The Snowy Mountains is the place you want to be during the summer! Although it can get quite hot we don't suffer from high humidity. When the sun goes down the heat goes with it and the wind just keeps on blowing...
Here are some pics from my walks during this first week of 2017..
The new brumby...
Time has roared past, it's now 2017 and the first week has already streaked by.
We have a new and very young brumby roaming our paddocks. Our national parks are wanting to kill them all off... they are destroying the fragile eco system of our alpine park. Well maybe they should do something about the soaring population of the destructive deer and pigs. What about feral foxes and feral dogs and cats? The kangaroo numbers are unbelievable ...
So, we have a lovely young brumby filly grace of our daughter.
The young filly has come under the protection of our mare 'Coco' and it is wonderful see her happy as she now has a companion, albeit a very fiesty one!
The passing of the brumbies...
Well, it's a very sad tale. Our 2 beautiful wild brumbies that would run up and down the fenceline and nicker and neigh to our Coco across the road are no more. They have been gone some time now. I had wondered where they could have gone to. Maybe the farmer up the road had reclaimed them? No unfortunately.
Over a cuppa with our neighbour we were told that the brumbies had been found dead, from lead poisoning apparently.... and.... they weren't found on our property either. These horses have been on our land for quite a few years. If they had wanted to leave or jump the fence they would have done so a long long time ago. Our property was their domain - as Kk and I found out when Kk took Garcon for a ride one day only to be bailed up by these gorgeous wild creatures.
No, the gate was opened... the brumbies entered... they were then accused of trying to interfere with certain domestic horses and shot for their transgression...
Unforgivable... the gates will be chained and padlocked - too late for these guys though.
Malicious and nasty people... I know who you are... and, as the saying goes, 'what goes around comes around'.
And there will be brumbies....
THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson
an excerpt: (click on the above link if you would like to read the full poem)
And one was there, a stripling on a small and weedy beast,
He was something like a racehorse undersized,
With a touch of Timor pony - three parts thoroughbred at least -
And such as are by mountain horsemen prized.
He was hard and tough and wiry - just the sort that won't say die -
There was courage in his quick impatient tread;
And he bore the badge of gameness in his bright and fiery eye,
And the proud and lofty carriage of his head.
They make super riding horses when they are broken. You might be thinking that they should just run free - why break them? Unfortunately the Snowy Mountains are in one of our National Parks and the brumbies compete with our natural fauna for feed. Every so often many hundereds are rounded up and then they are given away to new homes - anyone who is willing to save them!
Our brumbies are such great characters. They love to see what's going on. They are always running down the fence line and nickering and whinnying to our horses across the paddock.
Their eyes are wild, their manes long and tangled, their bodies compact and strong. They snort and play and run, enjoying life and freedom - even if it's in a paddock and not in their beloved mountains.
Does it snow in Australia?
How many times have I looked at the incredulous faces of people when I explain that it does snow in Australia, and yes, we do ski....Australia is always the hot country - tropical, coral reefs, waves, sand, red desert... but snow?
