Brumby Training

    G’day,

     Sorry that I have not updated in a while, the internet connection was down the last couple of days due to lots of rain.  The clouds block the satellite signal.  Since I last updated, I have been very busy generally helping around the station and learning how to train brumbies.

    Last Tuesday Mom, Kathrin, and I went into Wodonga which is a town that borders Victoria, to register the stock truck, run assorted errands, and buy groceries.  On Wednesday, we spent part of the day down at Billy’s Cabin. 

Billy's Cabin

Barry leveling the garden with the road grader.

The Cabin was built quite awhile ago on the property and had fallen into disrepair until Kathrin and Barry fixed it up.  They now rent it out for people to stay in for vacation.  I got to use the riding lawnmower to mow the grass around the cabin.  That was fun!  I was shooting back and forth across the yard, turning quick little circles and generally wreaking havoc on plant kind.  While I was thus happily occupied, Barry used the road grader to flatten Kathrin’s large garden.  She intends to plant corn, potatoes, pumpkins and other vegetables.

Mom working with Timmy

    Thursday was finally the day that Mom and I got to start training some of the brumbies that were born to horses that Kathrin and Barry already own.  Either the mothers were brumbies that Barry had caught, or a brumby stallion had jumped into the pen with a mare and fostered a half brumby horse.  For training, we are using Pat Parelli (who is American)’s techniques, starting with the seven games.  The games are specifically tailored for horsemen to use to teach their horses to understand commands and to establish effective communication between the horse and trainer.   Most of the games are based on the principle of doing things that horses naturally do to communicate socially.  For example, the first game is the Friendly Game and it is basically rubbing the horse and communicating to the horse that he is not in danger.  The rubbing is what a mare would do to help her foal get to know her.  And then the games take off from there.  I am working with a two year old brumby gelding who I have named Sky.   Mom is working with Sky’s half brother, Timmy, who is only a year old. 

Loading the stock truck

   On Friday Barry and I took some of the extra horses that were too old or too wild for training to be sold in Wagga Wagga.  I got to see the huge area of sheep and cattle yards where the local buying and selling goes on, although when we were there it was not a livestock day.  I really enjoyed the ride anyway.  The scenery in the mountains is beautiful.  There are plenty of trees and lots of green grass.  It is also interesting to look at all of the different farms and keep an eye out for kangaroos. 

   Also on Friday, Stacy, Rebecca, and Rocky, the tenants at Billy’s cottage for the weekend, arrived. The school year here in Australia runs from February through November or December, allowing students to have the Australian summer off. Stacy and Bec just graduated from a two year agricultural program that they started after only two years of high school.  It sounds a bit like our Running Start program in Washington. 

Stacy, Bec, and Rocky

Out trail riding

 Bec and Stacy have jobs working with horses.  Rocky is still in high school, but he too is very good with horses.  And so Kathrin was very happy that they wanted to come and ride some of her younger horses that need more riding experience.   On Saturday morning, Stacy, Bec and Rocky saddled up three of the younger horses from Kathrin and Barry’s herd to go for a trail ride with Barry.  I was invited along and I (thankfully) road Sambo.  The younger horses were very fidgety and not used to riders.  Sometimes the horses would start suddenly and one of the horses even bucked once, but all of the riders were very good with their horses and no one fell off.  

   The whole weekend was pretty much constant rain.  So when the riders went out on Sunday, I was glad to stay at the house.  Kathrin and I finished a flier for the upcoming “Man from Snowy River” festival.  The flier advertises the brumbies that are for sale and offers a week long training course to get owners started with their brumbies.  The flier also promotes a cabin stay at Billy’s Cabin.  The festival is this coming weekend.  It features all kinds of challenges of horsemanship, work dog trials, and Australian poetry.  The brumbies Barry has been catching will be used for the brumby catch at the festival (I am not exactly sure what that entails, but I will find out this weekend).  And the brumbies we have been training will be used in a demonstration to show how smart and useful brumbies can actually be as trained horses. 

Me on top of Sky after we got him to lay down

  On Sunday afternoon, we continued our Brumby training and advanced on to laying the horses down and asking them to get up on large tractor tires covered with wood and rubber.  Bec and Rocky lent a hand and we soon had all of our trainees laying down and jumping up on tires.

   Monday and today were spent continuing brumby training and getting things prepared for the festival.  Barry took the wild horses in the stock tuck to the festival grounds today so that we can use the stock truck on Thursday to load up our other gear.  Mom, Kathrin, and I spent time working in the garden, and baking.  We made little pasties, rolls, and cookies to take with us to eat while we are camping out over the weekend.  We will leave the station on Thursday morning, and we should be back sometime late Sunday night.  So I will be sure to give you the full details of the festival when we get back.

Love and miss all of you,

    Hana