Brumby Rescue

by Soraya Nicholas

  Poppy blocked everything else out once her boots touched the ground on the other side of the gate. She stared at Missy, smiled, and made a conscious effort to ignore the brumby. The less fuss she made of him, the more likely he would come to her on his own terms.

  Missy came over straightaway, but the brumby stayed still. Poppy heard his soft snorting, saw him from the corner of her eye, but still she ignored him. Once she was standing in front of Missy, she held out her hand, let the mare snuffle her gently before reaching out to stroke her face.

  If she stepped three big paces to the left, she’d be standing directly in front of him, but she didn’t. Poppy talked to Missy, stroked her neck, and then turned to walk away. The pony followed her, just like she’d known she would, and a thrill ran through her when she sensed the brumby had started walking too. Poppy walked slowly, in a big circle, with Missy a few paces behind and the brumby close behind his new best friend. Then she stopped, keeping her back turned. Missy nudged her shoulder, nuzzled her and after a few pats dipped her head to eat grass. But Poppy didn’t move. She kept breathing slowly, staying still, not daring to look over her shoulder.

  Aunt Sophie had coached her about what to do, right from the very first day she’d sat on the overturned bucket and hoped the gelding would approach her, but this was the first time she’d done something and he’d followed through with her expectations.

  Poppy knew her friends were watching. She hoped they were seeing how different the horse was now. Her chest swelled with pride, knowing that she’d done something to help her brumby.

  What if she’d never seen that bulge in his cheek? What if she’d given up on him?

  A movement behind her made Poppy tense, but she took a deep breath, pushed her fears away. He was an animal, and animals sensed everything in a human. She knew that. There was nothing to be afraid of, there was nothing to be . . .

  Poppy shut her eyes as the brumby touched her with his nose.

  Ohmygod.

  His breath was hot on her neck, his nose touching the spot above her shoulder. His whiskers tickled her cheek and she knew he must be craning his neck out far to connect with her like that, because he hadn’t moved his body any closer.

  She kept standing there, a statue, smiling as he gently, so gently nudged her shoulder this time. Poppy didn’t care about anything else now, whether she even managed to touch him again these holidays, because he’d come to her, and that was all that mattered.

  He moved closer, standing beside her. She smiled when he copied Missy and lowered his head to eat. She didn’t know what was more exciting – the fact he’d come close, or that he was finally eating after so many days of virtually starving himself.

  ‘See, I’m not so scary after all, am I?’ she whispered.

  The brumby’s ear flicked in her direction, telling her she was being listened to. Maybe he knew she’d been the one to help him?

  ‘Storm,’ she said, slowly reaching out her hand to touch his neck. He quivered, tensing, but he didn’t move. Poppy took her hand back, not wanting to push her luck. ‘That’s your name, boy. Storm.’

  She looked over at Milly and Katie and saw big smiles on both their faces, too. Other than the day she’d been given Crystal, this was the best day of her life.

  ‘Pops, you are, like, crazy amazing!’ Milly propelled forward and crashed into her.

  Poppy spluttered as she hugged Milly back, almost falling over. ‘Thanks,’ she managed.

  She could barely wipe the grin off her face when she looked at her friends, then glanced back at the horses.

  Missy was waiting near the gate, her big brown eyes full of love. But it was the brumby standing patiently by the pony, ears still pricked forward, that was making Poppy feel so insanely happy. It was just one day after his tooth surgery, and he was like a different horse.

  ‘I’ve got to tell Sophie,’ Poppy said. ‘She’ll be so happy.’

  ‘Mrs D would have flipped if she’d seen that,’ Katie added. ‘You were like a brumby whisperer.’

  ‘Hey, don’t go overboard,’ Poppy said, her cheeks burning hot. She didn’t want the others thinking she’d done anything special, because she hadn’t really. ‘If his teeth were still bad, he’d have tried to kill me again, I know it.’

  ‘Still pretty awesome,’ Milly said, sighing.

  ‘Come on,’ Poppy said. ‘I want to find out what to do next with him.’

  ‘Do we have to come see Mrs D with you, Pops?’ Milly asked, making a face. ‘I need to go see Joe. He’ll think I don’t love him any more if I leave him all morning.’

