Life on the big cattle runs was where the Kenniffs could indulge their passion for good horseflesh. Here large mobs of brumbies roamed, and although some of these were of strangely mixed lineage, with draught-horse legs and race horse bodies or vice versa, many of them were cleanly bred; and a good brumby – inured as it was to the hard life in the ranges – could gallop all day. The station owners and managers in this area, too, liked big, tall racing stock; and Patrick and James were happy in their work.
Trouble, when it appeared, came slowly. The station people – owners, managers, and their employees – had taken the Kenniffs at their own valuation, as is usually their custom. At first it was the theft of some horses from Lansdowne Station, the brands having been disfigured, and the numerals on their necks cut with a knife. Charges, however, were not pressed by the Lansdowne manager owing to his high regard for James as a horse-breaker.
E.G. Heap, B.A. The Rangers Were the Best. The Kenniff Story. Queensland Heritage.