Di Bennett and Peter Karger are the founders and proud owners of Turpentine Park Quarter Horses, working closely together to breed the highest quality performance horses carrying the proven genetics of their great cutting horse mare Turpentine Acres.
The name Turpentine is derived from the stud’s great foundation mare Turpentine Acres (cutting life time earnings of $70,000>). The small niche stud is situated on the outskirts of Bordertown, a scenic rural town which lies in the upper south east of South Australia near the Victorian border.
Di and Peter’s admiration and attraction to quarter horses stems from attending several Ken May ‘cow-horse’ clinics at Willalooka in the late 1990’s. Several years of camp drafting and stockman challenges followed but it was a trip to Tamworth to watch close friend Chris Fox compete at the 1999 NCHA Futurity that would change their course. Vivid memories remain of watching the spectacular NCHA Gold Cup, in total awe of these gifted and incredible athletes, they were instantly hooked on cutting. (Ironically a few years later this dream would be theirs with Turpentine Acres)
The 2000 NCHA Select Sale saw them purchase their first trained cutting horse, a gelding Oaks 007 (James). Trained and shown by Aaron Wheatley, James was an absolute treasure and it wasn’t long until there was a strong urge to return to Tamworth to buy another! This time they decided to buy a mare to have trained as a futurity prospect and if successful then possibly breed (ones wildest dreams).
In 2003 they returned to the NCHA Select Sales and became proud owners of a beautiful 3 year old mare Turpentine Acres (Acres Destiny x Oaks Kerosene). She was bred at Tamarang and offered for sale by Richard Bull for his mum Eira (who still takes a keen interest in ‘Turps’ and her babies). Scott Campbell then continued her cutting training and quickly realised that he had something very ‘special’. Unlucky in her futurity year despite scoring a 74 for 3rd place in the first go-round, her brilliance was evident and she soon became one of Australia’s great cutting mares with LTE $70,000 ongoing.
In 2008, Peter and Di decided to retire ‘Turps’ from the rigors of open competition as she had nothing else to prove (she now enjoys and successfully competes at a few shows in Non Pro and Youth cutting events). The next focus was to do her justice by breeding quality performance horses and ultimately a NCHA Futurity Champion.
Our Rich History
The name Turpentine is derived from the stud’s great foundation mare Turpentine Acres (cutting life time earnings of $70,000>). The small niche stud is situated on the outskirts of Bordertown, a scenic rural town which lies in the upper south east of South Australia near the Victorian border.
Di and Peter’s admiration and attraction to quarter horses stems from attending several Ken May ‘cow-horse’ clinics at Willalooka in the late 1990’s. Several years of camp drafting and stockman challenges followed but it was a trip to Tamworth to watch close friend Chris Fox compete at the 1999 NCHA Futurity that would change their course. Vivid memories remain of watching the spectacular NCHA Gold Cup, in total awe of these gifted and incredible athletes, they were instantly hooked on cutting. (Ironically a few years later this dream would be theirs with Turpentine Acres)
The 2000 NCHA Select Sale saw them purchase their first trained cutting horse, a gelding Oaks 007 (James). Trained and shown by Aaron Wheatley, James was an absolute treasure and it wasn’t long until there was a strong urge to return to Tamworth to buy another! This time they decided to buy a mare to have trained as a futurity prospect and if successful then possibly breed (ones wildest dreams)
In 2003 they returned to the NCHA Select Sales and became proud owners of a beautiful 3 year old mare Turpentine Acres (Acres Destiny x Oaks Kerosene). She was bred at Tamarang and offered for sale by Richard Bull for his mum Eira (who still takes a keen interest in ‘Turps’ and her babies). Scott Campbell then continued her cutting training and quickly realised that he had something very ‘special’. Unlucky in her futurity year despite scoring a 74 for 3rd place in the first go- round, her brilliance was evident and she soon became one of Australia’s great cutting mares with LTE $70,000 ongoing.
In 2008, Peter and Di decided to retire ‘Turps’ from the rigors of open competition as she had nothing else to prove (she now enjoys and successfully competes at a few shows in Non Pro and Youth cutting events). The next focus was to do her justice by breeding quality performance horses and ultimately a NCHA Futurity Champion.
Turpentine Park’s first retained ET progeny Turpentine Reyn (Turpentine Acres x Reyn Storm) was born in 2007. He was trained by Phil Dawson and was one of only three horses to final in all four major cutting Futurities, finalling in his Derby year, he then went on to become the 2013 NCHA Classic Challenge Champion. 2008 saw his very gifted sister Turpentine Storm born; trained and shown by Aaron Wheatley, showed her extraordinary talent by winning the Victorian Futurity and then taking out 2013 NCHA Derby Reserve Champion at Tamworth. That year to win the Classic Challenge and the Reserve Derby Champion was truly an amazing feat.
