When Jim Jones was about 15 years old he bought a 13-14 hand high gelding from Joes Shaw for about 12 pounds - its name was Buttons . Jim had a part time job out the back of Carrum milking Harold Stephen's cows, there was plenty of grass at the Stephen's farm so he often left Buttons in the paddocks to graze.

Buttons was an extremely difficult horse to catch, as soon as he saw anyone coming he would race off in the opposite direction. One day Jim and his dog went out to the farm to bring Buttons back to a paddock closer to Jim's place. After spending some time chasing him around the paddocks they finally had him cornered. They were closing in when all of a sudden Buttons lashed out and kicked Jim right in the middle of his forehead. Jim reckons the horse was kicking at the dog but it was he that ended up bearing the brunt of it.

He said he staggered down the road with blood pouring from his head, horrified onlookers quickly called an ambulance. Jim said It didn't seem to take long before it arrived, he said ambulance officers took one look at him and then quickly placed him on a stretcher. The ambulance then made its way around to Jim's house, collecting his mother, and then, rushing Jim to the Alfred Hospital. Jim was to spend the next three weeks laying in bed with a fractured skull. As a reminder of the event he still has a horseshoe shaped scar on his forehead. ^[1]

Author

Carole Ross

1. Ross C. Interview Jim Jones. 2009