LIFE LESSONS FROM THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH

Listen More. Speak Less. Pay Attention

Following on from my story last week about Little Britches, I returned from my trip to Melbourne to face the challenge of dealing with Snowy Mountain brumbies (wild horses).

A veterinary colleague and I organized a team of veterinarians and veterinary students to come to the mountains to desex a number of brumby stallions. The stallions had been caught in the Snowy Mountains and needed to be desexed if homes were to be found for them. The process involved anaesthetizing the brumby stallions, some of whom had not been extensively handled. It was a major logistics exercise.

The whole process made me think about the former times when we were dependent upon horses and also what we can learn from horses today, when most of us live in a digital world.

Many people worldwide loved the Australian film “The Man from Snowy River” that starred the US actor Kirk Douglas (not his best work). I first saw the film (made in 1982) with an American family who were captivated by the scenery and the horses. The film was low on plot but spectacular in its cinematography, with its setting in the fabled Snowy Mountains, the area where I live. The movie is based loosely on the famous poem by A.B. (Banjo) Paterson, published in The Bulletin magazine in Sydney in 1890.

Here is the famous scene, Jim’s Ride, from the film.

I have some strong family connections with the Man from Snowy River story because my grandfather and great-uncle were friendly with the author, “Banjo” Paterson, in the early 1900s when he often visited the Snowy Mountains region.

The poem relates the story of a valuable stallion that had escaped into the mountains to join the brumbies and the remarkable ride to retrieve the “colt from Old Regret” outlined in the poem below.

Sometime in the mid-1800s, horses on farms in the local area had escaped into the Snowy Mountains in the lower regions of Mount Kosciusko National Park. These wild horses (called brumbies) then bred up, similarly to the wild American mustangs.

In the 1940s, my uncle would ride into the mountains with local horsemen and bring back the brumbies to break them in and sell. He often told me the stories of going into the mountains to carry out “brumby running”, where brumbies would be rounded up and brought back to horse yards on local farms.

More recently, the brumbies have become a point of contention locally because there are claims that they are destroying the mountain habitat. Brumbies have been killed recently in the Kosciusko National Park by shooting them from helicopters. This is a shocking situation and has caused considerable distress to local horse lovers in the Snowy Mountains region. Re-homing the brumbies is obviously a much better solution and so the desexing of the male brumbies is an important welfare exercise.

The Man from Snowy River captures the story of the mountain horses and their significance for Australian folklore. For the enjoyment of my readers, I have reproduced the poem, The Man from Snowy River below, including some helpful notes about unusual words in the poem, explained by the Institute of Australian Culture.          

The Man from Snowy River

A.B. (“Banjo”) Paterson

There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around
That the colt from Old Regret had got away,
And had joined the wild bush horses — he was worth a thousand pound,
So all the cracks had gathered to the fray.
All the tried and noted riders from the stations near and far
Had mustered at the homestead overnight,
For the bushmen love hard riding where the wild bush horses are,
And the stock-horse snuffs the battle with delight.

There was Harrison, who made his pile when Pardon won the cup,
The old man with his hair as white as snow;
But few could ride beside him when his blood was fairly up —
He would go wherever horse and man could go.
And Clancy of the Overflow came down to lend a hand,
No better horseman ever held the reins;
For never horse could throw him while the saddle-girths would stand,
He learnt to ride while droving on the plains.

And one was there, a stripling on a small and weedy beast,
He was something like a racehorse undersized,
With a touch of Timor pony — three parts thoroughbred at least —
And such as are by mountain horsemen prized.
He was hard and tough and wiry — just the sort that won’t say die —
There was courage in his quick impatient tread;
And he bore the badge of gameness in his bright and fiery eye,
And the proud and lofty carriage of his head.

