I was the only person he let near him, so each day I drove 3hours back and forth from work to treat the stubborn wound that refused to heal. Little point in calling the vet as Sakima would not let him near him, let alone. After a week and no change I decided that if there was no change I would call the vet.

I started to prepare Sakima to accept a needle. By using a paper clip as a substitute needle he learnt that the grasp of the skin and prick of the paper clip earned a reward.

I rang the vet not knowing which vet would answer the phone. All I knew is the vet who would come, had to be prepared to take time to get to know Sakima to avoid the bare trimmers unfortunate episode.

My probing question to Peter got a laconic answer when I asked his experience with brumbies. ‘Lots’ was the one word offered. Oh yeah I thought but I knew I had no choice, I wanted the wound seen to.

Peter arrived and said let me just see what you do with him before I come into the yard. This was a good start I thought. Then he said stand with me as I get to know him. Gentle and in no hurry with slow and deliberate energy Peter gave Sakima the time he needed. What a contrast to bare foot trimmer who had tried to make Sakima play by his rules with unfortunate results.

Within 15 minutes, Peter was kneeling by his foot and announcing it was not an abscess but a clipping wound. He needed just continual application of a cream and he needed tetanus shot.

Of course not this is a wild horse. So we better do one.  How is he with injections? I choked on my apprehensive laugh and then demoed to Peter what I had taught Sakima. I have practiced using a paper clip and grabbing is skin and using the point to substitute for a needle.

Within seconds Peter had given Sakima his first injection and there had been no flight response. My worse fears had passed.

Then we stood chatting. Did I feel a fool with my private doubts at to Peter’s experience with brumbies? He had worked with several hundred over many months in the Northern Territory. As you do, the conversation moved to training methods and I mentioned this to Paul and that I had been advised to look at ‘clicker training’. Now it was Peter’s turn to be surprised. Paul was one of his lecturers and just the day before he had watched Peter work with his horse and clicker.

The universe works in mysterious ways and I had found a vet who shared a common view on horse training.

Peter would become my vet of choice for all my horses – not just Sakima.

What is fear in a horse? We see it everywhere, biting, bolting horses or shut down horses. What are our human responses? Force, yell, hit, react, pressure – we see them every day as people handle their horses.

Most domestic horses learn to respond to these traditional methods and they learn the behaviour that their person wants and go onto, to have worthwhile partnerships with their humans.

What of the horses that don’t learn or won’t learn and still revert to their fear responses when in a stress situation? Everyone has seen it – the balking horse, the horse that bites or bolts despite the threats and force; melted out to the horse. We know where they end up, owner after owner and then a one way ticket to the sale yard.

I had one such horse.

Sakima would die before he succumbs to the pressure form of training. In my search for a way to bring Sakima into the human world, friends from various areas offered their help. I watched as my brumby just got more and more extreme in his flight responses. I started to raise the question ‘was this training just reinforcing the flight response as the way to handle stress situations?’

My own background of working in values education had taught me that the only way to determine if an educational method to change what is deemed as inappropriate behaviour, is when the person is stressed. Usually they revert back to the earlier unfavoured response because that is what is ingrained. We do what we have learnt over many, many years and from powerful peer/family examples. Our new behaviour just drove the old behaviour underground to pop out when stressed.

So my brumby had learnt to respond to any fear by fleeing. Partly because he has an Arab heritage and partly because he learnt this response from the other herd members when in danger – like the brumby runners threatened their safety.

If all else fails, remove all choice from the horse with the popular starting methods in round yards or pressure and positive reinforcement where the horse learns to stop something unpleasant by offering another response – and when the trainer gets the response wished for then the unpleasant action is stopped. The horse learns to provide the preferred behaviour but have we really overcome and displaced the fear response fully?

This was a question that I was to debate with many horse trainers and professionals as they willingly tried to help me with Sakima.

In the horse world, there are many experts but few people working from a scientific basis. Rather they work from the basis of what seems to work on the surface.

I had made huge progress with Sakima and through conditioning he began to accept my presence and my close contact.

The problem was that on the surface the methods seem to work and progress was made. But then unexpectantly Sakima would just burst out when he had had enough and there was no stopping or calming this flight response.  It was so quick and so strong and unpredictable that there was a danger of him becoming a horse no one could trust with his reactions.