  ‘Go for it,’ Poppy said. ‘Could you get Crystal in for me? I’ll catch you up in a minute.’

  She ran ahead to search for her aunt. She didn’t even care if she didn’t get to ride today, because she’d seen how amazing Storm was, and she wanted to spend more time with him.

  Would she be the first to lead him anywhere? The first to ride him?

  A cool shiver ran down her spine.

  Could she be the first person to ever sit on him and teach him commands?

  ‘You look happy,’ Aunt Sophie said as Poppy skidded to a stop in front of her.

  ‘He doesn’t hate me,’ she blurted.

  ‘Pops, he never hated you,’ Aunt Sophie replied, but she was grinning too. ‘He just didn’t like anyone with two legs.’

  ‘So what do I do next?’ Poppy asked.

  ‘Well, tell me exactly what happened, and then we’ll go down together to see him,’ Sophie said, picking up a feed bucket and putting it in Jupiter’s stall. ‘If he’s changed this much just from having his teeth removed, even when his mouth’s still probably very tender, he’s going to be great, Pops.’

  ‘This is actually happening,’ Poppy said, shaking her head. ‘I’m actually the owner of a brumby, and I’m actually going to try to ride him one day, aren’t I?’

  Sophie burst out laughing. ‘Yeah, Pops, it looks like you are.’

  Poppy wrapped her arms around herself, as excited as she was nervous. Game on. They approached the yard where Storm and Missy were grazing.

  ‘You’re sure about this?’ Poppy asked, her heart hammering so hard she thought it was going to leap out of her chest.

  ‘If I wasn’t sure, you wouldn’t be doing it,’ Aunt Sophie said. ‘Now do as I say, and don’t overthink anything. In you go.’

  Poppy swallowed. Easy for Sophie to say – she wasn’t the one standing in the paddock with a wild brumby!

  Storm, she reminded herself. His name was Storm, and he looked every bit the domesticated horse right now and nothing like the crazy-wild brumby she’d been so terrified of these last couple of weeks.

  ‘Listen to everything around you, feel everything,’ Sophie said in a soothing voice from where she was standing. She was close enough to help if anything went wrong, and far enough away that Storm wasn’t paying her any attention. ‘Just block everything else out and trust your instincts.’

  Poppy wasn’t about to say that her instincts were what had got her bitten last time. Instead she did as Sophie had instructed, closing her eyes for a second and taking a deep breath. She tried hard to push everything else out of her mind, looked at the blue gums waving their tips in the breeze, listened to Missy snorting softly as she grazed. And when she looked at Storm, feeling heaps calmer, she saw that he was watching her. His eyes were like liquid pools of chocolate, his breath soft on her hand when she slowly extended it to him.

  He sniffed it, curious, his whiskers tickling her, and when he’d finished she reached for his neck, stroked it gently, before doing the same to his cheek. His coat was so dark it was almost black, the ends of his mane still bleached gold from the sun.

  Poppy had a halter in her other hand, and she carefully moved it so that he could see it, not wanting to startle him. He stiffened, and she saw the movement, just like Aunt Sophie had told her to look for.

  ‘Storm, it’s okay,’ she told him in a low voice. ‘There’s nothing to be scared of.’


  Poppy flexed her fingers to move the halter slightly, letting him sniff it as she got it into position to slide over his nose. He wasn’t completely wild, because he’d had a halter on before, but it had been so old and frayed, obviously never taken off once someone had forced it on to him, and it must have torn in the truck because the only time she’d seen it on him had been that day at the sale yard.

  ‘You must miss your family, huh?’ Poppy asked, wanting to keep talking to him so that he stayed calm. She bet it made him trust her more, hearing her talk all the time, too.

  He worried the heel of her hand with his top lip and she had to fight not to laugh it tickled so much! ‘You’re such a dude,’ she said, letting him play with her hand. It was a quirk she’d seen Jupiter do with Sophie, although she bet Sophie never worried about Jupiter biting her when he did it. ‘You know, I miss my dad heaps, so we’re kinda the same,’ she told him, stroking his face now with her other hand. ‘He died, and soon it’ll be a year since he’s been gone. So we can both miss our family together. What do you think?’

