Australian Brumby Challenge: Kosciuszko bushfire survivor competes

Courage the brumby is his mob’s sole survivor from the Kosciuszko bushfires — meet the couple who took him in.

Balliang East’s Hayley and Orin James have been starting horses for years, but a unique opportunity allowed them to help a horse that needed a restart.

This year, Orin competed in the Australian Brumby Challenge, where trainers are given 120 days to train and then compete with a randomly selected wild horse.

Orin James competed in the Australian Brumby Challenge, where he was randomly assigned a brumby to train over 120 days. His brumby Courage was the sole survivor of the Mt Kosciuszko fires. Orin and his wife Hayley now own that horse. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The horse he was assigned has an appropriate name: Courage.

“The story of Courage is that in the Kosciuszko fires, he was the sole survivor of his herd,” Hayley said.

“He was caught with burns to his rump — he still has his scars.

“The rest of his mob perished in the fires.”

To Orin’s surprise, he was remarkably easy to train.

“I was really surprised at how quick and clever he picked things up compared to a domesticated horse,” Orin said. “They’re smarter than us, that’s for sure.”

The challenge consists of three different stages: behaviour and conditioning, an obstacle course and a freestyle stage.

Courage has scars on his rump from the fires. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Orin and Courage won the first stage outright and came third overall.

“He’s become that popular,” Hayley said. “We hear so many bad stories about brumbies, it’s been amazing the amount of people on social media that have been following him and his journey. Everyone who meets him wants to take him home.”

“They’re amazing, they deserve a chance. Just because they’re classified as wild doesn’t mean they deserve to be shot or that foals should be left without mothers.

“There’s better ways to handle the situation in the High Country, I’m amazed at how many people are willing to rehome them.”