days and we both admired him and looked up to him. 

We would hoon around the paddock racing each other and come screeching up to the fence. Grandfather would smile to himself standing quietly under his favourite pear tree, he really loved the pears that fell at his feet. Years later when he died he was buried under his special tree. How sad but at the same time how beautiful?
Anyway he was as proud as punch of his two grandsons, sometimes telling us off, other times telling us stories of his adventures when he was our age many many years ago.

I adore my brother and I’m pretty certain he loves me just as much. He is the natural leader, so I was only too pleased to follow, but it didn’t mean I’m not game to try some adventures on my own.
We were two very lucky boys then and now, able to live together and stay together for always. We certainly had fun in those early days. Where-ever Praze went – then so did I. We played so many games, got up to tricks, pretended to be each other.
Many a time as we were growing up our owner would saddle one of us and start to ride off, look down and say “oh sugar I am on the wrong one”!
We would often stand in the long grass and hide our feet as in those days that was the main way of telling who was who.

Our birth Mum was healthy and strong and coped really well with us. Many mothers do not survive carrying twins, or often a twin will die before being born. So it’s very unusual for two healthy twins to arrive safe and sound and the mother not suffer. Around the same time in Tasmania two other pairs of twins were born, but sadly their mothers did not survive. Suffice to say twins in the horse world are indeed a rare occurrence. So no wonder they made and still do such a fuss of us!

                              Our first show – fooling the judge

As yearlings – we had out very first show, in Cygnet, the very village we were living in. “Come on boys time to smarten up, dress up, tidy up – we are off to the show”
Cygnet was, and still is, in a very horse minded district, with the local show well attended and supported. Very friendly busy and fun. Most of the locals knew about us being twins and what have you. But not so, the visiting judges.

“Right” says Praze , “time for some fun, you pretend to be me, I will be you and let’s see who we can fool?” So there we were looking like mirror images, making sure we did the same action at the same time, stepping, tossing the head, swishing the tail. To make it even more special it had been arranged for two 15 year old sisters to be out handlers in the ring. Better still, they were identical twins – no kidding?

So twins leading twins – Wow what a sight.
The judge though, had never heard of us – so there he was, watching closely as we and about 10 other yearlings paraded around. We walked, we trotted, we turned, we backed, we stood. After a lot of looking and scratching his head, he finally called 5 of us in to the middle. Then he walked up and down the line several times. Had each of the five do a solo work out and then once again wakled up and down the line.

“For the very first time in my judging career I’m going to award a shared first prize to you two boys. I just can’t choose between you – it’s as if you were twins”.
No one said a word.
After he had awarded us our blue ribbons he was then told “yes we were twins!”

We were riding sky high – probably on cloud 9 if horses can ride on clouds?
I’ve never tried so don’t really know?
For me it was extra special – we were equals. Praze was in no way better than me, just because his name came first!


  ...............................to be continued