Brumby Rescue

by Soraya Nicholas

  It only took her five minutes to get back to the paddock, halter her pony and drag her away from the others.

  ‘Sorry, I’ll give you more breakfast soon,’ she promised.

  Poppy ran back to the yard and Crystal happily trotted along beside her. She was probably wondering what sort of adventure they were about to go on!

  ‘Come meet your new friend,’ she said to Crystal. ‘He doesn’t have a name yet, but we need to show him that he can trust us.’

  Crystal peered through the railings and nickered to the brumby. Poppy saw his ears turn forward, flickering back and forth, and he shifted his weight, but he didn’t walk forward. Poppy undid Crystal’s cover and folded it back so it was just over her rump, not wanting her to get too cold. She always thought it must be like having your doona stripped off when you were all cosy and warm, and she wanted Crystal to be happy standing there.

  She reached for the body brush and slowly pushed it across Crystal’s hair, following the grooves of her body. She giggled when Crystal snuffled her hair, using her top lip to scratch her head, and she knew exactly what her pony was telling her.

  ‘Did I find your itchy spot?’ Poppy asked, using her nails to scratch the spot under her horse’s neck. She glanced sideways to see if the brumby was watching them, and he was. ‘Ow, you’re getting a bit rough there,’ she told Crystal, ducking lower so her pony couldn’t reach her. She went back to using the brush, then reached for the dandy brush with its much harder bristles so she could get rid of the dry mud on her legs and knees.

  When she looked back at the brumby this time, his ears were back again and he was looking away like a child sulking.

  ‘It’s not working,’ Poppy told Crystal, putting her brushes away. She put the cover back on and stopped to cradle her pony’s head once she was done. Poppy kissed her cheek then stared at the brumby. It was only day three and already she couldn’t wait for Milly and Katie to come back so she could hang out with them – the brumby wasn’t exactly the best company! She sighed. Then again, she wanted to have some progress to show them, too. And so far that was a Big Fat Nothing.

  Tears filled her eyes, burning hot, angry tears, and she wished she knew what she could do to show the brumby how much she cared.

  ‘Poppy?’

  She brushed at her eyes quickly and turned around. Uncle Mark was standing a few metres away with Casper at his side.

  ‘How’s it going with him? Any progress?’ he asked.

  ‘Um, not really,’ she said, clearing her throat when her voice came out all squeaky. ‘He looks grumpy all the time and he hasn’t even taken a step near me.’

  ‘Give him time, Poppy. All of this is very new to him,’ Uncle Mark said. ‘You’re doing all the right things.’

  She smiled weakly then turned back to the horse. She’d always thought she could make any animal love her, but suddenly she wasn’t so sure.

  Poppy flopped down on her bed and groaned. She’d been doing a lot of that lately. She’d fed the brumby, talked to him, fed him some more, sat quietly and read books in his yard, tied Crystal up near him every day, and even ridden back and forth past his yard, but he still hadn’t come near her yet and it had been over a week! The only good thing was that her friends were back at Starlight for the rest of the holidays – being here without them and dealing with the brumby had been kind of lonely.

  ‘He hates me,’ she moaned.

  Katie laughed. ‘He doesn’t hate you, silly. He just doesn’t trust you yet.’

  Milly held out a peppermint Freddo Frog and Poppy took it gratefully, ripping open the packet and biting into the chocolate straightaway.

  ‘I’ve been reading up on the Barmah brumbies,’ Katie said, grinning.

  ‘Of course you have,’ said Milly, rolling her eyes.

  ‘What did you find out?’ Poppy asked, wanting to know everything she could.

  ‘Well, no one is allowed to muster them out of Barmah National Park, but I read that they might be relocated sometime soon,’ Katie said, sitting down beside Poppy on the bed. ‘There was a fire there about a year ago, so that may be how your brumby was separated from his mob, and how he ended up being kept by a farmer.’

  Poppy wriggled over to make more room. Katie and Milly slept in stretcher beds and she had the only real bed, but they often sat on hers before it was time for lights out.

  ‘Why do they want to relocate them?’ Poppy asked.

  Katie shrugged. ‘Seems crazy, but something about them eating too much and ruining some special native plants. Heaps of locals have petitioned though, because they want them to stay, so for now they’re keeping them there.’