I did not know what to do. I decided to follow my inner self. It did not feel right to train this way so I stopped. I regrouped and thought long and hard. I carefully looked at Sakima’s responses to how people interacted with him. He told me clearly what was OK by him and what was not. So I left him and I just continued with my work of desensitization and attempting to not create circumstances that lead to his fear response.

The test came when it was time to have his feet trimmed. I worked with him to pick his front feet up when I touched his fetlock and then to trust when I held his foot.

Was I attuned to his subtle levels of stress?  Not enough. Yet I made progress. The day the bare foot trimmer came to do his front-feet, time was taken to introduce him and Sakima seemed to accept him. We successfully trimmed the front feet but the photo tells the story of fear still there.

I had become so used to the fear response that I would ask for his head down and he would drop it and calm down. This seemed to be working but anyone that needed to interact with him HAD to take time to introduce themselves properly.

In the next weeks we progressed on to the back feet. This time the bare foot trimmer arrived in a sweat fear and from the beginning made it clear he did not want to do this. By now his fear had translated to me and Sakima as we went into the yard he said “give me the rope”. I said are you not going to take time to be with him like last time.

‘No’ was the answer, ‘the horse has to get used to me’.

Well one step forward by the bare foot trimmer and Sakima was out of there. Enough to make the bare foot trimmers fear to bubble over and he threw the rope at me saying this horse was not ready and had I accepted we use a twitch on him; all feet would be trimmed by now. Best thing I could do was go and have a cup of coffee and he would fix Sakima.

Many would say this was the best way to handle Sakima’s fear. I knew from past trainers that all I would have is an even worse problem with Sakima’s lack of trust of people. Yes his feet would be trimmed – but from that day on that delicate trust would be broken.

So here I was in an even bigger, deep hole with my journey to bring Sakima into the human world. I did not know where to turn and only knew that the advice of people like the bare foot trimmer was not the way I wanted to go. Yet I had no other idea of what to do.

My early coach had got me so far, but I needed to be able to halter him and have him comfortable with the human touch.

It was a lonely and frustrating time.

The pressure to do it others ways was extreme but I knew there had to be a better, gentler way.

I went in search of this way…

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.

When I do ask Sakima to work with the halter and rope, the rope is usually hanging on the ground or loosely slung over my arm. He still has a choice even when I have a rope and halter on him. For me the rope and halter don’t represent a control mechanism but a communication method. I take up the slack in the rope and ask him to move forward or forequarter yield. It is not a control to stop a flight response. My hand is always open; I never use the death grip on him that I see other trainers use.

When I put too much pressure on or did not communicate effectively he rapidly left me fleeing as his natural instinct took over.

I knew I had made a poor communication call and simply went to him and restarted. This time taking care to communicate more softly. Horses are so forgiving and give us second, third and fourth chances. He understood I was learning as well as him and each time I made a move that set his flight response in motion I just had to rethink what I was doing.

Most importantly I would usually go and sit down and wait for him to come back to me as then I knew the communication was open again and we could start afresh. Horses don’t carry grudges but they never forget cruelty done to them. When he chose to come back he was ready to start over. I learnt to give him this recovery time and not to rush my desire to move onto the next training step.

My patience was well rewarded each time. The incredible thing was that the next time I tried the move that I had failed at he was responsive and we both celebrated the achievement of success. I had learnt to better communicate.

To have a wild horse come to you and nudge you and drop his head to accept the halter and then allow you to tie it gently around his head and then to clip a rope onto the halter is a moment that takes my breath away and I sit there in awe.

My brumby has a choice to not allow this as he is at liberty and at any point can leave and not allow me to halter him. If he makes this choice I accept that and don’t try to hold him. If I have taken the time and approached him politely each time he will accept my request to put the halter around his head. If I have not paid enough respect through the investment of time just sharing space, doing nothing then he will correct me and tell me, by leaving that I have been rude and that is not how horses behave.

My brumby is an equal participant in this journey with his own opinions and needs.

He needs to respect mine and I need to respect his. I have to respect that he will have a flight instinct that kicks in when he is fearful. I cannot correct him for this and I simply have to help him work it through. Traditional trainers would correct the flight instinct and usually with pressure or violence towards the horse. All that does in the horses mind is reinforce that he had the right response in the first place, be afraid very afraid.

