THE DESERT BRUMBY hen I dug into researching the area of the Outback WIan is in and the brumbies that call it home, I soon realized that he had a serious problem on his hands. Just like America has mustangs, brumbies are Australia’s wild horse. It is thought that the name “brumby” came from an early settler, Sargent James Brumby, who is said to have released his horses in the bush in the early 1800s. Horses living in the wild became known as “Brumby’s horses.” (Whether or not this is a true story is debatable. But it was the best explanation I was told for why the horses are referred to as brumbies.) The horses’ bloodlines are a hodgepodge from horses that helped settle the continent that were revered for their strength and endurance. Those horses were mainly Cape and Barb horses, Thoroughbreds and Arabs. Cape and Barb horses both originate in South Africa and were brought to the continent when ships from England stopped along the South Africa coast to restock supplies before heading to Australia. Later on, other breeds, such as the Clydesdale and the Timor Pony, entered the mix. As horses were used less and less for everyday tasks, people turned them loose, and large, unmanaged herds began roaming the country. Today, it is estimated that between 600,000 to a million brumbies are scattered across the continent. Thanks to The Man from Snowy River movies, most of us are familiar with the brumbies located in the mountainous regions of New South Wales and Victoria. Before taking this project on, I wasn’t aware that the largest number of Australia’s wild horses is located in the desert region. In the southern tip of the Northern Territory, where Ian’s station is, some 4,000 brumbies run wild in that area alone. It’s normal for the population to increase by 20 percent annually. And that has a huge impact on the desert as far as destroying the vegetation and using up the natural water sources, which causes the native animals to leave. That’s not considering the damage the horses do to the stations – tearing down fences, interfering with domestic stock, etc. The problem Ian described to me wasn’t just a pesky nuisance; it was affecting his livelihood and permanently changing the landscape. 14 THE ADVENTURE | A Wild Challenge.