A horse, of course

By Peter Sweeney
Cheryl Joosten didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when her husband Erick fell in love with campdrafting and wanted to buy a horse.
Which is quite understandable, when you consider that at the time Erick couldn’t even ride. But Cheryl knew her man was serious when he sold his motorbike and put the money into buying horsepower of a different kind.
Not so many years down the track and the Joostens – and their offspring, Chantelle, 20, and Tyler, 14 – don’t know what they would be doing if it wasn’t for campdrafting.
“It’s the best family sport there is … it’s social and we do everything together,” Cheryl said, in an almost thankful way that Erick had been so inspired after friend Ken Rundell had invited the Nar Nar Goon North newcomers to watch him ride in a campdrafting competition at Welshpool.
Erick Joosten, a cabinetmaker by trade who runs the Pakenham based E&C Joinery, was three years old when his family left Holland and found Springvale. According to Eric, he was “a city boy”. Cheryl had much more country in her blood, born in Kooweerup and reared on a dairy farm at Bass, however, she became “a city girl” after moving to Dandenong with her parents, Ivan and Merle Farley, when she was 13.
Their stories started changing pages when the couple met at a now defunct nightclub near the Dandenong Railway Station in 1986.
Three months later they were married. They set up home in Hallam and in 1999 came across a long grassed and bushy 20-hectare block at Nar Nar Goon North, which they fell in love with. They believed it would make a good retirement home, or investment property, so they bought it. But they started to ponder a lifestyle change, and wanted their children, then aged nine and three, settled in school.
In the early days, their daily existence was quite spartan, the family living in a barn with a “hole in the ground” toilet and a generator which had to be started so toast could be cooked for the kids’ breakfast.
“But we could see the potential,” Erick said in a dry manner.
Cheryl, who had ridden horses as a kid, decided Chantelle should have the same opportunity, so she bought a horse to teach her daughter to ride. Erick bought a motorbike for himself and one for Tyler – to teach him to ride.
Then came the invitation to go watch a campdraft competition.
Erick was hooked. “He instantly fell in love with the sport, which was funny because he couldn’t even ride a horse,” Cheryl said.
“So the motorbike was sold and a horse purchased. Erick’s first draft ride was on Frank, a horse owned by our friend Kenny. Erick was so nervous the night before, he hardly slept. And he rode around the course the next day with really no idea of what he was doing.”
Soon after, “knowing the game” as he did, Erick decided to buy a campdraft horse. Though, in hindsight, he wasn’t the best steed to learn the sport on, Hot Night did show his rider a thing or two about sitting in the stock saddle. The story is still told in campdrafting circles of how Erick Joosten, close to completing his first course, fell off just before the gate.
However, things change. A decade later, and the one-time city boy now competes against the best. Not only does he win open drafts – he judges them.
Cheryl started campdrafting a year after Erick, eventually getting her own horse. ‘Crocket’ was “a champion”, teaching Cheryl how to draft – and later doing the same for Chantelle and Tyler, then aged 11 and seven respectively. Now semi-retired, ‘Crocket’ has taught other youngsters how to draft cattle.
“Having a great horse that you trust is most important when you start learning this sport, as you are riding a horse while steering a beast around a course,” Cheryl said.
As the Joostens fell deeper in love with the horses, and humans, in campdrafting, better horses were bought to take them “to the next level”. The Joosten’s trained their horses, and they in turn were trained by better drafters.
Chantelle, a third year teaching student, has won under-aged titles in campdrafting and was last year third in the ladies’ section of the Gippsland Campdrafting Association championship – which she will again contest on Saturday.
Tyler, a Year 9 student at Drouin High Schol, is starting to make an impact in the competition arena, but he has already made a name for himself as a whipcracker. “He taught me how to crack a whip,” Erick said.
Most of the horses in campdrafting are quarter horses or stock horses – or a cross of both – which the Joostens have found suits their needs.
The family work eight horses, taking six to campdraft competitions in a luxury float that not only carries horses, but humans. Unlike the old days, when their living quarters had neither, the carrier has a toilet and shower.
And, these days, there’s even a toaster in the kitchen.