Traditionally, compliance is only achieved through force and that is not true communication. The human will dominant by sheer force but that person will never have the heart of the horse. That person will never be a respected partner/ leader in the eye of the horse.

Today my manager, Clarrie came down to the yards to discuss an issue. Rather than rob Sakima of my time I said come into the yards and be with us both. He did and Sakima was accepting of another person in the training session.

When we finished on a high with Sakima doing everything that I asked Clarrie left the yard and I started to lead Sakima out. Clarrie moved too quickly in his blind spot and Sakima’s flight response took over. He was out of there as it could be a lion attacking from the back. My hands were open on the lead rope and I let him go. He went 15 feet stopped and swung around to see the danger.

I gave Sakima time to realise that is was only Clarrie and not real danger. I then went to him and I did not correct him. I simply asked that he return to the yard where he burst out of and we repeat the exit.

He calmly responded to my request leading back in and doing a hind quarter yield to turn around.

We both walked, halted, walked, halted and continued this until we were back in the holding paddock and all was calm and wonderful.

Clarrie was amazed. As a bushy he has seen many horses “broken”. Never has he seen such time and patience and choice given to a horse. He was incredulous as to what Sakima and I had achieved with no violence, no kicking, no bucking.

When he saw me pick up his feet and hold them and then tie Sakima and there was no reaction but agreement by what we both wanted Clarrie paid me the greatest compliment.

Remember this is a bushy talking: “I am not pissing in your pocket because you are the boss, you have done an outstanding job with that horse and I take my hat off to you for what you have achieved. You really are a country girl at heart. You can take the girl out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the girl”. Until now I had been a city slicker playing being a farmer.

Little did he know that one of the reasons that he and his wife got the farm manager position was that he was a gentle soul in the way he treated his dogs, cows and horses. He used no violence in working with the farm animals. I knew that they would fit into the way I wanted the animals on our farm respected and treated. I was right in my choice.

He only got one thing a-wire. It was Sakima and I that achieved it together. The old bushy habits die hard.

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.

This is something Sakima and I will do together. We will learn what to do together. My work with my various coaches gave me the confidence that Sakima would show me when I made mistakes and when I got it right.

How right my thoughts proved to be! Sakima has been my best coach in this journey together. When I don’t do a request correctly he clearly tells me by leaving me or tensing up his muscles so much that I can’t help but observe his apprehension.

I have made mistakes and yes, listened to others when doubts crept into my human brain. One said I should try Join Up to move him into the yard where we would work together. Well, I did but I stopped it immediately, too much pressure and energy. Sakima sent me a clear message, “I will do this but I don’t need you to do it this way”.

Sakima was far more comfortable with no pressure, no huge energy I simply get up from my chair and start leading from behind and he does the rest. It does not give the instant results of other methods but the results are achieved with no stress and no flight response.

I still spend hours doing nothing and saying hullo and just being with him.

I threw away my diary and forgot work and yes it has taken 10 days to start to achieve what others would have done in one or two days. But now the progress is so rapid I come back from each session with him amazed

Now, while taking time with him I can rub the halter over his head and ask him to put his nose in the halter and he lets me tie it around his neck. Just doing this can take an hour but the exhilaration you feel when he drops his head into the halter and allows me to clip the lead rope proves time should not be considered when starting a horse.

Sakima adores the mutual grooming that we do together. Not the rubbing of his withers – but me untangling his mane. His entire mane was long dreadlocks. It takes 30 minutes to untangled each dreadlock. He stands head down and eyes drooped as his magnificent, long mane takes shape. Each day I brush what I have untangled to keep him looking the best horse in the paddock.

Today Sakima has given me the greatest trust a horse can give. I picked up his front feet, held them and picked them out with a hoof pick. No dramas, no kicking no fear. This is the ultimate statement of trust as a brumby has no life without his legs.

Sakima is such a clever boy and knows the pecking order of apples and carrots. When he has done something that I think is super hard for him he gets apples and the rest of the time it is carrots. Apples are his all time favourite and his tongue literally smothers my hand as he gets his apple. His success in allowing me to hold his front feet has earned him many apples. Next week the bare foot trimmer is coming so there will be a bag of apples after he has his feet trimmed.

