Still figuring out the amounts.

Brandy is not too keen on the sulphur, it makes her pull faces and spit. I try it on Baileys first who is about half her size and Brandy tolerates about one fifth of what I put in his food. Talk about being fussy. She loves the hay, chaff, oats and copra. She’ll pull up her nose if I put as much as a smidgen of anything else in it. So, yes, I’m still working on that and figuring out the amounts because I rather keep the flies off her by putting stuff in her feed than continue to put brut on her.

New gear.

Baileys desperately wants to be her friend. Brandy is more interested in the ducks and hares skipping around the yard and me opening the garage door. Whilst initially she would dash all the way to the other end of the paddock, now she is doing quite the opposite. The sound of our garage door means company and food and she loves both.


Whenever I get a chance I eat my lunch and breakfast with her and our other pets all sitting out in the paddock. Brandy, me, puss, dog, pony and the other day our puss’s pet snake baby brown. I reckon having Brandy watch me play and hang out with our other pets all makes a difference.


Brandy is helping me purchase our new gear too. Initially I offered the fertiliser for free to our neighbours which they politely declined. Since I put the bags of poo up for sale at two dollars a pop they are selling like hot cakes. Bought me a new girth and lead rope already. Aiming for a new saddle next.

I’m no Guy McLean … yet .four weeks

OK the dates are all over the shop, what with all the excitement and that but the truth is that after three weeks and three days I managed to put a saddle on her. So Guy McLean does this in half an hour, well I intend to improve but for now I’m happy with three weeks.

Before we managed to write up an official training diary; Brandy comes when I call her, I can lift up her front feet and stroke her pretty much all over. I kinda hung over her a bit the other day to see what she would do and she looked around with a big question mark on her face. That was it. She’s cool as a cookie.

This weekend we were supposed to be riding her; that was the plan. My sister once more was going to give it her best shot; this time around, no halter, no saddle. Just rider and horse. It didn’t take long for Brandy to charge her, which was fun to watch from outside the fence. But by the time they finished playing, no one got to ride her.

It’s been three weeks and three days – Week Three part Seven

Today it’s the 23rd of the 8th month and actually exactly three weeks and three days since Brandy arrived. Today I managed to test out our three saddles (keep an eye on other people’s bins) to discover that my one girth is either too long or too short.


As long as I let Brandy smell everything before I put it on her back, she was absolutely fine with it. She’s now also equally happy with me patting her or giving her chaff. 


Y E A H ! Three weeks and three days!! I also got to measure her and she is the exact size we’re looking for at RDA.



Brandy still looks suspicious at a carrot or a bit of lettuce. Baileys happily shows her what the deal is but she prefers the hay and the chaff.

When Brandy arrived we had a paddock filled with grass. We soon discovered that Brumbies like to roll .. a lot. She pretty much rolled the whole ¼ acre and we’re looking into adding some fresh pasture. Our neighbours generously allow Brandy to roam on their property and all we have to do is add a few more pickets to get her more space and food.

Who’s teaching who? - Week Four part Four

I discovered that there is a few more days left in this week. I intend to focus on her coming when I call her. I’ve noticed that she is very deliberate and takes her time with everything. In the wild there probably is not that many second guesses and she’s learned to get it right the first time. It means that when I call her, she doesn’t come up running, but she’ll think about it. She’ll look around and have another little chew here and there and then maybe, maybe will make her way over. I intend to speed those responses up by disappearing when she doesn’t respond within a certain time limit. We’ll see how we go with that. I don’t want to confuse her either.


I’ve been watching Brandy and Baileys checking each other out ever so graciously and very courteous and I don’t want to be found out by them to be some slow learning klutz.

Still naughty - Week Four part Three

After four weeks I’m still doing the naughty thing and handfeeding her. She follows me wherever I go regardless if I have food on me or not. When I feed her, she wraps herself around me and when I push her away she’ll continue to come back leaning into me. I know, I know, bad habits I have to train out of her next. We do what we can. Her ears don’t go back so often anymore and I can clip her on whenever I want to. When she’s on the lead, she’s good. I can check her hoofs and touch her nearly anywhere so that’s massive progress. The other day I managed to put a natural saddle pad on her.


I’m happy with the progress we made in four weeks. With many thanks to all my support people and resources. Next week I’ll come up with an official training plan.

