An aerial photograph of the impressive world record breaking spectacle at Barellan. Photo: Mayfly Media.
For a moment it looked like a minor hiccup was going to derail the whole show.
When the mighty harness team moved off, a rein became hooked under a spreader bar.
“We thought, ‘Dear, oh dear’ but what it did made the crowd sit back and think can or can’t they do this and it was, ‘Yes, we can,’” Steve Johnson said.
And indeed they did.
Three of the nation’s best teamsters and 62 gentle giants grabbed the attention and hearts of a global audience when they set a new world record at The Good Old Days Festival at Barellan on 3-5 October.
Guided only by voice commands of the three legendary horsemen, more than one million dollars’ worth of horses and harness pulling a huge wool wagon made a steady but show-stopping spectacle at the weekend.
Bruce Bandy (of Barellan), Steve Johnson (Lake Cargelligo), and Aleks Berzins (Exeter) guided a team of pure- and part-bred Clydesdales, Australian Draught, Suffolk Punch, Shire and Percheron horses around the trotting track at Barellan Showgrounds lugging an incredible 500 metres of chain.
Around a dozen helpers spent two hours harnessing the horses into spans of four then bringing out the spans and coupling them into place. A total of 15 spans were yoked together with two horses in the shafts.
The four-legged leaders, Hank, Lady, Digger and Margaret, were guided by voice commands from Bruce Bandy.
The Guinness Book of Records hitch had previously been set with a 50-horse team in Canada on 13 August 1995, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Navan Fair – that effort took 13 Clydesdale horse owners and hundreds of volunteers.
The Australian and world record team, harnessed to a Bennett tabletop wool wagon, the total weight of which was 10.2 tonnes, was a highlight of the three-day festival that celebrates the nation’s proud pioneering heritage.
Aleks Berzins, at just 36 years of age, was in the driver’s seat alongside his fellow legendary teamsters Bruce and Steve.
“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,” Aleks said.
“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, who operates the Marlie Draught Horse Stud, said the teamsters had to put a lot of confidence in the four leading horses.
“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,” he said beforehand.
“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.
“Sitting up with Bruce and Steve, I do think I have the two best blokes in the world next to me …”
Collecting and repairing the mountain of harness was a mammoth and expensive job, while preparation of the horses took months beforehand.
“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,” Aleks said.
“We had never really thought about it but were rolling around with a million dollars on the ring there.
“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.”
Congratulatory messages poured in from around the world including from Sue Meggers, the daughter of the late Dick Sparrow, of Iowa, in the US, who singlehandedly drove a 48-horse hitch in the Cotton Bowl Parade in Texas, earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Steve, who has been involved with the Good Old Days Festival since its inception, ranked 2025 as “quite special”.
But he said the momentary hiccup had the trio holding their collective breath.
“Aleks got down and did a bit of tuning up but we got away all the same. They are a beautiful team and working really well,” Steve said.
“It’s been years of this work, and it all aligned this year so we could get together to do this. It’s been a great thrill to work and to be part of it with the best teamsters the country has got.”
Barellan Working Clydesdales president Bruce Bandy said the festival was unique in having all the draught animals – horses, bullocks, camels, mules, donkeys and goats – working in the one spot.
The result was the greatest gathering of mixed species harness animals in the world.
“It is the teamster’s capital of Australia,” Bruce said.
Bruce was quietly pleased the horses had worked well as a single unit in the record-breaking team and added it was a highlight of his life.
