This is a story of how, 170 years after Alma first won first prize back in the old country, he's being honoured with the naming of the Alma Cup for the Grand Champion Led Heavy Horse. The inaugural award was 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 — and it continues to grow. In 2026 we had over 50 horses entered, and more than 2000 members of the public came along.
But what's the story behind Alma? He features in a short paragraph in a locally written book on the Clarke Gang.
In the book, Peter Smith notes that Alma was a Clydesdale stallion owned by the Hon Hugh Wallace 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). Merry Tom was a famous Grey Clydesdale who is still mentioned in horse books about the origins of the Clydesdale. Merry Tom even had a pub named after him in Cumbria and he won first prize Clydesdale Stallion at the 1854 Great Highland and Agricultural Show of Scotland as well as the 1855 Royal Agricultural Society of England's Carlisle Show. He was important enough to have an engraving by the famous horse engraver Charles Hunt circa 1850. Jess was also a prize winner at various agricultural shows.
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. In fact an advertisement in the Moruya Examiner in May 1866 mentions horses being sold who are from the well-known Alma breed!
Over the years, Alma produced many fine horses in this district and beyond, standing at Nithsdale, then at Wagga Wagga, Bega, 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, Romeo, Hector and Loftus.
Blossom by Alma was an especially stunning and successful mare described as being of gigantic proportions, who went on to win the Bega Show in the late 1870s and early 1880s — and was never beaten.
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.
After his presence in our district, including the South Coast, from 1856 to 1869 he was sold to Robert Turner at Gunnedah and stood there in 1869. 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 do have a reference to Hector standing at Omeo in 1902 whose Great-Great-Great Grand Dam was by Alma!
However, 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.