This is a story of a wonderful coincidence and a few "down-the-rabbit-hole" moments. It's about how, 170 years after Alma first won his class back in the old country, he's being honoured with the naming of the Alma Cup for the Grand Champion Led Heavy Horse at the 2025 Braidwood and District Heavy Horse Show.
In 2024, the first Braidwood and District Heavy Horse Show was held. It wasn't the first Show in the district to feature heavy horses — the Braidwood Show has been accepting heavy horse entries for over a hundred years, and in the 1850s there were plenty of ploughing competitions featuring draught horses. But it was the first event solely dedicated to heavy horses, showcasing their versatility through led, ridden, harness, and long-reining classes.
It was a great success — over 25 horses were entered, and more than 150 members of the public came along. It went so well that everyone agreed it wouldn't be the last Show. Off the back of that success, the Braidwood and District Heavy Horse Association was formed. Its aim is to promote and educate the community about the role these horses have played in our region, and to organise an annual event where they can be displayed in all their glory.
Around the same time the 2024 Show was wrapping up, we were reading a locally written book on the Clarke Gang by Peter C Smith — and a short paragraph about The Hon. Hugh Wallace's stallion "Alma" really stood out.
In the book, Peter Smith notes that Alma was a Clydesdale stallion and includes an 1856 advertisement from the Goulburn Herald, mentioning Alma's win for "Best two-year-old stallion for agricultural purposes" at the Royal Agricultural Society Show in Carlisle (UK) in 1855. He also explains how Alma and his offspring helped bring about the downfall of the Clarke Gang (p. 145). We won't go into that story here — Peter Smith covers it in great detail, and if you want to know more, his book is well worth a read.
What we wanted to know was how Alma ended up at Wallace's property, Nithsdale, in Ballalaba; what impact he had (if any) on the heavy horse stock in the district; and whether any of his progeny might still be around today. That's when we disappeared down the rabbit hole. Not all of our questions have been answered (if anyone has more information, please let us know!), but here's what we do know:
The Hon. Hugh Wallace — after whom the main street in Braidwood is named — moved to the area in the 1840s. He established Nithsdale at Ballalaba, named after an area in Scotland. In 1855, he bought a champion stallion (unnamed at Carlisle): the results note his sire as Merry Tom and dam as Jess (a pure Clydesdale).
Wallace brought this horse to Australia on the clipper Catherine Adamson, with Alma arriving in early 1856. An article in Bell's Life (February 1856) mentions "valuable additions to our imported stock," specifically highlighting Alma.
On a sad note, the Catherine Adamson foundered at North Head on its third voyage in 1857, and the victims of that shipwreck were buried alongside those from the Dunbar. There's a monument in Camperdown Cemetery remembering both disasters.
In every article we've seen, Alma's victory at Carlisle is highlighted, as well as the fact he was a magnificent dark bay stallion. He clearly passed on those traits to his offspring. Over the years, Alma produced many fine horses in this district and beyond, standing at Nithsdale, then at Wagga Wagga, Gunnedah, and Armidale. Advertisements always mention his Carlisle win, referring to him as the "prize stallion." Many of his progeny went on to stand at stud too — including Young Alma, Phaudrig, Black Prince, Major, Iron Duke, and Romeo.
Other horses, such as Beauty, Blossom, Southern Star, and Lucy, were advertised as being sired by Alma, plus two colts foaled in 1859 out of a Clarke mare.
Hugh Wallace died tragically in 1868. There's another interesting story there: he's buried in Braidwood Cemetery but has no headstone, there's a headstone for him in Dumfries with no body beneath it, and a memorial plaque in Sydney that was moved from the old Devonshire Street Cemetery when Central Station was built in 1900.
The next time Alma shows up is standing at stud in 1869 in Gunnedah. He was later sold to the Boorolong Draught Stud in Armidale. In 1879, he appeared in the auction catalogue for the entire Boorolong Draught Stud, which also included colts and fillies by Alma and another draught horse called Salisbury Tommy. Once again, Alma was described as the "well-known draught stallion." Considering he was foaled in 1853, he would have been 25 by then — a grand age for such an active stud stallion!
Where we're still stuck is tracing any 1900s (or current) horses with a direct line to Alma. We assumed tracking down such a notable stallion would be easier, but it hasn't been. He's never actually named in the Carlisle competition results, only referred to by his then-owner Robert Smith of Ladyland near Dumfries (coincidentally Wallace's birthplace). Volume 1 of the UK Studbook references an Alma foaled in 1853 owned by Hugh Brodie, but the sire and dam are different. So somewhere between the Carlisle Show and Sydney, "our" Alma got his name. One theory is that Wallace named him after the 1854 Battle of Alma in the Crimean War.
Since there was no Australian Clydesdale stud book until the early 1900s — and horses were rarely identified by stud names back then — it's difficult to confirm Alma's bloodlines. Even the UK studbook, started in the 1870s, isn't fully comprehensive for the 1850s. His listed sire, Merry Tom, could be one of four Clydesdales on the All Breeds Pedigree database, but none of them had a progeny named Alma. To complicate matters, Alma had a foal named Merry Tom, too — so apparently it was a popular name!
So we keep looking. Alma has truly captured our imaginations, and we're certain there's more to uncover — especially images, etchings, or drawings that might do justice to this impressive dark bay Clydesdale stallion.
If anyone can shed light on more of his story or fill in a few gaps, we'd love to hear from you.
We'd like to thank the National Library's Trove (an absolutely brilliant resource), the Braidwood Museum for their fantastic records and local knowledge, Peter C Smith for first sending us in this direction through his book, and also ShedGirl — a relative of Hugh Wallace — who helped us fill in some blanks.