Wild Heart Brumbies

06/03/2026

We are so lucky. The boys not only help us with many outdoor tasks, they also paint beautiful murals on the car which I love. I get the 'warm and fuzzies' when I am out, walking back to the car, and (re)see their mud paintings on the panels. Funny too when we are parked next to highly polished, immaculate cars. My horses, car and self are perpetually in 'paddock condition' 😀

05/03/2026

An inspiring relationship 🙏 RIP Endo and much love for your wonderful human in her grief 💙

04/03/2026

Inti loves being King of the Mountain, always climbing on any elevation. The views go for miles here, and all of the boys love to look out. Sometimes I stand with one and we just look in stillness for a long moment. I think they look for other herds, maybe for mares to steal, and for any danger. I hope that they have stopped looking for the families that they lost when they were captured.
Family is everything to horses. It breaks my heart when I see a horse alone in a paddock; not able to groom another, not able to freely play with a friend, not able to ever feel fully safe when they sleep, and not able to form a long lasting bond with another horse.
For humans it is called solitary confinement and used a punishment.
I see first hand how important the herd is to my boys. How much they interact. How safe they feel because one of them is always keeping guard while the others sleep. How much fun they have chasing, rearing and playing biteys. How stimulated they are with each other, always.
An isolated horse will always be more motivated to seek out a human. An isolated horse will usually make a human feel better. An isolated horse will always be more pliable to do what the human wants.
Maybe some people don't care. Maybe some don't know. It's something I share in hope that someone wants to know and the life of at least one horse can change for better.
Please be kind to horses and let them have horse family.
Sharen 🐎 Inti

04/03/2026

No, you cannot come in the shed!
I have a few heathens who would like to come in and help me mix their feed. It's a definite no as 1/ the shed is full of clutter and many hazards in case they got spooked, and 2/ they would guzzle a dangerous amount of whatever they could get their little teeth into.
Yachaq wanders fully inside often and I have to tell him to get out. Once I found him in the old derelict dairy. He was just standing there. The rest of the herd were gone, the weather good, no feed inside, and he was just standing there. He, along with Nuna, are the ones who I would call the wildest, so I find his behaviour fascinating.
Perhaps I will put stables on our wish list?
Sharen

01/03/2026

Who is your favourite bum?

25/02/2026

Thought I would do a post on feeding.
Morning and night the boys get bucket feeds (occasionally a bale of Lucerne instead between them). The buckets have a base of Lupins, Copra, Oaten chaff, Lucerne Chaff and whatever supplements I'm giving. They also have a free choice salt lick and loose mineral lick.
Then I barrow out multiple loads of good quality native hay twice a day. I prefer barrowing as the boys then have movement between piles, are stimulated socially, and tbh I can't afford much wastage. Every morning and night I assess how much hay is left on the ground and adapt the barrow loads according to that. There is a daily art to get the right amount with no waste and have a trickle of hay left over. There is enough pick in the paddock for them to browse a few hours if they do finish off the hay. They are mostly wandering in the paddocks.
Horses continually produce digestive acid and if they are without feed for more than a couple of hours they risk getting ulcers. Is important that the boys always have something to nibble and to keep moving as they graze.
Feeding nine horses on a smaller property is a lot of daily work and cost. My heart breaks that I cannot take in more KNP Brumbies here. The goal is to provide as natural environment as possible so the boys can live as naturally as they can in a domestic setting.
I have ordered 50 large round bales for the year and hopefully that will last. It was a nightmare sourcing hay in the drought last year, stressing that I wouldn't get any and paying up to three times the cost. Hopefully I never experience that again.
Feeding is never ending and a lot of work. The big dream is to get a larger property. I've put it out there so more waiting patiently. Will it be this year? It would be wonderful to have a few days off, maybe even a holiday.
For today though, I'm 'living the dream' (as a friend told me the other day). So very true. I wouldn't change being guardian of the boys for the world.
Sharen