Then I asked my brumby to tie and to accept that he would be tied to a post and no choice to move. For 15 minutes he stood motionless with head calmly relaxed. No dramas, no pull back just complete trust that what I asked him to do he knew it would not hurt him or endanger him. I repeated the exercise again today thinking yesterday was just a fluke. No, it was the same again, a quiet brumby standing tied with me beside him.

Sakima leads with the halter on and turns and it is the softness that I have always heard about but never thought I would have a horse so soft and responsive. I just have to give the slightest gesture and he responds.

It is an amazing experience to be trained by a brumby and it is truly a sharing learning experience. I lead and decide the moves but he is refining my horse skills to a level I have never achieved before.

My manager became over confident with my wild brumby that he was so adjusted to life on our farm that he would not leave through our rainforest that leads to a National Park. With an open gate an invitation too inviting to ignore Sakima was on his way to freedom.

I went up in the afternoon to find no horse and an open gate that lead to thousands of hectares of wild bush and rugged mountain ridges. I knew immediately he had gone.

Calmness in a crisis is important and business had well equipped me to contain my emotions and the feeling of dread that enveloped my body. This is a wild horse that won’t allow anyone to catch him and had only just started to let me touch his head and allow some human contact. Even if we found him how did I get him back to the farm?

Questions for later. Let’s find him first.

My manager sprang into action heading straight up the mountain, running on foot. I took Zippin, my riding horse on a wild ride through the fire trails looking for Sakima.

I found Sakima’s tracks at the top of the mountain but lost them as he bush bashed his way through the forest. My manager on foot had more luck and tracked him over several ridges and valleys, when night robbed him of success. Sakima had covered over 15 kms in his dash for freedom.

Up at 5.30 the next morning with the mist hiding any early chance of seeing Sakima we both headed for the last spot where Clarrie saw his tracks, figuring he would camp there the night.
Living with a brumby is anything but predictable and he was no where to be found. Worse still, there were no tracks to follow.

We were losing hope. As an animal communicator it was time for me to talk to him. Not to make him come back but to ask where he was.

Sakima was having a wonderful time but said “I am heading back to home and am on the mountain overlooking the property but I am confused as to how to get down”. Now I knew where he was but how to tell my manager who did not know about my life as an animal communicator.

I blurted out it is a waste of time looking here he has gone back to our mountain. Clarrie sceptically asked how you can know this. I said I will tell you later and started determinedly walking to the car. He had no choice: join me or walk home. He joined me on the frantic drive through the fire trails to the National Park above our property.

We went to the rock cliff where Sakima had made his way out of the property. Sure enough here were fresh droppings and his distinctive tracks with the gap in the front near side foot. We knew he was confused as they went back and forth so he was struggling with coming back down the cliff face he had so ably climbed the day before.

I sent him visual maps that he had to make his way further along the ridge and to follow the feral goat track.

We speed back to the property and we took the three horses up the back separating them so they would call and Sakima might just follow their call down.

It was a long sorrowful wait and no Sakima. We saw the goats further along the ridge where I had told him to go but still no tri coloured pinto was to come forth from the forest.

This was the second day of Sakima’s freedom and by night my emotions were getting the better of me and my animal communication skills went with my rising emotions. I went home, crying all the way in the car.

Clarrie and I had agreed he would go early in the morning to track him and then later I would go out on Zippin to see if we could find him.

My animal communication skills had totally deserted me. Next morning as I was sending a desperate email to my animal communicator coach in the USA, I received the best text message in the world. “I have found the brumby”

I was in the car in a flash frantically texting back where are you exactly so I can find you in the forest? He had found his way to the ridge where I had asked him to go but still could not find his way down. Now the hard part bringing him home through the forest and down the mountain.

Zippin was saddled and we climbed our way through the mountain rock pass. Arriving on top could not see Sakima or Clarrie despite me being sure I was in the right place. I called, thinking we have come so close but now it seems so far.

Then out of the trees Sakima comes running stopping in the clearing.  Head high with adrenalin pumping through his body this was no time to approach.