But still so slight and weedy, one would doubt his power to stay,
And the old man said, “That horse will never do
For a long and tiring gallop — lad, you’d better stop away,
Those hills are far too rough for such as you.”
So he waited sad and wistful — only Clancy stood his friend —
“I think we ought to let him come,” he said;
“I warrant he’ll be with us when he’s wanted at the end,
For both his horse and he are mountain bred.”

“He hails from Snowy River, up by Kosciusko’s side,
Where the hills are twice as steep and twice as rough,
Where a horse’s hoofs strike firelight from the flint stones every stride,
The man that holds his own is good enough.
And the Snowy River riders on the mountains make their home,
Where the river runs those giant hills between;
I have seen full many horsemen since I first commenced to roam,
But nowhere yet such horsemen have I seen.”

So he went — they found the horses by the big mimosa clump —
They raced away towards the mountain’s brow,
And the old man gave his orders, “Boys, go at them from the jump,
No use to try for fancy riding now.
And, Clancy, you must wheel them, try and wheel them to the right.
Ride boldly, lad, and never fear the spills,
For never yet was rider that could keep the mob in sight,
If once they gain the shelter of those hills.”

So Clancy rode to wheel them — he was racing on the wing
Where the best and boldest riders take their place,
And he raced his stock-horse past them, and he made the ranges ring
With the stockwhip, as he met them face to face.
Then they halted for a moment, while he swung the dreaded lash,
But they saw their well-loved mountain full in view,
And they charged beneath the stockwhip with a sharp and sudden dash,
And off into the mountain scrub they flew.

Then fast the horsemen followed, where the gorges deep and black
Resounded to the thunder of their tread,
And the stockwhips woke the echoes, and they fiercely answered back
From cliffs and crags that beetled overhead.
And upward, ever upward, the wild horses held their way,
Where mountain ash and kurrajong grew wide;
And the old man muttered fiercely, “We may bid the mob good day,
No man can hold them down the other side.”

When they reached the mountain’s summit, even Clancy took a pull,
It well might make the boldest hold their breath,
The wild hop scrub grew thickly, and the hidden ground was full
Of wombat holes, and any slip was death.
But the man from Snowy River let the pony have his head,
And he swung his stockwhip round and gave a cheer,
And he raced him down the mountain like a torrent down its bed,
While the others stood and watched in very fear.

He sent the flint stones flying, but the pony kept his feet,
He cleared the fallen timber in his stride,
And the man from Snowy River never shifted in his seat —
It was grand to see that mountain horseman ride.
Through the stringy barks and saplings, on the rough and broken ground,
Down the hillside at a racing pace he went;
And he never drew the bridle till he landed safe and sound,
At the bottom of that terrible descent.

He was right among the horses as they climbed the further hill,
And the watchers on the mountain standing mute,
Saw him ply the stockwhip fiercely, he was right among them still,
As he raced across the clearing in pursuit.
Then they lost him for a moment, where two mountain gullies met
In the ranges, but a final glimpse reveals
On a dim and distant hillside the wild horses racing yet,
With the man from Snowy River at their heels.

And he ran them single-handed till their sides were white with foam.
He followed like a bloodhound on their track,
Till they halted cowed and beaten, then he turned their heads for home,
And alone and unassisted brought them back.
But his hardy mountain pony he could scarcely raise a trot,
He was blood from hip to shoulder from the spur;
But his pluck was still undaunted, and his courage fiery hot,
For never yet was mountain horse a cur.

And down by Kosciusko, where the pine-clad ridges raise
Their torn and rugged battlements on high,
Where the air is clear as crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze
At midnight in the cold and frosty sky,
And where around the Overflow the reedbeds sweep and sway
To the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide,
The man from Snowy River is a household word to-day,
And the stockmen tell the story of his ride.

