Brumbies in the Outback

by Paula Boer

  The dog ignored him.

  As Brandy moved closer, the bush shook and a two metre long goanna erupted from the cover, Snifter close on its tail. The reptile ran with a lumbering gate, much faster than Ben would have believed possible. In turning to snap at Snifter with huge jaws, it turned towards the horse.

  Brandy propped and fought for his head. As Ben shouted at Snifter to leave the goanna alone, the stallion reared. Taken by surprise, Ben slipped to one side of the saddle. Shortening his reins, he spun his horse in a tight circle to bring him down and under control. His right leg throbbed with the effort. Worried that the goanna would kill Snifter, he kicked Brandy in the ribs and drove him at the lizard.

  Snifter backed off as Brandy reared again and flailed with his front hooves. The goanna took the opportunity to flee, scratching up dust as its long claws dug into the ground. In moments it disappeared in a cluster of rocks.

  After parking the ute in the shade of a coolabah tree, Ben joined Louise and Jacinta at the rails where they watched Simon work one of the brumby colts. "How"s it going?"

  Louise crinkled her eyebrows. "He"s haltered the two fillies and tied them up short in the holding yard."

  "What"s the matter? You don"t look happy." Ben looked between the two girls, wondering if they"d had an argument.

  "It"s not me, it"s the brumbies. They"re really stressed. Simon ropes them and makes them fall over."

  Jacinta rolled her eyes. "He"s only showing them he"s the boss. What would you do, feed them carrots?"

  Ben could see that Simon"s bushman ways upset Louise. He"d never thought about it before. He remembered when they had caught their own brumbies in the mountains and the way that Harry, the old hermit, had showed them to gentle a horse. "Maybe these are too wild. Simon knows what he"s doing."

  Jacinta turned her back on Louise. "How was Brandy? Did you go far?"

  Ben regaled them with the story of Snifter and the goanna. "I left him chained up again. Stupid dog, he ruined my ride."

  "At least he"s feeling better. I"m glad he can run again." Louise was still clearly glum.

  Before Ben could say more, Simon finished with the colt and came over. "I need a break. One more and we can load the gooseneck for the first trip home."

  Jacinta winked at Ben and addressed Simon. "Louise thinks she knows a better way to handle the brumbies. Why don"t you let her have a go?"

  Ben thought that was a bit rude of his cousin, but he could hardly contradict her. He wondered how to calm the situation down between the two girls.

  Simon climbed through the rails. "Have a go with that black colt you cut out, Louise. I"m always happy to learn new tricks."

  Louise looked at the ground. "I didn"t say I knew a better way. I only said that Harry showed us differently when we gentled Brandy and Honey."

  "I"d be really keen to see how you did that."

  Ben thought that Simon seemed genuinely interested. "I"d show you myself but my leg"s not—"

  Louise interrupted him. "I"ll do it. Can you help me separate him into the round yard?"

  Simon agreed. With Graeme and one of the neighbours, they soon chased the feisty brumby into the smaller area. Louise went in with the colt.

  Ben felt torn between wanting Louise to do well in front of everyone watching and fearing that she would make a fool of herself. To start with, the colt skittered around the outside, head high and rolling his eyes. He called to the other horses and kept his head turned away from Louise.

  Louise cracked a whip behind the colt and made him run faster. Without making a fuss, she didn"t let him slow down. Every time he tried to stop or turn, she advanced and shooed him on, retreating back to the centre of the ring when he did what she wanted.

  The heat of the day showed in the sweat on the horse"s flanks and neck. He started to breathe heavily. With each lap of the round yard, his head came down a fraction more until it hung lower than his back.

  Jacinta crossed her arms and rested one foot on the bottom rail. "Is she going to run the poor thing into the ground? That"s hardly gentling him."

  Ben could see that Louise was making progress with the brumby. "She"ll change tactics in a minute."

  Almost as if she"d heard him, Louise let the horse slow to a trot. By now the colt watched every move she made. As he slowed further to a walk, Louise stepped in front of him, making him shy away. As soon as he had changed direction, she chased him up to a canter again.

