?River Valley Tiptoe is a gorgeous bay New Forest stallion owned by Arnwood Pony Stud in Tatura (Victoria) and was being campaigned by the Parrish family from Wandong, Victoria. Like many in that area, they were caught up in the terrible Black Saturday bush fires on February 7.
Tiptoe...whose stablename is 'Tippy'...owes his life to Norm Clark, who walked three kilometres through the fire to rescue him, leading him to safety with just a piece of electrical tape around the stallion’s neck.
This is what happened....

"Jaccy, from Arnwood Pony Stud, and I left home about 12.30pm for the 1 hour 45 minute drive to Parrishes, who had phoned to say they had received an early warning to evacuate. We were at Seymour about 2pm when we got a phone call from 19 year old Jahnae Parrish to say that the fire had surrounded them. She said they had let all the horses out into the paddock, but Tippy still had his rug on...they had no time.
"We got to Broadford and were stopped by the police, who wouldn't let us through to the freeway. We informed them about the situation and they suggested we drive to the road block at Wallan and explain it there, which we did. The police at Wallan wouldn’t let us through either, so I asked that if I could find a back way through, could we go and get the horse? They said yes so I found a road through to South Mountain Road and we drove towards the Parrishes' property...and straight into the fire.
"The fire tankers were up there battling the blaze and we were told to turn around and go to the bottom of the road as fires had now surrounded us. We did that but again police had blocked off the road, so now we couldn’t get up or down.
"We waited half an hour and Jahnae phoned again, she was hysterical and said she was leading Tippy out and to come and help her. So we went back up to where the fire crews were and with the fire all around us, explained the situation to the fire brigade and were told we couldn’t go in there because it was too dangerous and to wait where we were until they worked out what to do.
"I asked if they wanted the four wheel drive and float off the mountain and they said NO, to stay where they were as it was safe. So we stayed and waited but before I got an answer, all the tankers left to refill so I took off on foot and walked the next three kilometres in, leaving Jaccy on the phone to her daughter, who had just had a phone call from Jahnae, saying her goodbyes.
"While I walked in, the fire turned and came back down the hill, jumped the road and set fire to the house that Jaccy had parked beside. She had no idea where I was or if I had made it through before the fire separated us. That was within minutes of me leaving her.
"While I walked through trees, power lines were falling and I had no idea which property to go to–I hadn't been there before, I only had a description of it given to me by Jaccy. I finally found it, taking whatever 'safe' track I could and when I arrived, there were no fences, the house next door was alight and the ponies were running around together...two stallions and some others. There was nothing to lead the horse out with as everything had been burned in the stables.
"When I arrived, Jahnae was in a terrible way, she had just ?lost her Highland pony foal in the stables and her nextdoor neighbour had died trying to save his house.
"I found a bit of burnt electric fence tape, caught Tippy and tried to catch another one of the stallions as well, but he was not co-operating, so I walked out.
"Jahnae had gotten a phone call from Jaccy telling her not to let me go, but I ignored her and left. Jahnae phoned Jaccy and told her I had arrived and was okay as my mobile phone battery had gone flat, so we had no contact at all during this time.
"I met a spot fire tanker on the way out, the crew gave me water and I just continued down the mountain with trees and poles and everything else still alight surrounding us. The little stallion kept calm the whole time, just walking close beside me.
"A lady in a car stopped and gave me a lift, so I led Tippy from the car window. I had no idea where Jaccy was, but we spotted her after about 200 metres.
"It took us around 20 minutes to coax Tippy onto the float; it was very hot and the fire was still all around us, but we were in the middle of the the intersection of South and North Mountain Road, which was the safest place to be. Jaccy kept checking her tyres but the the rubber panels had fallen in on the inside of the float as their little plastic clips had melted.
"The whole time the only thought I had was to find their property and bring the pony out. Would I do it again? Yes...and I wouldn’t give it a second thought.
"Tippy had a very good quality heavy cotton rug on and I personally believe this saved him from being burned worse than he was. He had a few blisters on his body, we believe from the embers as the fires went through their property, yet the rug didn't appear to have any burn marks on it at all.
"A lot of the horses up there weren't so lucky and some were quite badly burned. Tippy was also shod in light aluminium shoes with plastic inserts which we also believe saved his feet. A lot of poor horses who survived had to be put down afterwards due to founder, their feet had over-heated."

...and Jaccy's ordeal:
"The fire was so hot and moved so fast Norm and I did what we could. I felt awful leaving Jahnae, her bother and Dad and their ponies but I could not get the car and float any closer. I had to turn and leave twice and was frantic to find Norm and Tiptoe.
"A CFA car came through to me on South Mountain Road and told me not to go in but if I did and was quick, they had seen Norm leading Tippy and he should have made the intersection of North Mountain Road. The fire between us had died down but was expected to come back through at any minute. Norm and I arrived at the intersection at exactly the same time, loaded up and left...we couldn't have got the timing better if we'd tried. I had been in touch with Jahnae while the fire went through her place; it was terrible to listen to but I could not get that last three kilometres in the car no matter what.
"Thank God Larry (Jahnae's Dad) was able to save the people in the house, he was outside fighting the fire.
Jahnae's car was a bit (lot!) burnt but usable and they got out after Norm took Tiptoe."

A week later Norm, Jahnae and Tippy attended the Barastoc Horse of the Year show, where they took part in a touching memorial service (right) remembering the human and animal victims of those terrible Black Saturday bushfires.

© Horsewyse Magazine