The courage to compete

By Lachlan Ellis

Two Moorabool horse trainers have taken part in this year’s Australian Brumby Challenge, earning a third-place finish and gaining a new love of Australia’s wild horses.

Orin and Hayley James live in Ballan, but run Circle J Horsemanship in Balliang East, and took on the sole surviving brumby of his herd from the Kosciuszko bushfires, whom they gave the fitting name ‘Courage’.

Ms James said the experience was quite unlike any horse training they’d done before.

“It was a different experience, completely different to anything we’ve done before. we’re normally into quarter horses, and we do rodeos around Australia. But saying that, it was one of the most rewarding things we’ve ever done, and we’re becoming advocates for saving the brumbies. They’re amazing…just having one for 120 days opened our eyes to how great they are,” she told the Moorabool News.

“He’s got scars still on his rump from the burns from those bushfires, he’s a very courageous little horse.”

The competition was broken into three events, with Courage and Orin competing against 24 other trainers in conditioning (assessing the health of the brumbies), obstacle course, and free style events.

Mr James won the conditioning component outright, and used the free style event to show what Courage had gone through during the bushfires.

“The free style event was your choice, you chose what you thought your brumby did well and showcased it. We sort of made a little story out of it, that he got caught in the bushfires and broke free,” he said.

“During that we’d do manoeuvres, basic horsemanship, and show his versatility.”

The podium finish wouldn’t have been possible without generous supporters – Crossroads Trading in Ballan supplied all of Courage’s grain feed for the 120 days of training, which Ms James said would be “over $1,000 worth”, and Randalls Run Goat Farm, who offered to cover the $550 entry fee.

“Crossroads were brilliant, they’ve been a huge support of us, and we definitely want to thank them,” Ms James said.

This year, for the first time, Australian Brumby Challenge competitors get to keep their brumbies, which the entry fee pays for.

Orin and Hayley plan to take Courage around to local pony clubs and horse events, doing demonstrations for kids and raising more awareness of brumbies.