Editor’s Notes about the Man from Snowy River poem – see this link

beetled = jutting or overhanging (from beetle-browed, i.e. having heavy overhanging eyebrows);

Clancy of the Overflow = a character, who was an expert stockman, created by Banjo Paterson for his poem “Clancy of the Overflow”

cracks = experts

droving = moving livestock usually along roadways and public routes

Kosciusko = Mount Kosciuszko (New South Wales), the highest mountain peak in Australia (2,228 metres, or 7,310 feet, above sea level); it was named by the Polish explorer Count Strzelecki in 1840 after General Tadeusz Kościuszko of Poland

kurrajong = a genus of 31 species of trees and large shrubs (Brachychiton, also known as Bottletree), common in Eastern Australia

mimosa = a genus (of about 400 species) of flowering herbs and shrubs; although in this context it is more likely to refer to the Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata, also known as Mimosa), a species of the genus Acacia, native to southeastern Australia

mob = in this context, a group (or mob) of wild horses, found in the Australian bush, usually being descendants of lost or abandoned horses from colonial times; generally “mob” refers to a large group of animals, commonly used when referring to cattle, horses, kangaroos, or sheep;

mountain ash = a eucalyptus tree; Eucalyptus regnans, also known as Swamp Gum or Stringy Gum), native to southeastern Australia

Old Regret = a famous racing horse, whose offspring were worth a lot of money (apparently a fictional horse, created for the poem)

Pardon won the Cup = Pardon was the name of a horse that won a race in a small Australian town, Menindee

The Overflow = the name of a rural station, “The Overflow” was referred to in several of Banjo Paterson’s poems (“Clancy of The Overflow”, “The man from Snowy River”, “Old Australian ways”, “The Silent Shearer” and “The Travelling Post Office”);

pound = a unit of British-style currency then in use in the colonies of Australia; the pound was replaced by the dollar in 1966 when decimal currency was introduced in Australia

scrub = low bushland; also, the low trees and shrubs that grow in such areas

Snowy River = a major river, originating from the Mount Kosciuszko region (New South Wales) and flowing southward through the Eastern Victorian highlands;

station = the name for a large rural holding (farm) for raising sheep or cattle; the term “property” is used for smaller holdings

stockwhip = a long whip used in handling stock, often made from cow hide

stringy barks = several species of eucalypt trees, characterised by thick fibrous bark that is shed (or can be peeled off) in a stringy manner; older trees are often seen with large strips (strings) of bark hanging from them; used by early colonists for roofing and walls of huts

wild hop = Rosy dock (Acetosa vesicaria), an introduced flowering plant;

The Snowy Mountains Brumby Desexing Extravaganza

This is a long introduction to my main story this week, which concerns a gathering of veterinarians to assist a local woman who re-homes brumbies brought out of the Snowy Mountains and saved from destruction.  

Claire has a small farm on the banks of the Snowy River and has been taking in brumbies that have been saved from destruction, educating them and then finding them homes. You can find out more about her work by visiting her website here

Figure 1. Graphic from Snowy Brumby Horsemanship website showing Claire on one of her brumbies

One of the problems is that the boy brumbies (brumby stallions) become quite a handful and can be hard to control and kept safe. So, they need to be desexed and this process isn’t easy because the brumbies haven’t had very much handling and are still frightened of people.

A veterinary colleague and I organised a group of veterinarians and veterinary students to come to the Snowy Mountains and there were six brumby stallions to be desexed. Some had more handling than others and so some of the brumbies needed some horse “whispering”, which was successful in some more than others. Below are a few photos from the day.

It was a maximum of 6°C (43°F) on the day and so heat stress wasn’t a problem. The anaesthesia and surgery went very smoothly overall and we were able to desex five of the six brumbies and they all recovered without incident.

Figure 2. The brumbies in the horse yards

Figure 3. Some brumby “whispering” before the anaesthesia

Figure 4. Veterinary team preparing for surgery with a brumby under anaesthesia

Figure 5. Veterinary team scrubbing up and preparing for surgery

Figure 6. One of the brumbies recovering from surgery

Some Life Lessons from the Brumby Day

The Significance of Horses

Horses have been important in the bigger story of civilization and were essential to life in the city and country until the 1920s. There still is a mystical connection between humans and horses. These remarkable, flighty and powerful animals, somehow consent to people riding on their backs and when confident, they form a deep partnership with their rider.