23/02/2026

The horses were very spooked this morning. Something had scared them and it's happened only a handful of times. Once I am sure it was a snake/s at their water trough. It was breeding season and may have chased them.
There was also the sheep incident which scared the bejeevis out of them. I don't know if the Brums had ever seen sheep before.
Then the kangaroo, which every one of them has seen roos countless times before, and no doubt grazed alongside of. Go figure. We don't have them here as a rule so maybe because it was out of context that it scared them. It suprised me too.
Another time I suspected we had a human intruder, and today I have no idea.
When they are spooky I take notice of the direction/area of their concern, the intensity, who is affected, and time of day/year. This morning even the most level-headed boys (Apu, Munay, Yaku) were very jumpy and all were reluctant to come down from their lookout to their Lucerne breaky.
I didn't get a video of the action, and tbh I have been struggling to get inspired to take photos lately. The horses are not fond of the camera. The energy of taking photos brings you out of presence and the boys are quite sensitive to that. Too many times a beautiful picture is ruined by the camera.
Sharen 🐎 the herd at breakfast (though they certainly haven't fasted during the night)

21/02/2026

The two bays of the herd, Munay & Baz

20/02/2026

I thought this was a pretty cool photo. Baz eating hay and Yachaq, Ayni and Yaku patiently waiting, like they are carraige horses. This is unusual, and I have no idea why on this occasion Yachaq didn't hurry Baz along as he is more dominant.
The other reason I wanted to share is that a few photos have the horse yards in the background (or foreground in this case) and I wanted to mention that the horses are outside the yards and the hay is safely stored inside.
💙 Sharen

19/02/2026

This photo was taken after Baz had finished eating, and I had put Australian Bush Flower Essences in their feed buckets.
You know how you 'know' what you should be doing, and yet you don't ... well that is me with the ABFE. I bought the practitioners kit predominantly for my animal family and have only used it twice with the horses. The crazy thing is that it works so well and I haven't been using it.
The first time I used ABFE was when two herds merged, the first three stallions joined the geldings. There were no major dramas, just some ongoing niggling between them. I intuitely created a blend to bring them together into one peaceful herd and immediately the angst was gone. All six horses became one herd.
This next time my focus was on feeding and helping the nine horses be peaceful at feedtime. Both Baz and Yachaq's energies dropped after they finished eating, ears to the side and d***y looks. (They are the most dominant and think they're entitled to the spoils) They still try to steal the others feed if they can, but there's not much oomph in them anymore.
Australian Bush Flower Essences are energy medicine, like Bach Flowers. You cannot overdose and there are no contraindications, so completely safe. I recommend them as a support with your horses/animals/self, and not as a stand-alone quick fix.
Sharen 🐎 Baz

17/02/2026

16/02/2026

We have a no steal policy with bucket feeds here. I have told each of the boys that they are safe to eat their feed in peace. There are however, two individuals (Baz and Yachaq) who think this boundary doesn't apply to them, so will wait until I'm distracted and move in on one of the others.
Yesterday, Yachaq was moving in on Munay's feed and as I ran to protect him, I tripped on a rock and broke my toe (so disappointed).
As I went flying into the dust, most of the horses spooked and ran off. Yaku and Ayni were very concerned for me, and Yaku put his nose directly on the break site and left it there for a short while. Then, he ever so gently, bit the other side of my foot and released when I yelped. I truly feel he was instinctively urging me to get up. As a prey animal I would be at risk, lying injured on the ground.
Ayni went over to Yachaq before I got up and out of the corner of my eye it seemed like he told Yachaq off, which if true, is very interesting as Yachaq is above Ayni.
The most important part of this tale is that I instinctively knew to hobble over to Yachaq who was clearly distressed. I had yelled his name as I fell. By this time Yaku was standing with him. Even though I was in a lot of pain, we had a few moments together and released the stress from the incident. I breathed release and Yachaq and Yaku yawned and yawned.
It really bought it home how much our horses take on from us and how important it is to be aware of this, helping facilitate release when needed.
I am semi-mobile, so can still facilitate some private sessions with the herd.
Sharen 🐎 Yachaq
*** I am aware that any injury is a message, and with 3 breaks in 3 years (foot, knee, now toe) all on right hand masculine side I realise that this information is clear- whether I'm listening or not is another matter. Happy to hear any insights to consider if it resonate for me 🙏