21/01/2022
For a long time now, people have had divided views on Brumbies.
They've either been seen as a nuisance to nature, or the force of nature that dared be reckoned with.
They've either been left to roam the wild grounds in is which their birth right, or they've been shot on sight when classified a problem.
They've either been deemed easily trainable or... hardly worth the time.
Some people love them, and unfortunately... some hate them.
Each to their own.
But I wonder what people would think of them if they saw Brumbies as something more than just a 'feral horse that eats grass and destroys the land'.
If people saw them for what they truly are....
..powerful beyond compare, surviving and adapting over hundreds of years as humans have completely uprooted their world, where they used to roam wherever their hearts desired. Where the land they chose was theirs, and they had no need to worry about being pushed out.
How they have grown in numbers over the years, despite guns and roundups constantly threatening their livelihood, how despite everything thrown at them they stick together with their herd, never leaving anyone behind. They travel over hundreds of miles, and they stick and work together like clockwork.
How they have an untamebale spirit ...and no matter how trained and domesticated they can become once caught, they will always be wild at heart.
But despite that, and despite their natural fight or flight instincts to ensure their survival in the wild....if captured they are capable of learning a whole new life.
That alone, is something quite remarkable.
A life with fences and paddocks and strict feeding routines, a life where they can't go where they want when they want, a life where instead of drinking from streams rivers and lakes, they drink from water troughs and eat from buckets, a life where they have strange things strapped to their body and are asked to do crazy things that was unheard of in their wild days. Where instead of being independent, they rely soley on the very people that have taken their freedom.
But still, with a bit of time, they learn to love you, going against every better instinct past on along generations forcing them to see you as nothing but a potential threat. But they are bigger than their instincts.....when they allow you to ride them, love on them, when they choose you over shaking in the corner of their stalls or when instead of running away in the paddock they CHOOSE to come to YOU, they have let you into their lives and claimed you as their new herd; to be protected at all costs.
Of course they still dream about their wild days, when the sun goes down and the moon comes out reflecting on the very fences that seperates them from their new and old life. I'm sure they dream about the adventures they had as cheeky little foals, galloping along the green plains. I'm sure they still remember the days they were rounded up, the last looks they were allowed of the wild & their family before being pushed up into strange metal boxes on wheels, usually never seeing their wild home again.
Yet they choose to adapt and grow, because adaption is what they have done for years, engraved into their very bones, without it they are no more useful in the wild than wallaby to a hungry dingo.
That is the power of the Brumby. They aren't 'just a horse', really, they are much more than that.
They are our history.
Our heritage.
Australia wouldn't be as beautiful as it is without them.
We need them....
As much as they need us to protect them.
📸 Out and about with Dancer.
