Chance's Story
By Stephanie Taylor
This is Chance’s and my story and how we became best friends. My name is Steph Taylor and all of this began in 2004 when I had just turned 13. My parents blame Elyne Mitchell [the writer of the Silver Brumby series] for my dream of owning a silver Brumby of my own.
Late October 2004, Mum contacted Rob Pankhurst Snr. about coming to look at the brumbies he owned and was breaking in. He explained that the horses were Walers that had to be rescued from the station where their ancestors had been allowed to run free. Now the government had taken over the land and was destroying any left on it. These horses were part of a rescue. Rob came to the RDA [where I volunteered] to check me out. He then invited my family and I to his property to have a look at the brumbies. He had several there and in particular two 3-5 year olds’ and he said he needed a “crash dummy” to do the actual physical work of breaking them in as he was no longer able to do it. He asked me if I would be interested and I jumped at the chance. My parents’ weren’t too happy about this but understood this was something I have always wanted to do and I couldn’t miss the chance to gain this sort of knowledge.
The first time I saw Chance, my first thoughts were ‘this ugly thing hasn’t grown into its legs yet.’ I was instantly attracted to the other one, Clarrie, a brown brumby. Clarrie was filled out and beautiful and Chance was the exact opposite. Rob said he was the younger of the two and had been about 2 years old when he first came off the station in November 2003. His coat was filled with years of dirt, dead hair, and mud. Under all that, he was a dapple grey gelding with dark points. His legs were covered in nicks and scars, his knees were knobby, his tail was full of knots and that was before he proceeded to rub 90 percent of his tail out on a fence. His mane had been long and matted, but he also rubbed that out on the same fence. His hoofs were very overgrown and badly cracked. I thought he was ugly for a few weeks, but then my mind changed. Rob and I had started to work on Clarrie, breaking him in. Meanwhile, Chance was making himself a complete pain-in-the-butt by picking up Clarrie’s reins in his mouth and leading him around. He made such a pest of himself that Rob decided to let me work with Chance first.
We put Chance in the round yard and Rob showed me how to de-sensitise him using a plastic pipe with a bag tied to it. After some work we eventually saddled him up for the first time. Chance had no problems with being ridden and even let me crawl under him at the end of the ride - much to Mum’s horror. After about two weeks of intensive riding we were able to get Chance’s steering, brakes, and accelerating under control. Rob got another young feller Darryl to work on Clarrie. Soon Rob organised our first trail ride - Darryl rode Clarrrie and I rode Chance. I found that Chance is not scared of thunderstorms, so long as I’m with him that is, as during the ride there was one of the biggest storms on the Central Coast with lightning, thunder and sleet. I continued to work on Chance in Rob’s paddock, getting him to trot, canter, turn back on himself, do gymkhana games and get use to me doing weird things to him, such as sitting on him bareback, do headstands on him, and me trying to learn to rope and crack a whip off him. Rob and I took Chance for many trail-rides, with no problems. My parents paid to have Darryl trim his hoofs (even though he was not officially mine) – something he had never had done before.
Finally, my parents decided that after much discussion they would buy Chance for me. It was the best day of my life. He cost our family $1,500.00 and it is true that buying is the cheapest part of horse-owning. We left Robs’ and got a vet check – my mum said we probably did things in the wrong order but o’well. The vet told us that Chance was only 2 years old, not 3-4 years and badly needed to improve his overall condition. He got vaccinated for Tetanus and Strangles and got wormed for the first time in his life. My Mum decided that he needed a lot of help to try and bring out the best in him after so many years of poor diet and neglect (after lots of research and help from the vet) has spent heaps to put him on additives like Biotin, Rosehips, Garlic, and a vitamin and mineral supplement besides a really healthy diet of Lucerne and Hay. He now, even is such a short time is developing hard hoofs and has the softest coat. My mum says she’s not sure if that is all due to the diet or the time I spend brushing and loving my baby. We now have a bare-foot trimmer who just loves his hard hoofs, even if she does grizzle when she blunts her rasps on him.
I love my boy and everyone else says with more training he’ll be perfect, but I think he’s already perfect even though he does chuck a hissy fits. He now has a mane and tail, his coat is soft and shiny and I think he is just beautiful. I also read every thing I can about training, showing and caring for by baby. We are now under the training of a very experience teacher. She says that we can do anything we want and is now teaching me how to train Chance to basic Dressage and we hope in the future to compete.
The only dark cloud about owning a brumby is the attitude of a lot of other “horse-people”. I have been asked lots of times why we bothered to buy such an ill bred or mongrel horse that should have been culled not saved. Mum and Dad said it’s because people have only seen Walers that are not loved and so are making comments out of ignorance. One group of pony-club girls actually told me not to bring my mongrel horse to their club as we would not be welcomed. Mum and Dad said we can try later on when Chance has had more training and in the mean time we should just concentrate on his education and try entering shows on our own. I just wish people would not judge my baby because he is not a fancy thoroughbred and would look how great a horse he really is. I’ve told my parents that even if we never win a prize I would never want any other type of horse but a Waler. No matter what they say I love my boy and we are going to show them just what we can do.
I’ve always dreamed of owning a Silver Brumby of my own. Now I’ve got one.
Stephanie