  Poppy blinked away tears. She missed her dad so much sometimes, and she’d do anything to have him back so he could see her with Crystal and to watch her now with her wild beautiful brumby. Whenever she’d returned from riding and he was home, he’d sit and listen to her talk about horses for hours.

  She liked how still Storm was standing, how relaxed he was today, and she knew it was weird. They should have been in the yard, not just a small paddock, but Sophie had said that it was better to work him wherever he was comfortable, and he’d been happy in here.

  ‘I need you to trust me, Storm,’ she whispered as she moved the halter she’d been letting him sniff, gripping it firmly as she slowly slid it over his nose. ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of, and I’ll never hurt you, I promise.’

  He stiffened but stayed still, and Poppy gently slid her hand under his throat to guide the second strap behind his ears. She carefully pushed the strap through the buckle and did it up, talking to him the whole time.

  ‘One day we’ll go on the coolest rides,’ she said. ‘We’ll see kangaroos like you would have seen at your old home in the forest, and we’ll jump fallen logs and weave through trees. You’ll love it.’

  Poppy looked proudly at Storm standing beside her with a new halter on. She’d done it. She’d actually put a halter on a horse that had once looked so wild she had wondered if she’d ever be able to touch him.

  ‘Well done, Pops!’ Aunt Sophie called out.

  Poppy grinned back at her, and realised Katie and Milly were there with the ponies. Her friends started clapping and whistling. She was so proud.

  ‘Woo hoo, Popster!’ Milly yelled.

  Poppy walked over to Missy, wanting to see what Storm did, and when he followed her she thought she was going to burst.

  ‘I think he might like you, Poppy,’ Aunt Sophie said.

  Poppy melted inside. She had a feeling he liked her, too.

  ‘I know he’s a seriously cool horse, but it must be nice to be hanging out with Crystal,’ Milly said. ‘At least you know she’ll behave!’

  Poppy grinned. ‘I know. It makes her seem so easy.’

  ‘You never told us what your mum said about buying your brumby. Did she lose it?’ Katie asked.

  Poppy slid a hand down Crystal’s neck as they rode, the other hand holding the reins. ‘Yeah, she kinda did, but then she asked me a few questions about how I was going to pay back Mark and why I had done it, and she hasn’t said anything else since. It’s weird.’

  ‘Hmmm,’ Katie made a noise as they rode side by side across the paddock toward the bush. ‘That’s strange. Sophie must have already explained the whole thing to her.’

  ‘Don’t talk to her about it again,’ Milly said, starting to trot ahead.

  ‘Why not?’ Poppy asked.

  ‘Because she might not have been listening the first time, which means she’ll kill you for sure the second time!’ Milly called out over her shoulder.

  Poppy nudged Crystal’s side with her heels and started to rise up and down, moving with her horse. She kept her heels down, careful to hold her reins just enough to have contact without pulling on Crystal’s mouth. She’d been so focused on Storm lately that she hadn’t been able to enjoy riding, and now that she was back in the saddle it felt awesome.

  ‘Want to canter?’ she called out.

  ‘Yes!’ yelled her friends.

  Poppy sat deep in the saddle and urged Crystal on, which basically meant just thinking about going faster! Crystal never needed much encouragement; she was always ready to burst into a canter or gallop.

  Poppy pushed up from the balls of her feet into a cross-country position, holding herself just out of the saddle to take her weight off Crystal’s back. She held her reins a little shorter, pretending they were hurtling around a cross-country course. She loved this time of year, when the ground wasn’t too hard and the grass was still green, rather than the parched yellow it always was in summer. They didn’t have to worry about bushfires or the flies that annoyed the horses in the extreme heat, sticking around their eyes and covering their nostrils, and her T-shirt wasn’t stuck to her back with sweat.

  The entrance to their trail ride was approaching fast and Poppy reluctantly pulled Crystal back into a trot. Her friends were doing the same, although, typically, Milly was still in the lead, taking the longest to slow down. Joe liked keeping his nose in front of all the others, and she was sure Milly secretly liked to be first, too.

  ‘Did you ever ask Mrs D about going on the Barmah muster?’ Milly asked.

