In light of the recent discussions and decisions (?) about the culling of wild brumbies in the Apline areas of Australia, i figured this image would be a fitting addition.

I really know very little about the brumbies down in the Kosciuszko National Park (damn that name is hard to spell.. i get to the first 's' and it like wtf…) and to be honest know very little about horses in general, however this talk of the culling got me thinking about it a bit more, particularly when I watched a very interesting doco on the can burner (sometimes called a qantas 737) back from brisvegas. Whilst jammed into row 30 on this sardine can, which by the way.. row 30 is… the last darn row.. with no recline, and a seat pitch of about 3mm which results in me spending a very uncomfortable hour and half with my knees around my ears, thankyou qantas for your automatic seat selection – maybe select seats based on pax size?). Back to the story, i selected this doco on Iceland which had a fair bit of stuff about the icelandic horses, most of which are wild and form a very integral part in the psyche of the people there, interestingly enough the animals are wild and roam the mountains areas (mostly in summer) and are brought back to the lowlands during winter after fowling where the farmers capture and break in new horses.

There are similarities between the horse in Iceland and the apline regions of Australia, both are introduced species and can be, at just about any age, domesticated, thats quite a interesting point, i don't think there is any other animal out there which can be domesticated after being in the wild half or more of its life..very cool (and useful)

Anyway, i don't think I am for the shooting cull of the brumbies in Australia, but obviously where they are damaging the natural environment and threatening other species clearly something needs to be done. Another interesting point about the horses in Iceland, one big reason they keep them wild is because it makes for a stronger more resilient horse than if one were to keep it in a paddock all year round, makes sense.. maybe this is one of the reasons why people want to keep the brumbies in the wild in australia, they must provide a very good stock of wild horses for people wanting great horses ?
I guess the diplomatic response to this would be reduce the numbers to a sustainable level thus ensuring you have some wild awesome brumbies but not enough to fundamentally damage the eco system.
Maybe capture the excess brumbies and send one off to each school in NSW 🙂 I know for sure my daughter would love a horse at school (maybe not that appropriate since its inner sydney 🙂 )

Anyways.. onto the imagery – heres a cool horse having a great time with its owner/rider at low tide.

Exif love:
D750 coupled with Nikkor 16-35 mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f16 and Shutter Speed: 1/25s
ISO 100
Out front – Hoya CPL, Lee graduated filter 0.6x