Clarrie followed my lead dropping to his knees and this is where I stayed for the next 40 minutes calmly sitting doing nothing as horses do with Zippin by my side and Sakima watching. Only when his head dropped did I change my position and start to lead Zippin down the trail hoping Sakima would follow.

No such luck and he turned and went away and using the skills I have learnt from America’s leading horse trainer with mustangs, I continued to walk away from him. Just as my horse coach says he stopped and turned and faced us and this was to go on several times.

Then I went back to sitting and doing nothing and thought what have I learnt? Change what I was doing. After his head dropped I took my cue and circled around to Sakima’s front – leaving Zippin tied to a tree. Feeling deserted Zippin started whinnying and for the first time in my life with Sakima, I heard him whinny back. A deep soft whinny. However, to save Zippin’s rising stress I chose to go back to him and calm him.

More sitting just doing nothing and then I stood up and circled around again saying I am going to say hullo Sakima and telling him what I was going to do. He stood watching and not taking any steps back and I slowly took several steps then stopped and then continued to approach. Zippin was silent this time.

Then the best feeling as I came within 3 metres of our brumby and he took steps forward to meet me. I dropped to the ground and handed him his feed. For the next 15 minutes he fed from my hand as I wanted the saliva juices to get going.

Now the test. Would he leave the shadows of the forest and the security that the dappled light gave him to follow me through the open area to the cliff face?

I started to ask him to walk with me as I had been practicing with him for the last month. Sakima took a few tentative steps to me and ate his reward. This slow journey took over half an hour and then we were in close proximity to Zippin.

Here was the next hurdle. Zippin as the dominant horse would not provide comfort for Sakima to pass. I called to Clarrie to circle around and to take Zippin and lead him towards the rock cliff face. Sakima’s quick flight response kicked in and he turned and fled as Clarrie moved pass.

I had to keep my head here and did the brave action and continued to walk away from him, ignoring his retreat. Yet again, Sakima stopped, spinning around to face me, not stopping to look this time but advancing back to me.

It was then I knew we would be able to get him to leave the trees and cross the open area to the rocks.

What happened next, happened rapidly. Clarrie was in the rhythm now and when Sakima moved he moved Zippin so just as we came out of the dappled forest shade, he led Zippin down the rocky path. With Zippin’s rump disappearing from view Sakima seemed to recognise that Zippin was showing him the way down.

Sakima threw caution to the wind, trotting past me to catch up to Zippin and within seconds was on the rocky path down the cliff face.

So the little caravan of man, horse, horse and woman trailing made its way down the rocky cliff. When we reached the bottom of the cliff Sakima’s elation penetrated the air. He wildly cantered past Zippin and Clarrie determined to find the farm quickly. But of course his enthusiasm lead him the wrong way and Clarrie and Zippin continued in the opposite direction to him.

He stopped, obviously wondering and this gave me time to cut through the bush and down to track we wanted him to come down on. I called him to come to me and gave him the non verbal signals we had practiced so often to join me or follow me. His training kicked in and he came trotting following me down the track.

As we manoeuvred the hair pin bends, his enthusiasm took over again and he took short cuts straight down the mountain. Arriving well before the three of us but he was home and now on our farm. As we watched him arrive at the bottom of the mountain, Clarrie, Zippin and I hugged each other.

Sakima was home and had made the biggest choice of his life. He had chosen life with me and my herd, not freedom roaming the National Park.

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.

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.

The key was expecting nothing and having no time constraints or agendas when you went to work with your horse. This was not going to be easy as we humans are so time bound and goals oriented and prefer to work on plans and agendas.

Talking with Carolyn was even more confronting on the issue of time and expectations. She bluntly said “I don’t think that my method will work for you, it will take a very long time from what you have described for your wild boy to accept human interaction. Do you have the time that it will take”?

I had to think about this as my life suffers from the human condition of too many pressures for the time available and now I was going to add one more time demand. Certainly other methods would be faster if it was results I was wanting.

I pondered for several days and came to the conclusion it was not results I wanted. What mattered was that Sakima would willingly give up his desire for freedom and want to be with me and other people. The focus for me was willing and choice.

Working at liberty with your horse from the start clearly tells you what type of relationship you have with your horse. They are in control, not you. It is an interesting challenge for all horse people to see the level of interaction that a horse chooses when you just sit in the paddock and do nothing and don’t approach your horse.