With the right handling, horses are responsive, loyal and form a bond with their owners, that defies explanation. Horses are flight animals and so while they can be calm and easy going, suddenly can panic and try to flee from what they perceive as danger.

I realized as we worked with the brumbies last weekend that the skill needed, is to understand the mind of brumbies and try to work with them so that they comprehend what you are asking of them and that you provide a sense of safety. This requires a lot of patience and as Claire says: “the process is more important than the outcome”.

These wonderful animals need to be made to feel safe and confident with those who are training them. You need to be alert for signs of fear - an eye or ear movement. Also, how you move toward a brumby and then know when to retreat, is important.

Working with horses makes you a much better observer more generally and you also realize that non-verbal communication skills are of great importance, which we can forget in our interaction with other people. Creating a safe environment is a challenge when working with these mountain horses and is just as important for our daily connections.

I believe that working with and observing horses can make us better communicators and observers. Also, working with horses is, somehow, balm for the soul.

Following Your Passion

I often help young people think about their direction and goals in life. A great quote that I like is from Howard Thurman and I wrote about this in my book, Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times:

“Thurman was a 20th-century theologian and philosopher, the grandson of a former slave. He became Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University and was a mentor for Martin Luther King Jr. Thurman is reported by Gil Bailie to have said, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” (Rose, Reuben J.. Ancient Wisdom For Modern Times: Biblical Foundations for Life in a World That Has Lost Its Way (p. 157). Kindle Edition).

Claire, who started Snowy Brumby Horsemanship, discovered that she had a passion for understandiing and working with these wild mountain horses. Many others have discovered the rewarding experience of working with and understanding brumbies.

Claire now has many people coming to work with her and has started a charity to help support the rescue work and rehoming of these beautiful animals. This weekend she is running a brumby “clinic” and will have hundreds of people coming to learn about how to manage brumbies.

Claire’s passion has provided an opportunity for others to understand and share in that passion and make a connection with Australia’s rural heritage that many have forgotten.

So: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

The Importance of Friendship and Teamwork

When I realized that Claire had a significant problem in getting these brumbies desexed, because they weren’t well-handled and couldn’t be transported to a clinic, I talked to my friend and veterinary colleague, Dr Peter. Dr Peter lives on the coast, about two hours drive away, but immediately he said that he would come up and bring a few young veterinarians to help with the brumby desexing. Dr Peter and I have formed a friendship around the best treatments for animals and the friendship has deepened and has been a great blessing to us both.

It is only a great friend, who being told about the challenge of the brumbies, immediately says: “I’ll be there”.

I also organized a couple of veterinary students who are in their final year of their Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. The team assembled last Sunday morning for a briefing as we went through all the stages of the process that would be required to have a successful outcome. Roles were assigned and potential complications discussed. We even sang a special team song!

The team travelled to where the brumbies were located and we then briefed the brumby handlers. Medications were organized, each team member had a role and everything proceeded smoothly, apart from some difficulties in being able to inject a few of the brumbies with the tranquillizers and anaesthetics.

As I thought about the success of the day, I realized that the critical components were:

1. Planning - we had a run sheet for each phase of the brumby desexing process, and we spent one hour before our brumby visit, discussing each step and the potential problems;

2. Communication - there were many phone calls and exchange of documents to ensure that the process went smoothly and so everyone knew what was happening and were aware of potential complications;

3. Client Interaction. There was good briefing of the brumby team and Claire commented that one of the things that impressed them the most was the team song, which had a line: “Because we care”. She said that realizing that the veterinary team really cared, gave them confidence in what we were doing.