  Simon stood on Ben"s left. "That was neat. She"s certainly got his attention."

  No-one spoke as Louise continued to work the horse. As soon as the colt stretched his head to the ground and chewed, she let him drop down to a trot. After a few more laps, she let him walk.

  The brumby looked over the rails and called to his mates. Louise spun the end of the rope and chased him up again into a brisk trot. The next time she let him slow, he kept his focus on her. Over the next quarter of an hour, Louise made the horse walk, trot and canter in both directions. His stride lost its frantic pace and he held his body in a supple curve.

  Ben watched as Louise allowed the horse to stop. He knew this would be the decisive moment when her hard work would pay off. Holding his breath, he tensed as if it were him in the yard, feeling the way Louise turned her body sideways to the horse. She stood with her eyes down and waited.

  Not a word was uttered. A spell seemed to have been cast over them all.

  One step at a time, the brumby approached Louise from behind. Once he stood only a single pace away, he stretched out his neck and blew at her elbow. Turning slowly, Louise reached out her hand and touched his shoulder. From there, Ben knew that the colt was hers.

  Louise turned her back on the brumby and walked away. He followed. She stopped. He stopped. This parade went on for a full lap of the round yard before Louise pushed him away from her and sent the colt off at a steady trot.

  Graeme removed his hat and wiped his brow. "He"s acting like a domestic horse already. The touch of the halter might be a different matter."

  As if to prove him wrong, Louise chose that moment to stop the horse again. This time when she turned she had the rope in the hand that touched him. She ran the loose end up and down his neck. The horse stood rigid but allowed her to continue down his back. She swung the lengthened rope under the horse"s belly and round his legs. Still he remained still.

  Jacinta cocked her head on one side. "He"s too tired to move."

  Simon disagreed. "These horses are really fit. The work she did with him would have barely loosened up his muscles. They can canter for hours across this country when they want to. It"s not unusual for them to do fifty kilometres in a day, though that would be at a slower pace."

  Louise moved to the other side of the colt. She continued to run the rope all over his body. After a few more minutes, she set him off trotting, forcing him to the outside of the arena.

  Ben realised she was taking extra care not to attempt to halter the colt too soon. There was more at stake here than taming a horse. He hoped for her sake that the brumby didn"t play up. He could see the subtle movements she made—opening her fingers or raising a leg-that controlled the horse, responding to the brumby"s own body language. He wondered if anyone else knew what Louise was doing.

  The third time Louise stopped the brumby, he walked up to her without hesitation, going in close and nudging her elbow. Louise ran her hands up the horse"s neck and slipped the halter over his head. Swinging the rope and walking head on to him, she pushed the horse backwards.

  The brumby retreated. When Louise backed up, he followed her forward. She did this a few more times. After moving to his shoulder, she walked off. The horse followed alongside.

  Simon was the first to congratulate her. "Do you think you can get him on the float?"

  "I guess there"s one way to find out." Louise led the horse to the panel that opened as a gate.

&
nbsp; When she led the brumby out, Simon rushed ahead and stood near the loading ramp. "Don"t worry if he gets away. We can always rope him from one of the saddle horses."

  Ben held his breath. It was one thing to catch the horse, another to lead it onto a vehicle. When they caught their own brumbies, he and Louise had spent a couple of days working them before leading them home from horseback. Brandy and Honey had been tied close to the riding horses for security.

  Louise wasn"t concerned. She walked towards the gooseneck. As the brumby rolled his eyes at the strange contraption, she dropped back behind his shoulder and swung the end of the rope. Driving the horse up the ramp, she followed at his hip without slowing.

  As Louise turned the horse sideways, Simon closed the divider. "That"s the best bit of horsemanship I"ve seen in a long while. I"ll have to employ you in future!"

  Chapter 13

  The black brumby stood tense in the back of the horse float and let out a piercing whinny. Louise rubbed her fingers in a circle on his crest, calming him with the same motion a mare would use with a foal. "It"s alright, fella. You"re going to a good home."

