Category: Events

COLLEEN Clancy’s friends might know her better than she knows herself. The Kingsvale farm worker and local SES controller has spent the last 100 days taming a wild horse for the Australian Brumby Challenge, hoping to save the animal and others from slaughter. “I know several friends said when I first got him, ‘Oh, you won’t be able to sell him’,” Colleen said. “And I said, ‘Yes, I’ve got to, I can’t take another horse’.” But after three months of training Bush Hero, the one-year-old brumby she took into her charge, Colleen has had a change of heart. Instead of… Continue reading

TAMING a brumby in 100 days is no easy task, but Wangaratta horse instructor Rachel Clarkson has done just that.  Ms Clarkson, 25, spent three months building a relationship with Lil Rascal, given to her to tame by the Victorian Brumby Association. Ms Clarkson, an entrant in the first Australian Brumby Challenge, will compete against 10 other trainers in the ridden section of a competition that ends this weekend at Upper Beaconsfield, 45 kilometres south east of Melbourne.  The challenge is designed to show off the talents of brumbies that have been trained for 100 days. “The brumby association passively… Continue reading

A WILD brumby has stolen the hearts of Durham Lead couple Jillian and Brendan Maher. Gus, as he is affectionately known by the Mahers, might have wound up in the knackery after being removed from the wild as part of the Victorian government’s park management program. Instead Ms Maher, a participant in the first Australian Brumby Challenge, has had 100 days to transform him into a docile riding horse using patient and gentle methods.  “He gives kisses and he’s just awesome,” Ms Maher said. Jillian Maher with Gus, the wild brumby she tamed as part of the Australian Brumby Challenge…. Continue reading