4. Respecting the brumbies. Some of the brumbies had very little interaction with humans. We realized that we had to proceed calmly and carefully and take our time, so that they gained confidence. This required a lot of patience but produced a good outcome. We were able to desex five of the six brumbies and we worked for about one hour with the sixth until we realized that we wouldn’t be able to inject him. So we left him for more handling and will return on another day. Sometimes, you need to know when to stop!

Three Life Lessons from the Australian Outback

A few days after the brumby extravaganza, Claire came to our place for a coffee and brought Beth, a young woman who had come to stay for a few weeks and help with the brumbies. We reviewed the day and Claire told us that the brumbies were doing well and seemed to suffer no ill-effects from the procedure.

We discovered that Beth had spent some years in the remote Australian outback, living in indigenous communities and helping with indigenous art. At various periods during her years in the outback, she could be up to 12 hours drive from the closest town. I asked her what were the three most important things that she had learnt in these remote Australian desert communities. It didn’t take her long to reply and here are her three lessons, from life in the outback, which are important for us all:

1. Listen more

2. Speak less

3. Pay attention

Conclusions

I have taken my Sons of Issachar readers on a detour this week into the story of brumbies and the Australian bush. I suppose that each day there are opportunities for us to learn and understand la condition humaine. I was reminded this week of the importance of our physical connection with animals and the need to understand and celebrate our heritage and what we can learn from the past.

I realized that I had learnt a lot this week from the brumby extravaganza. Each day though, I will remember Beth’s simple but profound reflection on her time in the Australian outback: listen more; speak less; pay attention.

STORIES THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION THIS WEEK

Cow’s Don’t Cause Climate Change

Cows belching methane is supposedly going to lead to the end of the planet because of methane’s purported impact on the biosphere. With meagre evidence, governments in the UK and Europe have been mandating the elimination of ruminants and introducing “rewilding” zones on farms. It always was a stretch of imagination to believe we were threatened by these amazing animals who give us food and fibre.

A story from Slaynews.com this week has “debunked the globalist narrative that emissions from cows are causing “climate change” while proving that cattle herds actually lower methane gas levels in the atmosphere.”

The report in slaynews.com goes on to say:

“However, new research from Alltech and Archbold suggests that these anti-cow claims from globalists are a hoax.According to the new study, blaming cows for methane emissions ignores cattle’s relationship with the land.

The researchers found that, if grazing cattle were removed from pastures, emissions would actually go up, not down.”

In providing details about the study, slaynews.com reports:

“Dr. Vaughn Holder, research project manager for beef nutrition at Alltech, and Dr. Betsey Boughton, director of agroecology at Archbold, studied the impacts that cattle production has on the ecosystem on a wetlands pasture at Buck Island Ranch. The ranch is about 150 miles northwest of Miami, Florida. The researchers found that 19%-30% of methane emissions were from the cattle. However, the rest of the methane was from the wetland soils. If the cows are removed, it actually increases the amount of methane the wetland ecosystems give off, the research shows.”

This is not the end of the attack on cows but the study does show that there is always complexity in ecosystems and we should not just kill all the cows because people like Bill Gates tell us to.

Who made WHO?

Dr Jacob Nordangård is a Swedish researcher who has dug deeply into the story of the climate change movement and the various people behind it, including the “Big Oil” Rockefeller family. Jacob writes a regular substack titled The Pharos Chronicles and this week he has a fascinating post titled: Who Made WHO? One World, One Health, One Leader.

Dr Nordangård noted that at the WHO World Health Assembly this last week, the Director-General announced that negotiations for updated International Health Regulations had not been completed. In fact, there had been much secrecy involved in trying to get new regulations across the line.

Dr Nordangård writes that while many interpret the lack of agreement as a victory for those who want to limit the WHO’s powers, the situation is more complex.