  ‘Brumbies are amazing; why shouldn’t they be able to live there?’ Milly asked. ‘That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.’

  ‘Want to know what else I found out?’ Katie asked.

  ‘Like you’re not going to tell us anyway?’ Milly shot back.

  Katie stuck out her tongue at Milly, and Poppy laughed. ‘Tell us,’ she said.

  ‘They have a muster every year in the national park, but there are no cattle to muster out anymore so they just recreate the whole experience and you get to ride through all the old trails. It’s only a couple of hours’ drive from here,’ Katie said.

  ‘No way!’ Milly sat forward, suddenly a lot more interested.

  ‘Yes way.’ Katie grinned. ‘You can visit other times and go for walks, but that muster weekend is a big annual event and it’s one of the only times you’re allowed to ride horses there.’

  Poppy sat up, scrunching up the wrapper in her hand. ‘I wonder if you get to see the wild horses? That would be so amazing to actually see the brumbies that live there.’

  ‘It said on the website that if you don’t see at least one mob of horses, it’s super bad luck. There’s like two hundred brumbies living there.’

  Poppy’s mind was racing. ‘Do you think Aunt Sophie would ever let us go?’

  Milly was on her feet, pacing around the room now. ‘We have to convince her. What if we did extra jobs? We need to do something to prove to her that we should go.’

  Poppy drew her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them. Sophie would probably like the idea, but she bet Uncle Mark would like it even more. She looked up. ‘What about if we tell Mark first? I reckon he’d love to do it, and then he might talk Sophie into it for us?’

  ‘Yes!’ Milly’s eyes were wide. ‘We could take all five horses. It would be amazing!’

  ‘There’s no way she’d take Jupiter,’ Poppy said, frowning. ‘She’s so careful about where she rides him in case of injury.’

  ‘What about Prince?’ Katie asked. ‘She might like him to get used to different experiences?’

  Poppy wasn’t sure her aunt would want to take her gorgeous young horse, either. ‘Look, there’s so many horses here she could take, and she’s always saying how much she misses riding for fun like she sees us doing.’

  ‘So do we drop hints, or ask him outright?’ Milly asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  ‘I say we figure out a way to ask him. Talk to him about how amazing it would be to ride amongst wild horses and see them in action.’

  Poppy couldn’t stop smiling. Maybe if she understood wild horses more, she might be better at working out her brumby.

  ‘Hey, any ideas for names?’ Poppy asked. She’d been trying to come up with a name all week and nothing had seemed right.

  There was a scratch at the door followed by snuffling, and Poppy leapt out of bed, knowing exactly who it would be.

  ‘Casper,’ she said, smiling down at her aunt and uncle’s big dog. She adored the Australian sheepdog, and he loved her right back. ‘Come on, boy, quick before Aunt Sophie sees you.’

  He wagged his tail, thumping her legs as he passed and going over to the others for pats.

  ‘What about Blaze?’ Katie suggested.

  ‘Yeah, I thought of that but . . .’ Poppy wasn’t convinced.

  ‘Bubblegum?’ Milly s
aid. ‘Pilot?’

  ‘Ooh, how about Firelight?’ Katie added. ‘Or Minty?’

  Poppy sighed. ‘All good names, but nothing that’s perfect.’

  ‘Teddy?’ Milly asked.

  ‘Teddy’s a bit too nice for him,’ Poppy smiled wryly. ‘He’s more a Cracker.’

  ‘I like Cracker,’ Katie said. ‘Reminds me of riding through the forest during that lightning storm.’

  A shiver ran through Poppy. Just thinking about that day, how close they’d come to the bushfire the weekend Sarah had been visiting Starlight, still scared her.

  ‘Girls, I hope that light’s out!’

  Poppy leapt out of bed and dived for the switch near the door. Aunt Sophie wouldn’t care that they’d snuck Casper in for the night to sleep with them, but she’d told them to get an early night because she wanted to have their lesson straight after breakfast. Plus, Aunt Sophie had promised to spend time helping Poppy with the brumby, and given how nice her aunt had been about the whole horse thing, she didn’t want to annoy her.

  ‘I’m not even tired yet,’ Milly grumbled in the dark.

