Tribute To A Champion - Wungum Citizen

This article is from the September 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

Everything about Wungum Citizen was on a fast track, from his early great success as a led and performance horse, to his untimely death at just 16 in late June this year. Bred by the Ware family, a product of their successful Wungum Stud at Duri in NSW, Citizen was trained and ridden by Christopher Ware, who also made a precocious and successful debut into the best of open competition as a sixteen-year-old. Is it nurture or nature that brings success? The debate continues, but Citizen had the best of both, being bred “in the purple” for an Australian Stock Horse and also produced by a talented young rider and trainer who formed a strong bond with the young gelding that claimed many of the major prizes on offer in the Stock Horse ring at just five years old. This is his tribute.

When you take a look at Citizen’s pedigree two hugely influential foundation Australian Stock Horse stallions leap off the page, Chan 02 (foaled in 1945) and Abbey (foaled in 1955). Chan was by the legendary Radium 02 and was described as: a beautifully tempered horse with an elegant appearance. He produced horses with great cattle sense and great conformation. They not only looked good, they were great work horses.*

“When the Chan mares started to appear in outside studs and the Chan colts started being used,” wrote Joy Poole OAM in the ASHS Journal in 2001, the breed really exploded. “Abbey,” continues Poole, “has had the greatest influence on modern Australian Stock Horse breeding than any other horse. Anything with Abbey blood, was usually a pretty talented animal.” Abbey was by Radiant that was by Radium 02, the same sire as Chan. Interestingly, Abbey was out of Radiant’s full sister, Joy’s Pal. He was to be gelded for this reason, but thankfully he wasn’t and produced some of the greatest campdraft, polocrosse and showjumping horses ever seen.**

Back to Citizen. Foaled in 2004 he was by the Glasser family’s Glencoe Abstract, that was by Quidong Absolam HSH by Abbey. Absolam was out of My Chance FM HSH that was by Chan.

Abstract was out of Glencoe Drovers Dream HSH that was by Renral Drover HSH that was out of an Abbey mare. So you can see the influential blood of the two Foundation Sires rushing through the veins of this modern Australian Stock Horse. Abbey and Chan can be seen prominently on the dam line as well. Citizen’s dam, Wungum Roulette was by Wungum Top Tek, by Comara Topline, by Abbey. Roulette was out of Rosebrook Scarlet that was by Rosebrook Cedarwood that was out of a mare by Chan.

That’s all well and good you might say, but the proof of the pudding etc. Some very successful riders and trainers take no notice of breeding, they look at the individual. In Citizen’s case, there was no cause for disappointment. Broken in as a two year old by Darren Greentree at Tamworth, Citizen returned home to the then 14-year-old Christopher Ware to be educated. At his first Royal at Toowoomba as a two-year-old, Citizen was declared Champion Led Australian Stock Horse and a few weeks later was declared Supreme Led at the Queensland State Show at Warwick. The following year, 2009 back at Toowoomba, Citizen won his first working class and placed well in all the sections of the National Maturity that year. He continued successfully with Christopher who claimed the Supreme Rider title and Citizen the Reserve Champion Hack award at the 2009 National Youth Show, also taking out the High Point award.

It is interesting to note that Abbey won his first campdraft at just 18 months old. Maturity beyond their years was certainly also the hallmark of the 2010 season for both Citizen and Christopher. A particularly memorable win for the then five and 16-year-old respectively was claiming the David Archibald Memorial Perpetual Trophy for Champion Working Stock Horse at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. Christopher and Citizen won the Working Gelding class and, giving their peers at least 20 years, outworked some of the most successful, experienced and talented combinations in the country. In 2010 Citizen went on to claim over ten major wins in five different disciplines including:-
• Supreme Led All Breeds Guyra Show
• Supreme Led ASH National Show Qld
• Champion Working, Sydney and Toowoomba Royals and ASHS Nationals
• Supreme Champion Hack and Supreme Working at the NSW Breeders Championship
• NSW Silver Champagne Stakes Challenge Championship (also 2011 and 2012)

On the strength of this performance, Citizen was awarded the ASHS 2010 Prince of Wales Perpetual Trophy; a high point award based on three or more different disciplines.

All this and just rising six years old.

After about 2012 we did not see Christopher and Citizen in the show ring. “After he won the Champagne Stakes in 2012,” explains Christopher, “I backed off Citizen and concentrated on the younger horses we were breeding. And really, I thought he had won enough and I am not one for carting them around the country just to win a ribbon. He had nothing to prove.

“My brother Lachlan rode him and showed him a little bit up until about 2016 when Lachlan became more interested in showing cattle than horses.

“All the horses here are used to work the cattle and he did that, but we have young ones to bring on and Citizen was given the important job of babysitting and he was really good at that. He would hang out with the babies and bring them up when we wanted them. No one ever spoke to us about having a loan of him or leasing him for a young rider, which we would have considered, but having said that, he was not always so easy and he was a great babysitter, as he really seemed to like them.

“Mum was out feeding the babies in late June and came back upset and said, the babysitter is dead! We also have a cow babysitter and I had just put her out, so I said, she can’t be. No, said mum, Citizen. We were all very sad, as he had been such a good horse and we thought he would have many more foal crops to look after. We did not investigate his death. It was June, so snakebite is unlikely but possible, and we have no bats here so Hendra was ruled out. It could have been a massive heart attack, as there were no signs of a struggle or distress. We all miss him and his full brother Wungum Citcom will have a hard act to follow.”

References
* Lindsay Ferguson. Australian Stock Horse Journal.
* * Kim Honan ABC Rural May 2010*

Article: Anna Sharpley

Sign up to our newsletter