We arrived home yesterday to a heart-warming surprise courtesy of our very first mare from the Brumby herd in the Barrington region. One of our dedicated volunteers witnessed the little foal roll under a fence in excitement during its early minutes of life. Without hesitation, she scooped the foal up gently and carried it back into the pasture, reuniting it with its relieved and grateful mum. 🥰

The scene was simply beautiful — the sun filtering through fresh green pastures, birds serenading in the background, and that precious moment of mother and foal reconnecting safely. That foal, full of life and curiosity, reminded us of the promise and delight that spring brings. The mare, newly-listed among our Barrington mares, stood close by, watching her baby with protective and tender eyes, the bond between them already forming strong.

We’re thrilled to announce that this pair will be available for adoption in the near future — once they’ve spent several months in our care and have reached a healthy, robust condition to move into a new home. Until then, they’ll be nurtured here, given all the time and space they need to thrive, grow, and bond securely.

How you can adopt your own Brumby:
If this story has warmed your heart and you’re considering welcoming a heritage brumby into your life, the Save the Brumbies Inc. (based in the Northern Tablelands of NSW) has a wonderful adoption programme. Our sanctuaries house mares with foals, geldings, youngsters — all of whom are being assessed, vetted, micro-chipped and introduced to basic handling.

Here’s a quick guide:

• Browse the available brumbies via our website to see who is ready for adoption.
• Contact the charity for details on the adoption process, including suitability, transport arrangements and ongoing support.
• Understand that adopted brumbies are heritage animals, registered with the Australian Brumby Horse Register.
• If adoption isn’t feasible, you can also sponsor a brumby in need — the sanctuary also cares for disadvantaged or injured brumbies at high-level care in Bellingen, NSW.

Watching this mare and foal today fills us with hope and excitement for their future — and knowing that one day they may step into a loving forever-home fills us with purpose. Thanks for being part of this journey with us, we’ll keep sharing updates as they progress and become ready for adoption!

Click here to view Brumbies ready for adoption

One of our adopted Brumbies; STB Kahu, won his first show today, taking home his very first garland! Congratulations young man!

The Kosciuszko Wild Horse Management Plan proposes to kill thousands of horses through a combination of aerial shooting, ground shooting, transporting them to knackeries to slaughter them, and other cruel methods.

This is unacceptable. A wild horse has the same capacity to feel pain and fear as a native animal, and their lives deserve the same level of dignity and respect. We need to find a way to protect the native animals at risk, AND the horses – in fact, we have a duty to do so.

Sign the petition to call on the NSW Environment Minister to stop shooting horses, and instead provide additional funding for brumby rehoming and support the use of fertility control in sensitive areas of Kosciuszko National Park.

Click here to sign the petition

Authorised by: The Hon. Emma Hurst MLC, 6 Macquarie St, Sydney, NSW 2000

Well it’s been a hard winter. With the relentless rain, then the 60 odd cm of snow, causing branches and trees to damage just about every fence on the place, and so many new additions arriving but weather making it hard to get any work done, I am hoping for a spring that will be gentle on us! For the last 4 months just in hay alone we are up to about $20-25k, not to mention the vet visits, special care, repairs etc. There are also loads of positives though, we saved 45 horses from Barrington. Of which roughly almost 3/4 have found homes so far. We are planning to have an open day and sale day here at the end of the year. The rain has finally stopped! (For now!) BUT There is still a huge amount of cleanup to be done after the snow, and we still have an array of horses looking for homes. If you are looking for a special horse, or maybe you’re handy with a chainsaw or fencing tools and have a spare day, or are able to donate, then please get in touch!

An activist has put forward a petition to stop Wagga MP Joe McGirr from repealing the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act. Photo: Gail Eastaway.

CONTENT WARNING: the following story contains pictures of deceased animals that some people may find distressing.

A resident from The Rock has started an online petition to NSW Parliament against a bill by Wagga MP Joe McGirr that enables the culling of more wild horses in the Snowy Mountains. She has argued that environmental damage is being done by other animals.

Photographer Georgina Gorman’s ‘Stop the repeal of the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act 2018‘ e-petition, launched on Thursday (10 July), will be presented by Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst. If it gains 20,000 signatures, the parliament will be obliged to debate it. The petition gained just over 500 signatures in its first 24 hours.

Dr McGirr’s bill seeks to overturn a bill by former deputy premier John Barilaro, which recognised the heritage value of the brumbies and sought to preserve their presence in the Snowy Mountains by retaining 3000 horses across designated areas within the Kosciuszko National Park.

“Horses cause major damage to the alpine landscape, trampling wetlands and destroying habitat so it makes no sense to continue with a law that effectively requires that damage to continue,” Dr McGirr said.

The view is challenged by Ms Gorman.

“So the animals that Dr Joe keeps saying that the horses do damage to, the corroborree frog, resides in [an] area of Kosciusko, which is higher than where the brumbies are,” she said.

“The Southern corroboree frog is only found in Mount Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountains at heights of 1300 metres to 1760 metres above sea level.

“Taronga Zoo has been doing a successful breeding program and releasing the frogs in the wild for many years.”

The Kosciuszko National Park is home to a number of endangered wildlife species and fauna, including the critically endangered corroborree frog, which has a high risk of extinction due to its very small population size, further made worse by climate change, diseases and damage to breeding sites by feral pigs and horses.

While the population of this frog species is declining mainly due to the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis, research from environmental group Reclaim Kosci found the trampling by feral horses significantly impacted the quality of breeding sites for these frogs in 2018.

Wild horses that are not native to the environment are considered pests because of the damage they cause to the environment, according to the NSW Government’s Environment and Heritage department.

“The brumbies don’t go anywhere near the farmland. The farmland is fenced off,” Ms Gorman said.

“There’s wild deer, wild pigs and rabbits that do access the farmland and they do damage.

“The pigs have destroyed the creeks and the water banks; they forage for their food, so they dig up the ground, which destroys the ground and the environment.”

Ms Gorman supplied Region with photos she said were taken in the aftermath of the aerial shooting authorised by the NSW Government in October 2023.

“These were taken when the gates to Long Plain were opened,” she said.

“Carcasses were left in waterways to pollute the water. These waterways flow into the Murumbidgee River.”

University of New England Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Biology Professor Karl Vernes told TuneFM he had seen the environmental impact brumbies could cause.

“[Brumbies] chew the bark of trees and ringbark trees. In certain places in the Guy Fawkes, you find entire stands of trees that have been killed from ringbarking,” he said.

“They create erosion, and can spread weeds throughout the park.

“There are definite impacts that horses have, and the bigger the population, the bigger the impact.

“Wildlife managers aren’t cold, heartless humans. They typically love the animals that they’re studying.

“I’ve flown these transects in the park and I look down at these horses and think they are beautiful animals.

“It’s just a pity they don’t belong here.”

Ms Gorman said she wanted to save the brumbies.

“The reason why I went ahead with it was because of all the media sharing what Dr Joe’s done on Facebook and all the comments were against Dr Joe and his petition,” she said.