The first meeting held to form a Buckskin Society was held in Knoxfield at the home of Dianne Londrigan, in fact Kay Emond and Dianne Londrigan had been showing their respective mares, The Golden Meadow Chiffon V1 and Borynda Tango V2 for some years prior to any thought of forming a Society for the Buckskin horse.
The Society came into being as a result of The Golden Meadow Chiffon being shown as an open saddle pony and doing well enough to be accepted at Melbourne Royal under saddle. Kay and Dianne got very tired of being told lovely pony BUT shame about the colour. This caused some angst and the two girls got together and called a meeting. The meeting was very well attended with over thirty people present, and it was decided to join the IBHA as an Australian group. Of the original meeting, Kay & Bruce Emond and Jan Irvine are still members of the NBS. Dianne Londrigan is still breeding and showing ponies albeit in Queensland. Bruce Emond was the inaugural President, Jan Irvine as Vice-President, Anne Fumi as Secretary, Dianne Londrigan as Treasurer and Kay Emond as Australian Classifier.
After some time and a few problems it was decided to call another meeting and form the National Buckskin Society as it was felt that the USA was not the way to go, so in 1975 the National Buckskin Society was formed. The horses classified in the early days were not as good a quality as the horses of today, but, some were outstanding, as the head on our Logo “Jai Jadra” has stood the test of time and is still remembered by our older members. “Jad” was a part bred Arabian and a very good moving horse. Our first slogan of “Buckskins are Beautiful” was born. All horses were sight classified, often by torchlight and some very hairy trips were made across the length and width of Victoria, Bruce, Anne and Kay defied floods, scorching weather, unbelievably bad roads, directions were hit and miss, no main highways/freeways in those days, but, somehow we all survived, laughed and kept going and did not get lost too many times. In fact Kay Emond is a current Committee member and still classifying today.
The first show was held at Petty’s Reserve, Templestowe. The excitement of our first show, held on a very windy day, and with the spirit stove threatening to set fire to the tent every so often kept us on our toes. Colour information and informal talks were held in the morning, and after lunch, a show was held of 10 classes. Our very First Champion was Borynda Tango as Led Buckskin and Libby Wilkinson’s mare “Monty’s Girl” was Ridden Champion.
Much hard work was needed to make the Society grow and many, many people willingly gave hours and hours of unpaid time and effort. There are too many to name individually, (if we try we will miss somebody out). These people came as breeders of the pure bred stock we were now registering and who loved our Golden Horse just for itself. They came from all sections of the equine world from the Quarter Horse, Welsh and Australian Ponies, the Highland and Connemara Ponies, part bred Thoroughbreds, Arabians, to horses of no known breeding and down to the Shetland and Miniature Horse and ponies.
The Society grew over the next few years & in 1979 the first Studbook was printed. It contained 461Adult registered horses & 370 members.
The Society has come a long way since its humble beginnings & is continuing to grow & expand. Now 37 years later, there are now around 150 members with approaching two thousand horses/ponies registered from day one.
What gives the committee much pleasure is that people are deliberately setting out to Show and breed the colour and the Society is looking forward to the next 30 years.
Quite an achievement for two young women with a passion for the Buckskin and living a 100 kms apart.
Golden Meadow Chiffon – the first Buckskin to be registered with the Society.
***The Society would like to ask if anyone has good clear photo's of any early horses registered with the Society if they would allow us to use them on our website.
Photos can be emailed to
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