“It is the Health Regulations that govern the response to a global health emergency (including the establishment of an “emergency committee”), while the treaty is about creating an international framework aimed at “preventing, preparing and responding to pandemics”. The treaty also includes a decision-making body, the Conference of the Parties (similar to the UN's annual COP climate summit) which will meet once a year to review the implementation of the agreement, as well as the One Health concept, which aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems.”

Once again, the Rockefeller family loom large. Dr Nordangård writes:

“In January 2022, the Rockefeller Foundation was recognized as a “Non-Governmental Actor in Official Relations with the WHO” while in May 2023 it launched a new partnership with the WHO to “expand pandemic preparedness in the era of climate change” through the WHO's Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence. Digitization, data collection and surveillance are central components of the UN's technocratic future agenda.”

Dr Nordangård notes the range of connections between the aims of the UN and WHO and highlights the role of the Prime Minister of Barbados, Ms Mia Mottley, who received an award for her “leadership in climate and health”.

Ms Mottley may be being lined up for a future role as Secretary-General of the UN. In the meantime, the impact of key globalists in determining the public health agenda should be carefully monitored. Dr Nordangård writes that:

“It is clear that the Rockefeller Foundation and the WHO are preparing for future global shocks and emergencies.”

The Science of How to Make People Like You

An article in the UK Times this week caught my attention and I thought that my readers needed to know about this important work. David Robson is the author of The Laws of Connection: 13 Social Strategies That Will Transform Your Life, and he published a précis of his book on June 2nd. Here are some of the highlights for readers. I suggest that you read the article and buy his book.

1. Recognise your potential for change and avoid the personality myth

   “….The best strategy for overcoming our social anxieties is practice. According to a study conducted by the University of Sussex and the University of Pennsylvania, it takes just a week of regularly approaching new people to start getting over our fears of talking to strangers and to recognise that most interactions are far less awkward and more rewarding than we think. We should never feel compelled to act in a way that feels totally alien to our nature, but if you are dissatisfied with your social life and wish to build some new friendships, then your personality need not hold you back.”

2. Compliment generously but be specific with your words of praise

   “….When expressing appreciation, we should use precise language to celebrate the specific qualities that we admire. If a colleague has just given us feedback on a presentation, for instance, we could simply state how useful their advice has been. But our words would have a greater impact if we were also to talk a little about the creativity and expertise that enabled them to give such great insights. It is the difference between recognising the service they have provided and appreciating the person behind the act.”

3. Practise self-disclosure and embrace the beautiful mess effect

   “….We are particularly wary of revealing fears and vulnerabilities. Surveys, however, suggest that people tend to see courage and authenticity in these declarations — a phenomenon that is sometimes called the beautiful mess effect.”

4. Do not fear bragging and embrace mitfreude

   “….We resort to false modesty because we underestimate how pleased other people will be to hear our good news. They are unlikely to judge us for showing off our genuine pride in our achievements. Mitfreude — our joy at another’s happiness — may be far more common than its malign cousin schadenfreude and it is a far more reliable source of social connection.”

5. Ask for help and enjoy the Benjamin Franklin effect

   “…Many of us fear that a request for help will make us seem needy or a nuisance but it is often the ideal way to foster a bond. Franklin noted as much in his autobiography. As he embarked on his political career in the General Assembly in Pennsylvania, he faced a rival who had taken a strong dislike to the young upstart. Shunning the idea of “servile respect”, he instead decided to ask if he could borrow a book from the man’s extensive library. He was inspired, he later wrote, by the old saying, “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged.” The strategy worked a treat. “When we next met in the House, he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death,” Franklin wrote………..

   “You are unlikely to win friends by putting people under pressure to serve your every whim, so must always offer plenty of opportunity for them to reject your request. Provided that you are respectful, however, research from Cornell University suggests that others will be happier to help than you expect. Applying these laws in my own life, I have found that the social support we need is often easily within our grasp with just a few small changes to our behaviour.”

I found Robson’s article very helpful, with some simple tips that will help Sons of Issachar readers in their daily interactions with family, friends and colleagues.