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| KNP Brumbies after fires. Photograph courtesy of Paul McIver |
Fast forward
in the year 2021, I find myself still without a horse, I draw and paint horses,
but I never owned one and never rode one, except for two occasions, which is
equivalent to never riding. I have also come to the realization that I may
never have the pleasure of owning one.
But as fate has it, life is strange, and sometimes if you follow your
inner most self you will find yourself in places you may have never dreamed
of.
I recently became a brumby advocate and opened this blog. It has only been a few months but within the journey, so many things have brought me to a single thought. If you only try, even just trying, you can make a difference. And even if you fail, you at least tried. So below as you read on you will stumble on a true story, and a beautiful one at that, that was written by a child, no not me. A child that had the dream, and the opportunity to fill that dream, and the courage to pursuit it.
BRUMBIES, REHOMERS, AND KOSICUSZKO NATIONAL PARK
It is an
expensive hard and difficult route that these rehomers take, but they do it
because no animal should ever be exterminated as a pest. So I am now going to introduce
you to a family that is one of many that are detrimental to the rehoming of wild
brumbies.
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| Mr Winx |
Angel is a
brumby rehomer and trainer and a mother of young children that have lived and
learned to be with horses from a young age. What I call affectionately ‘horsy
people’. Angel’s daughter Ryleigh learned to mount on a pony 8.2 hands
high. She went on to find her forever
brumby and named him Mr Winx the one eye Wonder Brumby.
Mr Winx was at first a wild brumby that lost his eye in the wild and was trapped with his family on the Snowy Plains of the National Park. He was finally sent to a rehomer in Wollemi because no one had wanted him due to his injury. The rehomer contacted Angel saying she had an ‘Odd Bod’ and without even seeing him, Angel took him in. He came to them as Mr Ed. According to Angel every brumby deserves a chance. Hence Ryleigh meets her forever brumby, and with it gains the understanding of beauty compassion and friendship. Ryleigh and Mr Winx are growing together and as you will see their bond in magical. Hence the story continues as Ryleigh gives us her own account of her relationship with Mr Winx.
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| Best Friends |
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Mr Winx is way bigger than him, standing at 14 hands. When
he first met me, he was really nervous too. He would see shadows on his blind
eye and would spook often. Therefore, my mum employed the leather man to make
him an eye patch, so when I ride him, he does not spook as much. I think that it is really cool because he
looks like a pirate! One day I want to get him a pirate outfit and for me a
parrot costume, so we can do fancy dress.
Mr Winx the pirate and myself the bird on his shoulder!
Six weeks later my mum’s best friend Vanja, took us to Goulburn Show and Mr Winx and I won second place in the lead class and second place in the riding class. We travelled together to eight shows that year, being 2019, and Mr Winx and I won many ribbons! We won twenty-four place ribbons, three reserve champion ribbons, one Champion ribbon and two trophies and a nice rug. Mr Winx also won the Southern Cross Brumby Registry High Point Competition, and I won the Southern Cross Brumby Registry Junior Champion for the whole year!
The Southern Cross Brumby Registry and the ‘brumby family’ helped and supported me as I gained experience in riding. Mr Winx got a big scare one day in riding class and he took off and dragged me on my bottom and all the brumby family cheered for me when he stopped. I got up and went back to class. Another time he got scared when I was riding him in a show and he took off away from the ring as he spooked, and the judge gave me a special ribbon because I did not fall off.
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| In competitions |
In the year 2020 Mr Winx and I won Runners up in the Southern Cross Brumby Registry High Point, we got beaten by a brumby called Candy Cane, she belongs to a friend of my mother, a lady called Meaghan and they do lots of fancy riding. Candy is a white brumby, she is so beautiful. I always had wanted a white brumby, but Mr Winx is a bay rabicano and that just makes him even more special because rabicano is a very rare colour and many do not know what causes it.🐴🐴
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Showing is lots of fun, but we do other stuff too. Mr Winx found a friend in Drover, a brumby owned by my mother’s friend Vanja. Drover is a Brumby from the Northern Territory. He has become Mr Winx best brumby friend. Vanja and mum would take us out camping for weekends. We went swimming in the river and did trail riding and obstacle challenges. Drover has really helped Mr Winx learn lots of new things. They play with each other and love each other, even when Mr Winx rips Drovers rugs or runs into him on the blind side, that happens a lot! When Mr Winx was learning to be a riding horse, he would get scared of something and run straight into Drover and smack right into him and Drover never kicked him or got upset he just would tell Mr Winx that it was ok.
Mr Winx is my best friend; he comes running to me every time he sees me, and we play follow the leader and tag in his paddock. Sometimes I just go out and climb up on his back while he walks around the paddock and he always will look after me. I am so glad I have him, I talk to him all the time. I taught him to do a kissy face trick with me, and to count and to find me when I am hiding.
My mum rehomes many brumbies, when they first come from the wild, but Mr Winx is never going nowhere, he is my best friend, ever. Mr Winx is the most special brumby. He is so easy to do new things with now. We did an obstacle clinic and the man said "That little horse is all heart isn’t he, he is a calm thinker and will do anything you ask him to".
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| Wild no more |
I would
firstly like to Thank Ryleigh for taking the time to tell us her beautiful
story and Angel for allowing us to publish the story publicly. Of course, I am sure there are other stories out there
regarding animals, and their forever young people, and especially brumbies. Most poignantly is that even with such an
injury this dear brumby found a forever home and became a champion for them.
The intelligence of these horses is outstanding and their calm nature unsurpassable. I have heard time and again how quickly
brumbies are haltered and able to form relations with their new human
families.
It is not all roses out there as some brumbies come with injuries and many complications. The problem is no animal should ever face slaughter just because some humans decided to colonize a country and 200 years on, our human condition refers to them as pests and feral, because of our colonization and disturbance to the native flora and fauna. ⏳I can not help but think of the dandelions that were introduced and now even if not native are part of our common landscape. Some things are irreversible, and no animal or mammal should suffer because of these mistakes made by our social structures and conditioning.
It is imperative that we teach children, being the next generation to create values that are ethical and withstanding with the ‘human’ ideology and not follow the social conditions put to them without learning to think and feel for themselves. Just because a government tells you why they do it and give you justifications, it does not mean that it is right or ethical. 👈It is just a law passed by the conditions of that society, usually with other interest in mind that are not publicly voiced. ♠
Some progress has arisen, as recently they are trying to pass a law for racehorses, making it illegal to send a racehorse to a knackery, as they too have suffered the same end. They end up there when they are no longer profitable. 🏇 Hence, it is the values we set in our societies that need to change. This will take time, and in the meantime rehomers are their only saviour for the brumbies, where they are rehomed, like in Kosciuszko National Park.
Brumbies forever! Cheers,
Syndy 🎠 Visual Artist Brumby Advocate
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| Mother and Foal Photograph curtesy of Paul McIver |
♠https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/locke/section6/
👪 https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/socialcontract/section2/page/2/