  Louise bounced down the ramp trying not to grin. The expression on Jacinta"s face made all her effort of the last hour worthwhile.

  Ben came over and congratulated her. "That was awesome. I guess Harry"s methods work with these brumbies too."

  Simon shooed them away. "We need to get those other horses on here to keep him settled."

  One of Simon"s men snatched up the dangling rope where it trailed behind a brumby in the holding yard. He sent the colt skittering around him before driving it out and towards the float. The colt dug his toes in at the edge of the ramp until he noticed the other colt already loaded, and made a dash to join his friend.

  The two fillies proved much harder. They called to their dams in the yard, rearing and straining on the end of the rope. With one man leading and two others behind her with linked arms, a small chestnut was almost bodily lifted in behind the colts. The bay with a wide blaze was the last to go on. She lashed out with her hind legs as the men tried to join hands under her tail. One of Simon"s neighbours approached with the cattle prod. As he jammed the electrified point into her rump, she leapt forward with a squeal.

  Simon latched the final gate behind the filly as his men held her clamped against the far divider. Showing the whites of her eyes, she snapped at them with her teeth. Again she kicked out with a hind leg.

  Louise tried not to look at the filly thrashing on the float. As the ramp came up, she spotted blood pouring over the young brumby"s fetlock. "She"s hurt herself! Where"s Steve?"

  "Never mind that for now. I"m not taking her off again here." Simon swung closed the top doors before giving the all clear for the driver to move off.

  Simon removed his hat and wiped his brow. "The guys will hose her leg off when she gets to my place. She"ll be right. Steve can look at her when he gets there later."

  The ute pulled away, towing the brumbies. One of Simon"s neighbours reversed his large cattle truck up to the small holding yard. Other men chased the four remaining young stock into the round yard. Louise stood next to Ben. "What"s happening?"

  Ben had been talking to his Uncle Graeme while Louise had loaded the colt. "The old and sick horses will be cut out. Apparently the money from their meat is the neighbour"s share for their efforts. The rest will be turned out after the other colts are roped and loaded when the gooseneck returns."

  Jerking up straight, Louise grabbed Ben"s arm. "You mean some of them are going for pet food? That"s terrible! That"s what we tried to save our brumbies from. Don"t tell me I"ve helped send these poor horses off to the meat works!"

  Jacinta wafted flies away from her face with her hat. "They"re better off being killed than left to die of starvation or thirst. Anything capable of surviving through another summer of drought will be released."

  Tears threatened to flood Louise"s eyes as she looked across at the mob of horses standing at the far side of the portable yards. They had settled down, sniffing the ground or nipping at each other. Two had started mutual grooming as they scratched each others" necks with their teeth. "How does Simon know which ones to free?"

  At that moment, Graeme joined them, obviously having overheard the conversation. "He"s an experienced horseman, Louise. He can tell from how fat or thin they are if their teeth are no longer able to cope with the tough feed out there. He also looks at the way they move and their size, whether their legs are straight. Things like that. Don"t worry, he won"t destroy any that are good breeding stock, else he wouldn"t have a crop of youngsters for next year."

  That argument didn"t pacify Louise. "He can"t let them be killed just because they"re too old or too small or whatever to breed. Can"t he give the neighbours a share of the money from the sale of the ones he breaks in?"

  Graeme answered with a soft voice, "That"s not the point. These horses will suffer if he lets them go. There are too many for the land to keep them all. Besides, how is it different to the cattle we sent off to the meat works?"

  Louise still didn"t understand. "These are horses! It"s awful."

  Jacinta rolled her eyes at Ben. "So you"d rather they be shot from a plane, would you? That way they can run for days, injured and in pain, until they die a horrible death with dingoes and wedge-tailed eagles circling to eat them."