This is what I did with Sakima I just sat in the paddock. After a few days my other boys would willingly come up and say hullo and hang around. When Sakima even came near the others would send him off.

If I was to have a relationship with him I had to remove the others for my long sessions in the paddock. I did and then took my chair and book to just sit in the paddock with Sakima for an hour at least a day. My other horses hung over the fence wanting to be with us.

So it went on for weeks and he gradually came to accept that there was this crazy human sitting in the paddock as he grazed. I expected nothing and never tried to approach him and I just gave him time and space.

Weeks on it happened… Sakima came over to me and stood several feet away and just hung around me for the rest of the hour I would spend with him. Each day the distance that he stood away lessened. Then I introduced a food reward and he would come in for his reward and then back away.

Under Carolyn’s instructions I then began to put his evening food bin between my legs and my arms around the bin. His desire for the goodies was bigger than his fear of the human touch and he would tentatively come in, take his mouth full and back away to a safe distance. The human need to reach out and touch him was held in check as he became used to closer, gentle contact with a person.

The next step was for me to try and put my hand on Sakima’s face before he grabbed his food. His level of acceptance was amazing and within days I could put my hand on his star and hold it there for a few seconds. This was a magical moment as every milestone in his journey into the human world would be.

The next steps in his journey would be just as exciting for me but for most, the progress would be too slow. I kept reminding myself this would take the time it took.

I still cannot answer why I made that first call about adopting a brumby and why when I heard about this tri coloured pinto I felt the compulsion to adopt him.

As I discussed his adoption, over several weeks the true nature of the problem with Sakima and why he had not long ago found a new home became apparent. This wild boy was one of the wildest and most fearful brumbies that had been captured in the Guy Fawkes National Park. After several months at the Save the Brumby adoption property the trainers had been able to do little with him in terms of halter starting and gentling him to accept the human touch. He would come in for his hay but fear drove him to avoid any close contact at any cost. He needed a special, understanding home and a place where no time restraints would be imposed on him as he joined the human world.

For some reason I bravely went onwards. Saying yes we will adopt him and I will get the help I need to start him as I had never started a horse, let alone a brumby.

When I did see a photo of Sakima I fell in love with my wild boy. Not because of his unique colour, black, white and brown or his magnificent, tangled mane but his eyes that spoke of a wonderfully spirited, kind and intelligent horse. It is true the eye is the window of the soul. It is why I don’t wear sunglasses when I work with Sakima; I want him to see the intent and softness in my eyes. He can see I mean him no harm and he responds accordingly. He does not see me as the predator that humans represented to him and we meant fear and danger to a wild horse.

So I adopted Sakima but it would be months before he came to our property. Lisa, the trainer wanted to be able to bring him further into the human world before he joined us.
In March I made the long trip to Armidale to meet my brumby. It was then I knew that I had adopted a very special horse that would take a long time to accept people and would test my level of horse training skills.

Eventually more brumbies were arriving from Guy Fawkes National Park for adoption and Sakima had to come, ready or not. Lisa would bring him down in the special brumby truck set up so he could not jump out.

Sakima was unloaded and here he was at his new home at last.

He fled to the farthest corner of the holding paddock and the stories of him jumping out of the National Park trap three times filled me with apprehension as to whether I could contain him on our property. His ranger’s nickname of Jack in the Box filled me with dread. None of our fences were electrified like the brumby sanctuary.

I had an added problem. We used the natural cliff face as the boundary fence to stop our horses and cows going into the National Park that adjoined our property. Hardly brumby proof. Before he could join the herd I had to have the fences run to the top of the cliff to prevent him making a run for freedom.

I made no progress with him and yes he would come in for his hay but he was always aware of where we were and the danger in his mind that we represented. Little progress was made and eventually I began to think I needed more help on this adventure.

The day the fencing was completed in the front paddock he could be released to join the herd. A tentative boy walked out of the yard, first rejoicing in his freedom. Then it was down to business, joining the herd. He trotted and then cantered to the herd.