  Katie flicked a torch on and shone the way for Poppy to get back to bed. The other two shuffled down onto their campbeds, and Poppy snuggled under the covers as Katie switched the torch off. It was super dark tonight. There were no streetlights out here, only the moonlight, and there must have been a heavy cover of clouds because there wasn’t even a sliver of light peeking through.

  ‘Teddy,’ she whispered to herself, trying the name out. ‘Fire Cracker.’ Nothing seemed quite right for him.

  ‘What?’ Katie whispered.

  ‘Oops, sorry, I was trying names out,’ Poppy whispered back.

  Casper made a whining noise and Poppy slung her arm out of bed to stroke his fur.

  ‘What are you deciding between?’ Milly asked.

  ‘I kind of like Fire Cracker, because I could call him Cracker for short.’ She sighed. ‘But then I don’t really know what he’s like yet. Maybe I should wait.’

  Milly suddenly giggled. ‘You know, I’ve been so jealous about the fact you have another horse, but I actually feel sorry for you.’

  ‘Why?’ Poppy pushed up on her elbows, trying to see Milly now that her eyes had adjusted to the dark a bit.

  ‘Because you’re going to have to spend so much time with him, and not Crystal. Plus you’ll have to work extra hours for Sophie to cover costs and give her all your money too!’

  Poppy would have glared at Milly if she could have seen her. Instead she just flopped back, chewing on her bottom lip as she worried. What if he still wouldn’t come near her by the end of the week? What if she couldn’t get through to him? Not having a name was the smallest of her worries.

  ‘I’m proud of you,’ Katie said quietly. ‘You saved that brumby. They’re special horses, Australian horses, and what you did was amazing.’

  They all lay there in silence for a while. Poppy gulped, hoping she had done the right thing, but Katie’s words helped.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Milly suddenly blurted, surprising Poppy. ‘I shouldn’t have said that before, it was thoughtless.’

  ‘It’s fine,’ Poppy muttered, used to Milly saying things without thinking first.

  ‘No, Katie’s right. You did do something awesome, even if it was kind of crazy, and we’ll do whatever we have to do to help you.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Night,’ Katie said.

  Poppy shut her eyes and imagined her brumby, ears pricked forward, happy to see her. She wanted him to be happy, to see him prancing around and neighing out with excitement, not because he was scared.

  ‘Night,’ she murmured back.

  Maybe in the morning he’d approach her. Maybe he’d be pleased to have her near instead of standing alone in the yard. She wriggled further under the covers, pulling them up to her chin.

  All she could do was hope for a miracle.

  ‘What are you doing in there?’ Milly called out.

  Poppy dropped her head into her hands. She’d been sitting on an upturned bucket in the middle of the yard for what felt like the entire afternoon. It was probably only an hour, but it definitely felt like forever.

  ‘I’m trying to get him to come to me,’ she said through gritted teeth, not telling Milly that she’d been doing the same thing every day since last weekend.

  And it so wasn’t working. She was sitting, reading a book that she couldn’t even concentrate on, and the brumby was still standing in the corner of the yard. He hadn’t come any closer and she hadn’t managed to finish the book.

  ‘He couldn’t get any further away from you if he tried!’

  Poppy looked up and glared at Milly. ‘Ha ha, very funny.’

  ‘Has he put his ears forward or taken a step closer at all?’ Katie asked, sounding worried.

  Poppy felt a familiar burn prickle the backs of her eyes, and she quickly blinked. There was no way she was crying, not over a horse not liking her. He was going to come over – it was just a matter of time.

  ‘Please come closer,’ Poppy whispered, staring at the horse now and willing him to move. ‘Please.’

  ‘Does Mrs D think you’ll be able to train him?’ Milly said. ‘I mean, what if he’s too damaged by humans?’

  Poppy saw Katie glare at Milly, but she just shrugged. She honestly didn’t know, but if she tried to answer Milly’s question she’d probably burst into tears. Maybe Milly was right. What if he was too damaged? Where would he go if he couldn’t stay here? She shuddered just thinking about it.

