As she successfully presents her family’s stud Brahmans in Qld show rings, Isy Lindley is making a positive impression of her own.
Story + Photos Annabelle Brayley
It’s the last day of winter and the fog shrouding the hills is just lifting as 26-year-old Isy Lindley drives from her parent’s farm, Netherby, north of Gayndah, Qld, to nearby Hazelton, where her cousin Stuart Kirk is loading weaners to send to his family’s northern cattle station at Middlemount. While he finishes, Isy gravitates to another section of the yards, where the Hazelton Brahman Stud heifers are gossiping quietly among themselves. As she wanders through them, rubbing a nose and scratching a belly, she points to the young stud bull nudging the gate from the next yard and grins as she murmurs, ‘Homer likes the girls’. Isy is stud groom at Hazelton.
It’s a mighty achievement for a girl who learned to ride Velcro-ed into a disabled rider’s saddle because she had no muscle tone at all in her legs and no balance. While Isy now rides easily – albeit carefully – musters cattle on her own and is currently working on her barrel-racing times, the youngest of Barton and Leonie Lindley’s four children has cerebral palsy and autistic traits. She comprehends other people, but it is often difficult for her to coordinate the muscles that produce words correctly to respond, especially if she’s stressed. However, around horses and cattle she’s quite fluent. “The horses calm me,” Isy says.
This story excerpt is from Issue #140
Outback Magazine: December/January 2022
