Sakima the Brumby’s First Months – Part 2

As the weeks passed into the months and the progress with Sakima was measured in micro steps, I began to cherish our time together. No phones, no emails, no demands just he and I and the wind and the birds and wallabies that share our farm.

It was now Spring and this day the wind was blowing in my hair, hot and intense. Does this mean a hot summer?

The cows would come running when they saw me, hoping for a free hand out. Their bubs, the first Speckle Parks growing up in Australia so far from their Canadian home.

Sakima would push them away with his ears flattened and if the calves ignored him he would lunge at them with great intent, scattering them. Then he would approach me and just stand spending time.  Waiting for nothing, doing nothing was good for my soul and fabulous for the trust that we were building together. Winding down, switching off and forgetting work and the hecticness of life.

I was connecting not just with Sakima, but the hidden life on the farm. My first farm sighting of the notoriously shy lyre bird happened during one of these sessions. It was clamouring over the hill rocks and scratching through the leaf litter, gleaning worms and whatever it could find. Its tailed curved at the end-a drab female with the permanent curve of a nesting female. Nest real estate is tight and the long tail could only fit into the nest if it was curled around the nest – a lonely job incubating the eggs and then raising the chicks. I would see it many times after this. Just sitting had other rewards than just building trust with Sakima.

The male had long moved onto other conquests, singing his way through autumn attracting whatever female passed by – deserting his responsibilities after the act to pursue more females.

Now it was Spring and the males calls ricocheted around the valley. Not in courtship but in territorial disputes with the victor claiming the best display area. The mimicking competitions added music to the time Sakima and I spent just sitting together, just building our trust.

With our trust building each day Carolyn encouraged me to move on to building our bond. This would be more challenging as it meant me approaching him standing and stretching my hand for him to smell. Then if he took a step back I would back out of his space. He would learn that he could control me and that I would not approach him if he did not want me to.

Hardly the horsemanship method I could discuss with many of my horse friends. The accepted method is to keep the pressure on and move with the horse so that they eventually accept you.  I learnt quickly to not discuss Carolyn’s methods with too many people as everyone has a better, faster way. I had chosen a slow method and that was what I was determined to follow.

My major focus was never doing anything that would cause that hair trigger flight response. The last lesson I wanted to teach him was to flee from me and this would be an underpinning focus in all my work with my brumby. In his head, every time a flight response was triggered it simply reinforced that this was the right response. I would never be able to stop it when we would at last ride together and he became scared. If you have seen a brumbies flight response full-on it is over so fast you don’t even know what happened. There would be no way I could sit that out on his back. While I doubt my boy will ever buck, the flight response would not to be intentionally dislodge me but it would. The result would be the same and at my age – I don’t bounce.

Each day after small success I would come back to home to excitedly tell my husband Ron of the days events. I learnt to treasure the smallest step from Sakima.

The day that Sakima allowed me to put my hand on his face without using his feed bucket was a big day of excitement and I think I drove Ron mad that night retelling the story many times.  It had taken months to achieve this tiny step for me but huge step for Sakima. He had made a choice to allow this level of contact as no fences; no ropes or halter constrained him.

Progress became more rapid after this milestone. When I went into the paddock he would choose to come to me after I had removed the other horses. We would spend time together and only after 40 or so minutes would I say hullo. The day I arrived with the dog dishes and purple exercise ball created all sorts of questions from my neighbours who had watched the slow progress with the constant question ‘have you caught that brumby yet?’

I filled each dog dish with feed and placed them in a row and as Sakima moved to one I would move to the next. After a few weeks he had the routing down pat and he accepted me walking by his head to the next bowl.

The next big milestone was being able to place my hand on his neck as we walked together to the next bowl. (Wow I thought this is wonderful!).

Next was the purple ball – a technique to start teaching him to drop his head. Brumbies have huge neck muscles and are often thought to have ewe necks, not a pretty look in most people’s eyes. It is an optical illusion created by the huge muscle built up over time as the brumby spends so much time with the head high in the air sensing danger. Sakima was on the way to a big neck muscle and I had learnt when his head went up and eyes rolled back it would be only seconds from a flight response.

Using treats I taught him to drop his head and push the ball with his lips. Brumbies are very bright and before long when the ball appeared he would walk up and start pushing the ball in anticipation of his reward. He seemed to delight in the game.

Our trust and bond were growing each time we worked together. In the next instalment you will read why these steps were to become so important in my brumbies life.