  Poppy groaned. ‘No, sorry!’ She’d forgotten all about it after everything that had been going on with Storm.

  ‘You still want to do it?’ Katie asked.

  They were walking now, the ponies blowing from their canter. Poppy loosened her reins so that Crystal could stretch out, preferring to ride her on the buckle when she could.

  ‘Definitely. Maybe we should ask her tonight, when we’re having dinner? It would be so cool if she said yes.’

  Katie’s eyes were wide with excitement. ‘It would be amazing to camp with our horses and wake up every morning with them beside us.’

  ‘I keep thinking about seeing a wild mob of brumbies,’ Poppy said as they rode into the bush, single file, beneath the canopy of trees. ‘Imagine seeing the lead stallion and his mares, and maybe some foals. It would be amazing.’

  Milly was up front, Poppy was in the middle and Katie was at the rear, because Cody never worried about being behind the other ponies. Poppy put a hand on Crystal’s rump and turned to look at Katie.

  ‘You know, if we get Aunt Sophie on board, she’ll be the one to ask all our parents, and they’ll definitely say yes to letting us go if she asks them,’ Poppy thought out loud.

  Katie was smiling. ‘I think that’s a perfect plan.’

  ‘Yeah, good thinking, Pops,’ Milly agreed from up front. ‘Nice for someone else to come up with the brainwaves for once!’

  Poppy and Katie both groaned.

  ‘Katie, want to canter?’ Poppy asked.

  Katie giggled. ‘Sure.’

  ‘What about me?’ Milly blurted.

  ‘The plan was to canter away from you, Mils. You’re such a pain in the bum sometimes.’

  Poppy dug her heels in and Crystal burst into a canter from her walk, shooting straight past Joe now that the trail was a little wider. She could hear Milly squawk in protest as they veered around the track, but she didn’t stop. Milly liked a good race and she’d be hot on their heels in no time.

  The track veered slightly again and Poppy checked Crystal, steadying her. There was a large log on the track ahead, and even though they’d ridden the trail a hundred times and Crystal knew it as well as she did, she wasn’t going to race at it too fast. They soared straight over, flying through the air and landing with a soft thud on the other side. Crystal had her ears pricked forward and she was fighting to go faster, but Poppy kept h
er steady, liking the rhythmic beat of the canter. She held herself up, strong in the legs as she leaned forward slightly. They had an event coming up in just over a month, and she couldn’t wait to do the cross-country course. They’d get to go fast in a cross-country gallop before slowing down to approach a jump, and they’d be going over fences that were made of logs and brush, jumping down into water, all the fun stuff she loved. The horses always loved cross-country too.

  ‘I’ll kill you!’ Milly yelled from behind.

  Poppy laughed. She loved that Milly hadn’t caught up to her, and now that the trail was narrower again, Milly couldn’t pass her even if she tried. They slowed to a trot and kept going, over the soft dirt and fallen leaves, surrounded by trees and bush. Poppy inhaled the fresh eucalyptus and smiled to herself as she rode. She loved it here. She loved the fact that she’d been visiting for longer than she could remember, riding this trail on a pony beside her aunt when her legs were only just long enough to reach the stirrups. And now she got to come here all the time, to ride her own horse and hang out with her friends. She knew she probably should tell her aunt and uncle more often how awesome they were for giving her so much.

  When she finally slowed to a walk, she could hear the other horses right on her heels, but neither of her friends were saying anything.

  ‘Pops,’ hissed Katie suddenly.

  She turned around in the saddle. Katie’s face was white and she was pointing just to Poppy’s left. What the . . . ?

  Crikey.

  Poppy pulled Crystal to a halt. There was a large male kangaroo watching them, and he looked angry. Poppy gulped. She’d never been scared of a roo before, but Uncle Mark had always told her to be cautious if she ever cornered one by mistake or came face to face with one. And now she had.

  The kangaroo was up on his two big hind legs, standing way taller than any man, his ears all torn-looking, scars on his face and shoulder. She realised he was hemmed in by thick bush and she was blocking his only way out onto the trail. How had she not seen him? How had she been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn’t noticed a gigantic kangaroo?