Don’t ask me how he knew but he knew who the herd leader was and it was Zippin. He made a bee line for Zippin, challenging him immediately. Ignoring the others fascinated by his presence, Sakima did battle with Zippin. Brumbies challenge at the throat and this was a new experience for Zippin who usually did battle by a bite on the bum. Here was a challenger who approached front on. After the first contact that looked violent but was not life threatening, Zippin and Sakima battled it out at a canter.

Zippin positioning himself to push Sakima from behind and this is the dominant position that the leader of the herd assumes. This would go on for days with Zippin asserting his control by herding Sakima from behind and telling him when he could graze, where he had to move and when he would be allowed to stop.
Sakima assumed the bottom position in the herd and each of the other horses, Yannee and Beau would push him from behind when they had the chance and keep him on the outskirts of the mob. He would not be allowed to join the herd until he had shown his horse manners and that he accepted his position at the bottom of the pecking order.

He had to start at the bottom to get acceptance and over time he would challenge all the others to improve his pecking order position. He would spend many lonely days grazing on his own forlornly following at distance and when getting too close being pushed out of the herd. I could do nothing to help him in the introduction to our herd except at feed time.

I usually found him with the cows that he herded mercilessly and took the dominant position with them. He regularly made them scatter as he snaked at them to move away and if ignored he ran through the cattle mob. Much to the annoyance of our farm manager, who complained that every time Sakima scattered the herd his cows lost a kilo or two.

At feed time I was the leader and tolerated no horse rudely taking another’s food or being aggressive. I was able to send an offender off to the outside of the herd and in this way protected Sakima when he arrived for his feed.

Even Zippin learnt quickly to leave Sakima alone at feed time or suffer the dire consequences. When he finished his food he would stand eyes locked on to Sakima but not prepared to move from his empty food bucket as he knew he would be sent further away. Trying to take over Sakima’s food was simply not worth it when I was around.

This way Sakima learnt that there was a fairer leader than Zippin and that I would set the standard for herd behaviour when I was around. Zippin is a dominant leader and at times his ego and desire to be the boss takes him into an unpleasant side of leadership. He is young and needs to learn a fairer way to lead. But because domestic horses have not learnt horse manners as foals, Zippin may never learn this finer side of leadership.

Sakima accepted that when I was there he could eat his feed without interference from the rest of the herd. This was the first, tiny step in having Sakima trust and bond with me.

It would be many more months before the trust and bond would change his life as a wild horse forever.

Lynn

Life is more than work and Creative by Design has to have a soul and a caring beyond its major purpose of helping people sort their lives of mess and chaos.

Being part of the Creative by Design team is more than solving our client’s storage problems.

We support various projects that make a difference to Australia as a country.

Over the years, Creative by Design has supported bird and animal sanctuaries, the bushfire victims of Victoria and indigenous health initiatives in the Northern Territory.

Lynn, one of the owners of Creative by Design, is passionate about the company being about more than just business. Every little effort to change things for the better makes a difference. Small steps add up to big steps.

So this year, Creative by Design adopted a wild brumby. Why?

Lynn’s passions drive the focus that Creative by Design takes in being more than a furniture company. Horses have always been part of her life and the decision to adopt one of Australia’ heritage horses from the wild was driven by her love of horses, a family connection and the horse needed someone with time and patience as he was labelled a difficult horse with extreme flight responses to any danger.

The journey has been joyful and traumatic for both Lynn and Sakima, the brumby. After each weekend, the team would hear about the challenges and progress.

The pathos was felt by everyone when Lynn failed to come to work for three days as she searched for Sakima when he escaped into the adjoining National Park and the joy when he was found and came home.

By the challenges that Sakima has had to overcome, he has become part of Creative by Design and his journey to become domesticated is shared by all the team.

It is a wonderful story that we want to share with you, our clients. Our wild horses need support and understanding from Australians if there are to be any of our heritage horses left to carry their proud war history to future generations.

Unknown to the general public, each year thousands of brumbies are slaughtered in National Parks around Australia. Only a lucky few are adopted by caring Australians.

The rest end up at what is known in the horse world as the “doggers”. They are sent to the abattoirs to be killed for dog meat.

We can slow this slaughter by being aware of what is happening and supporting organisations like Save the Brumby who find homes for the horses that they can rescue. There are many more not so lucky and Sakima is lucky to have escaped this fate.

As Sakima learns what it means to be a domestic horse, we will share his progress on his Blog.