  She moved a few steps toward the brumby, and he pinned his ears back. Why was he always so angry? She wondered if someone had actually hurt him before, if that’s why he was so scared. Did he think she was going to hit him? He’d become more cross-looking since arriving, and she hated that there was nothing she could do to make him like her. He was standing close to the side of the yard, and she noticed that the horses on the other side were grazing nearby. It was like he was trying to be part of their group. Aunt Sophie had put him alongside the others so they could interact through the fence, but Poppy had this niggling feeling that he’d be so much better if he had company in with him. Someone he could actually be friends with.

  She set down the handful of barley she’d held in her hand the entire time she’d been sitting, all sweaty and stuck to her skin now, and looked over her shoulder one last time at the horse before climbing the rails and joining her friends on the other side.

  ‘I’ve never had a horse not like me before,’ Poppy confessed. She couldn’t even remember any animal not liking her, and it was making this all so much harder.

  ‘It’s okay,’ Katie said, slinging an arm around her shoulder as they walked away. ‘You can’t do anything other than try your best with him.’

  ‘Hey, it could be worse,’ Milly said.

  Poppy had no idea how it could be any worse than it already was. ‘Yeah. How?’

  ‘He could have charged you and kicked you!’

  Trust Milly. But as much as Poppy wanted to be grumpy with her, she couldn’t. She laughed, and then Katie and Milly joined in, too.

  ‘Just be my friend already!’ Poppy yelled, feeling better.

  ‘He doesn’t hate you, Pops. He’s just scared,’ Katie told her. ‘What did Mrs D say?’

  ‘That I had to be patient and wait him out,’ Poppy replied. ‘I guess I thought that it’d be easy. He’d see how nice I was, we’d make friends, and everything I did would have been worth it.’

  ‘You’re not sure you want him now, are you?’ Katie asked softly as they neared the stables.

  Poppy crossed her arms and shook her head. It was like Katie was reading her mind. ‘I think I did the wrong thing.’ It wasn’t that she didn’t want him, but doubts were creeping into her mind. What if he still wouldn’t come near her by the end of the holidays?

  ‘Look, if anyone can make him like humans, it’ll be you,’ Milly said, giving her a quick hug. ‘Don’t give up on him yet
.’

  Poppy smiled. Milly was always surprising her. How could she be so stupid and harebrained sometimes, and so crazy-sensible other times?

  ‘I won’t give up on him, I just don’t know what to do with him.’

  Poppy followed Katie into the stables and made her way to Crystal. She’d kept her in so she could eat her bucket of hard feed after their lesson, but they were going to let them out into the paddock to graze overnight.

  Poppy smiled the moment she saw Crystal, her grey muzzle so soft and kissable, and she ran the last few steps to get to her. She moved her fingers over the soft, dark grey skin to the side of Crystal’s nose and dropped a quick kiss there, the spot that always smelt so strongly of horse, before letting herself into the stable. She hugged her arms around Crystal’s neck, loving how sweet and patient she was. There was some cooler weather forecast so she lifted the cover from the stable door where it had been folded and threw it over her back, doing up the leg straps first before the chest clasps. Lastly, she did the neck rug and belly straps.

  ‘Hey, do you want to ride them down or lead?’ Poppy called out.

  ‘Ride!’ Milly and Katie called back at the same time.

  She’d been feeling so sad about the brumby, but being with Crystal made everything better. ‘Love you,’ she whispered to her pony, cradling her head and pressing her cheek to Crystal’s. There was something about the smell and feel of her pony that made everything okay, just like when her dad had died and horses had been the only thing to make her stop feeling so sad. Crystal made her happy, and she just wished she could help the bay gelding feel the same way.

  Poppy sighed, tying her rope into a knot and leading Crystal out. By the time they rode down to the paddock, mucked around a bit before letting the horses go and made their way back to the house, maybe she’d be feeling more positive again about her brumby. But first she needed to see her aunt.

  ‘Hey, I’ll come down in a minute. I want to ask Aunt Sophie something.’

  The others shrugged and rode off, while Poppy vaulted onto Crystal’s back and went in the other direction, down to the arena where she’d seen her aunt working with Prince. Sophie was doing a lot more with her young horse now, and Poppy watched for a bit as she cantered around the arena, making dressage look so effortless and easy. When she saw Sophie loosen the reins and let Prince relax, Poppy wrapped her legs tight against Crystal’s sides and cantered down bareback with only the pony’s cover to grip to.