  "Of course not!" With nothing further to say, Louise stormed off to the rails. Simon and the other men started to cut out the horses to be culled, moving them into the small holding yard. She could see that the brumbies they selected were in poor condition. She hadn"t noticed before how many had ribs sticking out, their flanks hollow and necks thin. She wanted to take them all to Simon"s and feed them up. Perhaps Steve could help some, do their teeth and worm them. She was sure that they"d come good with care.

  By the time the gooseneck returned, the horses to be culled had been loaded onto the horse truck. As a mob, they had been easy to load. Once the first horse had been pushed on by the pressure of the others being chased by the men, the rest had followed. They milled around on the huge transport, peering over the tops of the sides with their heads jutting above the metal rails.

  Louise couldn"t believe that she was here, helping send horses to the meat works. "Will they be alright not tied up?"

  Ben rested his hand on her shoulder. "Stop worrying. They"re better loose than risk getting tangled in ropes. Anyway, no-one has time to handle each one to get it to tie up like the young stock Simon is keeping."

  With a roar of the diesel engine, the truck pulled away. Louise couldn"t stop thinking of the horses arriving at the abattoir. A whistle broke into her thoughts.

  Ben stood near the round yard, waving her over. "Come and watch Simon work the brumbies. He says he"s going to try our way."

  Surprised that the experienced wrangler would attempt something different, Louise joined Ben and Jacinta at the rails. She could see that Simon had already separated out one colt and had it cantering around in the dust.

  Rather than swing a rope and catch the horse as soon as possible, the horseman worked the brumby until the colt paid attention to him. "Do you reckon he"s ready?"

  Ben answered before Louise could respond, "No, he needs to lower his head and chew to show submission."

  With guidance from Ben and Louise, Simon worked all four colts until he had them haltered and tied up in the holding yard. "I like that method. It"s nowhere near as tiring as roping them."

  Thrilled that Simon had success with working the horses, Louise couldn"t resist a comment to Jacinta. "Our friend Harry, the mountain hermit, knows a lot about horses."

  The return of the gooseneck prevented further discussion as Simon"s men prepared to load the last four colts. Simon drove each one onto the float without any trouble. Within minutes, the vehicle pulled away again.

  "Time to release the breeders." Simon waved everyone o
ut of the way.

  Despite two panels being swung wide open, the brumbies remained in the yard. They continued to mill around on the far side. Graeme walked on the other side of the rails and cracked his whip. The horses lifted their heads and shied away from the noise.

  The lead mare spotted the opening and bolted. By the time she crossed the yard, the rest of the herd pounded close on her heels. With a dash through the opening, they shot past the parked vehicle from where the people watched.

  Louise grabbed at Ben"s arm. "Aren"t they fantastic? Look at them go!"

  Seconds later, a cloud of dust was all that remained of the wild horses.

  Graeme overtook the gooseneck on the way back to Simon"s. The driver waved as they went by.

  Louise could see he drove with care. She wondered what the colts thought about being on the back of a float. Until this morning they had probably never seen a human. Now they were travelling without moving their bodies, the sights of the country going by faster than they"d ever seen before. Packed into the back of the vehicle, the smells and sounds must sound strange and frightening. She hadn"t thought before about how much domestic horses learnt as they grew up.

  While waiting for the last horses to arrive, Louise tucked into a pile of sandwiches. Helping herself to cake, she hadn"t realised how hungry she had become. In her enthusiasm to cram a chunk of jam sponge into her mouth, she dropped a dollop on the grass where they sat in the garden. "Where"s Snifter? He usually vacuums up bits like that."

  Ben mumbled through his food. "I"m keeping him tied up. I almost came off because of him earlier."

  "That doesn"t seem fair. It wasn"t him that startled Brandy. Can"t I go and get him?" Louise started to rise before Ben answered.

  "Yeh, if you must. I guess he"s been on the chain long enough."

  Snifter bounded back with Louise and soon found the crumbs she"d spilled. He shoved his nose into Ben"s armpit and sat wagging his tail.

  Louise hated it when Ben was upset with the blue heeler. "See, he"s saying sorry. Don"t be cross with him."