Learning how to tame Australia's 'wild, crazy, untrusting' desert brumbies

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Right in the heart of desert country where the red bulldust clogs every pore, a black stallion stops grazing, lifts his head, listening.

He senses something is not right, gives a snort and turns abruptly, galloping off into the distance.

Other horses follow his lead, jumping over spinifex, dodging mulga trees, and tearing across red sandy plains.

It's desperation. A sense of survival.

Among them, a young mare is followed by her foal just a few weeks old, keeping up with the rest. It has to.

As the helicopter draws closer, the strength and surefootedness of these wild horses shine. It's like this is what they've been born to do.

There are thousands of them running wild among the canyons and claypans of central Australia, across vast tracts of land south-west of Alice Springs.

Some are descendants of animals owned by the early explorers.

Others turned loose as stockmen were replaced by machinery.

Professor Chris Pollitt has been coming to the outback to study them for more than a decade. He is the David Attenborough of brumbies.

"To fly over this country in helicopters and see individual bands of horses moving across the county is an experience for me that takes me back to the evolution of the horse, the way it was millions of years ago," he said.

From up here, the athleticism of the horses is evident, but it's their ability to survive that really fascinates Professor Pollitt — their endurance and ability to cope with extremes in temperature, in an often harsh environment.

As Professor of Equine Medicine at the University of Queensland, he spearheaded the Australian Brumby Research Unit.

But not even he knows how many horses are here.

"It's anybody's guess" he said.

Estimates range from 15,000 to 30,000.

But what is certain, is that their numbers are growing and it's causing problems.

"The conundrum is we love the horse, we love to see it in its wild state, its fully evolved state, thriving in its natural environment we love to see that," he said.

"But we know this is Australia and it's not their natural environment, so we have to make some compromises."

Down at a waterhole surrounded by desert oaks and eucalypts, Professor Pollitt waits behind green hessian cloth strung between two trees.

Soon, hooves can be heard.

"Everybody thinks of a herd of horses, but that doesn't exist," he said.

"Horses only live in bands.

"Once the band is established all the mares are loyal to that stallion and that stallion is loyal to all of the mares. It's a really special thing to see."

'Life hangs but for a thread'

They call him "The Prof" — mild mannered and softly spoken under his broad brimmed hat.

But when he sees brumbies he becomes energised, passionate to share his knowledge.

So he started brumby week — a chance for horse-loving adventurers to see the wild horses in their equally untamed environment.

They come from all over the country — and from as far away as the United Kingdom and Germany — to join "The Prof" on the week-long adventure.

In the stockyards of Kings Creek Station — a working cattle and camel property about 300 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs — tourists are taught how to break the wild animals in.

And it is all done in just a week.

For some, like Penny Richards from Orange in NSW, it's been a life-long dream — and now she is taking one of the wild horses back home.

"It's a really emotional thing to see a horse turn from this wild, crazy, untrusting animal to something that just gives to you," she said.

"I think after the second day of working with her I couldn't think of ever re-releasing her.

"I couldn't think of her ever having to go back to being hungry and being thirsty and having to have foal, after foal, after foal and stallions fighting over her."

Among the group are Brisbane psychiatrist Jennifer Gunn and her sister Helen Bowie, from Cairns.

Jennifer has been riding horses for years, Helen is along for the laughs and to learn.

"This is really important," Jennifer, the older sister, said. "This is our time."

The sisters made a pact to take a holiday together once a year — a promise made more important after Jennifer was diagnosed with lymphoma 12 months ago.

She is now cancer-free, and, after this week, has ticked another experience off her bucket list.

"Life hangs but for a thread," Jennifer said. "It is important to have that realisation. Not to be scared of it but to live it, and that's what we're going to do."

'They trample the ground, cause erosion'

Inside the stockyards at Kings Creek, renowned horse trainer Brian Hampson has captured a handful of young horses from the thousands that roam nearby plains.

He lets one through to the round yard. It's frisky and frightened.

With a flag attached to the end of a stick, Dr Hampson talks through how he's communicating with the horse, to break it in.

"I love having brumbies out here. I wouldn't like to come out to the desert environment and not see horses. But there's just too many of them," he said.

"They trample the ground, cause erosion.

"They eat every bit of grass in that valley by the end of the long winter time (it) just changes the ecology of the valley forever."

Wildlife ecologist David Berman completed his PhD in the area 30 years ago and has seen how it's changed.

The land around waterholes is bare, native pastures eaten out across the plains.

"There are no predators that will help keep the numbers down. So just about every population of horses in Australia will be gradually increasing at somewhere between 7 and 20 per cent per year," Dr Berman said.

Three years ago, about 8,000 brumbies were culled from a nearby property.

Culling is a controversial but effective method of keeping numbers down.

A recent plan by the NSW Government to cull the animals in the Kosciuszko National Park, which it backflipped on in May after a public outcry, just highlights the emotional debate around the animals.

They are now protected as "cultural icons".

Rehoming, as is done on Kings Creek, is one small way of reducing numbers. Another option is setting up dedicated reserves, and there's also sterilisation.

But that's seen as impractical because of the vast area the brumbies inhabit.

"Culling's not the only answer," Dr Berman said. "You need all these options and you need to judge which options to use in the different situations."

Ian Conway, the owner and manager of Kings Creek Station, said many Aboriginal people in the area were opposed to culling — they see it as horses being destroyed for no reason.

"When the cull was on they really didn't want them shot, and they discovered horses dead everywhere and they were very upset about it," he said.

"I actually travelled with some old Indigenous fellas in this area like the traditional owners of this region and they see any animal alive like that as should be left alive."

Mr Conway said he would rather see the feral horses shipped to slaughterhouses for meat as an enterprise for Indigenous people rather than shot and left to waste.

Despite dedicating much of his life to studying the wild animals, for "The Prof" there are no easy answers.

"The dilemma is if you do nothing," he said.

"If you let the animals breed up and then severe droughts come as they must in this central Australian environment, you're going to be faced with horses starving to death and dying of thirst.

"That is a horrible thing to see."

Watch the story on the ABC's 7.30 program tonight.

Topics: environmental-impact, environment, environmental-management, animals, human-interest, nt, australia