Local horse trainer Zoe Mullens and her ‘wild’ companion, Spartan, won the reserve championship of the Australian Brumby Challenge at the prestigious Equitana event held in Melbourne the weekend before last.
Spartan is one of the wild brumbies saved by the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group, after the government decided to eradicate the herd last year.
With just 150 days allowed for the trainer and horse to interact so wild becomes ‘willing and able’, Spartan and Zoe were one of the 12 horses and chosen trainers to display their success in the competition arena.
Held in various stages over three days, the challenge included each brumby being let loose into a yard and then haltered by its trainer before being handled through various activities such as having its feet picked up and loading into a horse float. The second day’s challenge for the brumbies was an obstacle course and on the third day it was a free-style event to further display their skills and adaptability.
This was Zoe’s favourite part of the competition and the one she wanted to win … and she did. This, and a third in the obstacles, made Spartan and Zoe reserve champions.
Zoe paid tribute to the light horse for her and Spartan’s freestyle and did things that many well-handled domestic horses would not take kindly to such as standing on a platform, a large Australian flag waved around them allowing their trainer to walk under their belly. And Zoe rode Spartan as well.
The ringside crowd burst into applause when, for the finale of the challenge, Spartan laid flat on the ground and Zoe, in a replica of a World War I light horseman’s uniform, lay across him.
Event judge Kelly Wilson commented that it was the best freestyles she had ever seen and declared it “world class”.
It certainly was a huge achievement when it is considered that a short time ago Spartan was a stallion in a brumby herd at Barmah when gently yarded with others and later sedated and gelded then put back into a paddock unhandled.
Come 150 days before Equitana and 12 of the brumbies went to their trainers.
Zoe said she found the challenge new and exciting.
“Brumbies are pretty marvellous animals. They’re very intelligent,” Zoe said.
She handled Spartan for about an hour a day. She didn’t want to rush his training and at first was a little concerned about the 150-day time limit. But her worries were unfounded because Spartan responded.
“They are good to handle because they’ve never had human handling so have never had anything wrong done to them by humans,” Zoe said.
Spartan lived at Ivana and Bruce Gleeson’s Silver Brumby Trails at Spring Hill during his training with Zoe giving him as much experience around people and crowds as possible. This involved such things walking him down High Street in Woodend and taking his training to her son’s Woodend Primary School where Spartan laid down with Zoe in front of 100 students.
Now, with his integration into a new life a success, Spartan is off to a new home, Winhaven Psychology and Animal Assisted Therapy in Sunbury.