Our goals - Week Four part Two

The long term goal is to have Brandy as a happy RDA horse and no longer a wannabe. Short term goals are for her to come when I call her and to be able to  put a saddle on her. I just have to figure out how to do that. Up till now I have mainly been studying her behaviour and building up trust. It has become much easier to study her now that she’s in the paddock with Baileys and I can and see from a distance what’s going on. 


I’ve also actively worked to steadily increasing her responsiveness. She now stops when I go, Whoow. That’s kinda cool.

Resources and helpful friends - Week Four part One

It’s time to put a training plan in place and I’m going through my resources. If it wasn’t for Terry’s ready availability on the phone .. Thank you Terry! My coaching mentor last week lent me two fantastic books on horsemanship’s and she is watching with interest. Another friend from RDAQ (State Head Office) is very encouraging and brought me in contact with the Northern Territory RDA centre. They have about six brumbies, some coloured; nice going. My family and neighbours are all supportive with time and materials where needed.


Today Baileys met with Brandy’s back hoofs and is keeping respectful distance. Brandy has a lot of food in her paddock so we decided that they should share. She’s happy to share her food but nothing else with this raring to go little stallion.

I could’ve .. Week Three part Three

The lunging is part of our dance, determining who is boss. She’s still figuring it out and it is my job, in the nicest possible way to let her know, that I am the matriarch. I probably should have left her alone after the excitement we had earlier on. But after she settled we were all very relaxed and it felt like I could have climbed on her back then and there .. but I didn’t.


Every meal time I sit in the paddock with her and she comes close and loves the company as long as I don’t try to touch her. We’ll see about that.

Friends? Week Three Part Two

She lunged at me. I thought that we were friends. Man she looks mean. Her eyes and nostrils are massive. Honest I think she spits fire too. She grew about 3 feet when she lunged and yeah I don’t have to put up with that crap. I told her too. Like I jumped back at her, after I scrambled out of the bushes I’d fallen into.

My mum says she loves her fluffy ears, yeah whatever.

Sisters .. Week Three Part One

My sister was gonna show me how to break a brumby, by simply jumping on and riding her. The lead rope never made it any further than the side of her halter and then my sister let go. Brandy flew around the paddock with the rope dangling off the side, chasing her, as far as she was concerned. She bucked and reared and kicked and flew and bucked and reared and kicked and ran. And I stood there praying and thinking off all the ways to eliminate sisters from ‘helping.’

Discouraging flies - Week Two Part Three

As Baileys is whinnying over the fence to his new found friend we add another name to the mix; Brandy. So now we have Brandy Toolara Nutmeg the Brumby.

I finally manage to put Brut on Brandy, scrape off the bott flies and discover what to put in her food to discourage flies.

Vitamine B, apple cider vinegar, garlic and sulphur. I am still figuring out the amounts.

Horse etiquette .. Week Two Part Two

There’s a lot of flies around annoying her and she won’t let me near her again. “Terry, help, what can we put in the food to keep the flies of her?”

Terry tells me to continue ‘getting in her space’ and putting pressure on so that I can clip her on the lead rope once more. 


I’m now, against all rules and horse etiquette hand feeding her.
She likes that. Me too. 

Don’t worry .. Week Two Part One

Ok, I managed to put the lead rope on once. But it sure didn’t make her happy.


Lucky for me Terry phoned the next day to see how we’re doing.


‘Terry, she looked at the lead rope, seeming to say, “What is that thing you attached to me?”’


Terry said, “Don’t worry, it’s OK to put a little pressure on her.”


Next day I managed to sneak the rope on her again and yes finally we are walking around the paddock together.

Meet our stallion - Week One part Three

Baileys Mangojam Foursocks, our piebald stallion miniature pony, overnight has run a trench as deep as himself. After a long night of sustained effort we can just see his ears bopping up and down as he continues to scale the fence in his failed efforts to say hello to the Brumby. We are relatively relaxed seeing that the fence is about a foot higher than our pony and him jumping that fence would indeed be a world record.


Overnight, Baileys has lost about 10 kilos where it was desperately needed to go and our Brumby is now in season.

This is gonna be easy - Week One part Two

Terry delivered her to our property on the 27th of the 7th month 2010. He had spent a couple of weeks halter training and desensitising her. She easily moved off the float and Terry showed us how well behaved she was on the lead.

Terry had put in the hard yards. This was gonna be easy.


Next day, she didn’t agree.


Me halter trained? What is that thing hanging of your shoulder?


So we’re now a week later and she still won’t let me approach her.