Brushwood Stud was established in 1990 at Clermont in west Queensland where we were living at the time. We derived the name form the ancient Celtic meaning of Kerr, as Robert came of Scottish descent. If we had known then that we were going to breed Spanish horses, we would have chosen something more in keeping with a Spanish theme. At first we bred show horses and, in particular, thoroughbreds. We purchased our first partbred Andalusian in 1992 and had huge success and gained much enjoyment from showing her on the Central Qld show circuit.

An Australian grey mare named Baby was sold to us as a purebred and it wasn't until a couple of years had passed that we learned that only Spanish horses were considered purebreds. We bred our first Andy foal with her by Militario and gradually sold all our other horses and bought part bred Andalusians. In 1996 Gillian went through a life changing health scare and we decided to purchase her dream horse; a Spanish Andalusian stallion. It took 3 years to save the money and find the right horse. From the moment she saw Milargo come up from the paddock when called, she knew he was the one. Super quiet from day one, his only problem was adjusting to the heat of tropical Qld as, by then, we had moved to a 100 acres mixed cattle and horses farm in the mountains above Sarina.

We gradually built up a brood mare herd of 6 mares being partbreds and foundation mares. These horses were all quiet and enabled us to establish our breeding and handling skills. Due to a career change on Robert's behalf, we moved to Maryborough in late 2003. Before moving, we made a decision to change over completely to Spanish horses. All the partbreds were sold via an advert in Horse Deals and sold very quickly.

Once we had moved, we had our stallion Milargo, one aged mare Manuka Palique (who we never did get a foal out of), a young mare Rangemore Zafira (too young yet to breed with), and Andaluka Madrina whom we purchased not long before the move. We proceeded to purchase 3 more mares and, with the death of Palique, have a herd of 5 Spanish mares. We feel this is a more than adequate number of foals to handle and train each year.

Since coming to Maryborough we haven't been able to show as much as we would like due to Gillian's continued ill health. Things have begun to look up in that regard and although we have missed the Qld Championships (2006) this year for the first time since Milargo was purchased, we hope to be seen at a lot more shows during the rest of the year. Our aim is to breed quiet, well mannered horses with correct confirmation. We feel we are on the right track with our first Spanish progeny, Brushwood Chachara, winning Supreme Spanish female of Qld in 2005. Providing exclusively Spanish stock, we hope to fill a niche market for well handled, well fed, and super quiet young horses.

The property we purchased in Maryborough is only 5 kilometres from the GPO and is situated on 34 acres of partially cleared bush. We have a lovely spring fed dam and rolling hills. We have established a full size dressage arena, roundyard, ménage, and 3 stables since moving in.

Our future plans include a large stable/feed shed/tack room complex, more paddocks with safe electric fencing, some more clearing of suckers, improved pastures, and irrigation. As Robert works in Emerald at the coal mines on a week on/week off roster these improvements will take a little time. However we have been here just over 4 years and feel happy with our achievements to date.