The wild bunch
Candida Baker, brumby trekking
It’s almost 40 years ago that I first saw brumbies. I was on a week-long wilderness ride in the Barrington Tops with a small trailriding business, and I remember I was riding a very young horse, Bassie. It was his first long ride out, and he pretty much decided to jog-trot for the entire week, which did a lot for my core and leg muscles, and not so much for my sore rear end.
Afew days in, as we got near the plateau, the snow started and soon our horses turned their bums into it and refused to go a step further until the blizzard lightened. Our hosts told us the quickest way to get dry was to stand by the fire, so we did, while clouds of smoky steam rose off us into the suddenly clear but freezing night air.
A rest day meant a chance to explore the
Tops on the horses and as we made our way along tracks among the gum trees, we suddenly spotted a small herd of brumbies, their deep-bay coats in sharp contrast to the white snow. When we got too close for comfort the stallion went on red alert, and cantered his mob to the safety of the tree-line.
The sight of them left me with a curious wistfulness – they were so free, so much part of the landscape. Where had they come from, I wondered, these particular horses, and how long since their ancestors had pulled carts, provided transport and ploughed the land for their human companions.
Fast-forward to 2020 (with a few wilderness rides in the intervening decades), and here I am again, riding on a Guy Fawkes Heritage brumby, Guy Fawkes Carnaby, now renamed Mello, through the state forest near Kew, not far from Port Macquarie.
Kathy Holtrust, who runs Southern Cross Horse Treks, has always used Arabians as her steed of choice for her boutique operation. But with the increasing controversy around the issue of brumbies in national parks, she decided to take two brumbies, Mello and Dodge, who had been passively trapped in the Guy Fawkes National Park and had undergone some initial training, to train up as trail-riding horses.
As we travel through the forest, taking some winding steep drops covered with vines and branches and logs, what strikes me first is
Mello’s extraordinary spatial awareness. I don’t need to guide this horse; in fact, he’s almost telling me not to guide him – he can do it, thank you very much. I’m impressed with his paces as well. His walk is so free and easy, I just sit there. His trot is steady and his canter remarkably comfortable. He’s keen to have a gallop when there’s one available, and equally happy to walk along the forest tracks, his kind and inquisitive nature obviously happy in this new life.
It’s this possible “new” life for brumbies that made me decide to go on a bit of a personal research journey. How special are brumbies, I wanted to know, and in what ways. At the time the shooting of the Bogong High Plains brumbies was being met by stiff opposition from brumby groups around Australia and
The shooting of the Bogong High Plains brumbies was being met by stiff opposition from brumby groups and it was that controversy that took me on my second ride
it was that controversy that took me on my second brumby ride with Bogong Horseback Adventures, who are based at Tawonga, not far from Mount Beauty. The Baird family have been running a trekking operation since the 1980s and have been at Spring Spur, their current home, since 1986.
Lin Baird, the current general manager, gave me Phoenix as my mount, an eight-year-old, 14-hand bay brumby, born on their property to a brumby mare trapped on the Bogong High Plains. With a licence to take riders into the Victorian or Alpine National Parks, Lin and his family have spent decades observing brumbies, and absorbing some of their hardy bloodlines into their riding herd.
Phoenix was every bit as willing and sweet to ride as Mello, and I was intrigued whether there was a difference starting a brumby that has been trapped, such as Mello, with one born on a family farm, such as Phoenix.
“I think all brumbies have a genetic tendency to be a bit more sensitive,” Lin tells me. “They’re naturally attuned to be a bit more aware of their surroundings, so they always need careful handling, but if they’re started correctly they make fantastic horses, and the guests love them.”
The guests also, of course, love the sight of the brumbies on the Bogong High Plains. I can only speak from personal experience, but both days I visited Kiandra in the Kosciuszko National Park and saw three or four small herds of brumbies, I also saw anglers fishing in the clearrunning creeks, and visitors delighted by the sight of the 20 or so brumbies in view. Just as when I had seen them for the first time 40 years ago, something about the sight of them in the landscape made my heart sing.
Candida Baker’s The Heart of a Horse (Murdoch Books, $29.99) is out this month.