Lifesavers has been active in helping certain AustralianWild Horse Advocates find ways to protect their country's wild horses commonly known as Brumbies. Australia has hundreds of thousands of brumbies roaming free across their continent. These horses have a similar origin and development as their American counterparts, mustangs. Horses were brought over to Australia several hundred years ago when the country was being colonized. The feral herd began with mostly thoroughbreds and draft horses. Since then, just as our mustangs, many other bloodlines have been introduced into the herds.
There is no law protecting Australian brumbies. There is no management program to ensure their preservation. The Australian government routinely slaughters and massacres the brumbies to exterminate them from their public lands. Many of the horses found on private lands are subject to being captured and sent to the "knackers" aka the slaughter house. The general consensus of the Australian public about brumbies is that they are waste animals and worthless. The country is largely composed of huge cattle ranches or "stations" and the ranchers there feel about the same as American ranchers do about mustangs.
The fate of the brumbies hangs in the balance. Their saving grace is a small group of newly organized brumby advocates who are determined to change the Australian's public view of their beautiful wild horses. This group of advocates, headed by Aussie Lyall Sempf, has agreed to allow a team of Lifesaver's Wild Horse Boot Camp clinicians to come to their homeland and share our experience and expertise in the area of wild horse handling and management.
Our objective is to demonstrate through a week long boot camp that wild horses can be gentled and used in the very same way that our mustangs are. We are also going to share the logistics of wild horse management and adoption programs. The Australian wild horse lovers are going to absorb as much information as we can display for them in the short time we have to spend, and then they will adapt whatever is useful and practical to format their own program proposals.
Members of the brumby gentling team scheduled to travel are Lesley Neuman, Jerry Tindell, Donna West and Darice Holloway. Kimberly Lane will be the officer designated to disseminate information on wild horse related subjects such as US range management, US wild horse adoption programs, the history of the wild horse and modern day use of mustangs. Jill Starr, president of Lifesavers, is spearheading the US efforts of "boot camp down under" in conjunction with Lyall Sempf in Australia and will be accompanying the team.
Mr. Sempf is organizing and coordinating the week long workshop in his home town of Gatton in Queensland for November 19-24, 2001. He has arranged to bring in a dozen wild brumbies from a neighboring cattle station who would rather the horses be removed. The participants for the brumby boot camp will be members of the brumby advocates.
Lifesavers and the gentling team is proud and honored to be chosen for this international diplomatic adventure. We hope that sharing our successful gentling techniques with the brumby advocates will encourage them to lobby for government protection and preservation for their precious natural resources. It's a huge undertaking, but America was faced with that seemingly unsurmountable task back in the 50's and 60's. It took the courage and perserverance of Velma Johnston (Wild Horse Annie) to start the ball rolling in Congress which resulted in laws protecting the future of American Mustangs.
The brumby team is back!
Read all about the workshop and see the photos
Send donations to: Lifesavers, Inc., 23809 East Avenue J, Lancaster, California 93535
Phone for more information: 661-727-0049 or email lifesavers@wildhorserescue.org
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