training
Sakima – What a Journey
Time cannot matter when you work with your horse.
I know that because my wild brumby has taken 10 long days to achieve what others would achieve in 2 days.
There is one big difference I have done it without violence and my brumby has had a choice. Most of my work has been done at liberty where no halter or rope constrained his responses.
I want my wild boy to enjoy his introduction to domestication, not endure it if he has no choice. My decision to take this non violent path is a lonely journey and there are only a few who believe and practice this path. So much tradition dictates the way we “break” a horse and this is what it is. The horses’ spirits are broken. They will comply but the rider or handler will never have a true bond.
For the doubters all I say is: “let your horse go and see whether it will come to you and work with you at liberty”. Then you truly know whether you have the trust and bond with the horse so many of us desire. No halter, no bridle and you will see the true nature of your relationship.
Starting Sakima the Brumby
Exhilaration is not enough to describe how I feel at the moment. I truly have achieved a relationship with my wild brumby Sakima that we all dream of as young girls and never achieve. The big difference is I am doing it with my wild brumby Sakima that has never accepted being handled by a person.
When Sakima, as a wild horse took his chance for freedom several weeks ago and then decided to return to our farm and our mob of horses I knew that he trusted me and had bonded with me. Having him follow me down the mountain will always bring a lump in my throat.
His trust to come home gave me the confidence to decide that it was time to start Sakima. Wow, was I apprehensive? Yes. Did I know what I was doing? No.
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.
Sakima the Brumby’s Journey
Sakima had joined the herd and gradually gained acceptance with the other horses. He was not so welcoming to human approaches. He had learnt that people meant food and would follow the other horses in for a nightly free hand out, but his extreme fear of people dictated the level of contact – standing off and coming in when he felt I had safely retreated.
I frankly did not know what to do. I knew that I did not want to start him in the traditional manner or put him in the round yard and push him through Join Up and other pressure moves to make him submit to human control. I felt there had to be a fairer, gentler way to bring Sakima into the human world and for him to accept his loss of freedom.
I went in search and found Carolyn Resnick in the USA who had grown up with the mustangs and offered a method that involves working with your horse at total liberty in the paddock so the horse has a free choice as to the level and extent of the communication. The foundation of her method was how horses communicate in the wild as a herd and involved hours of just being with your horse doing nothing, as horses do.
