We received a frantic phone call between Christmas and New Year. A little Brumby filly had baled up all the traffic on the main highway, cars and trucks were constantly tooting at her to move. She was terrified and ran this way and that. Luckily a kind lady managed to coax her off the busy road into a paddock that bordered the highway. Hence the phone call to us, could we come and get her? The lady had tried NPWS, RSPCA etc. and they weren’t interested, anyway it was holiday time and staff were on leave. The police would come but this little filly would just be shot. We asked the lady did the paddock have a small yard and a loading ramp, the answer, no, no, no. So we had a wild Brumby filly in a ten acre paddock and how were we going to load her onto a horse float !!!. It was all hands to the rescue and together with several volunteers, halters, ropes and a bale of hay etc. we proceeded to Corindi, NSW to attempt to bring the little one home to us.
The float was backed up to the gate, ropes were put up as a barrier on either
side and so we began what we thought would be a very long and exhausting day.
What a surprise we had !!!. Hay was dribbled along the ground, yummy, our little
one followed the hay trail right up to the float. Hay was spread on the ramp and
also in the float. Calmly and without any drama she placed one hoof on the ramp,
looked around at us and proceeded to load herself !!!. We were amazed and
quickly put up the tail gate, made sure she was secure and relaxed and began the
long drive back to our Bellingen Sanctuary, home to our injured and
disadvantaged Brumbies. On arrival she was transferred into a small holding yard
and our Brumby Nanny, Pandora was soon nuzzling her and checking her over. It
was instant love at first sight and there they stayed together for several days
until we decided it was safe to let them out into a bigger paddock.
Of course, our little filly had to have a name, so welcome STB Little Miss Toot Toots, very appropriate all things considered. Toots is just the sweetest little filly we’ve ever had, no vices except her greed for food !!! Toots is now in basic training and in time will be a bomb proof pony for kids. So another Brumby saved and that’s what we do, we Save the Brumbies.
