Little visit with Halo

I remember when Halo was first trapped, and she was put up on the Guy Fawkes Association FB page. I would love to have bought her. She was expensive due to being a palomino and was snapped up quickly.
She was in foal at the time and basically left in a paddock to foal and be with her foal. There was only one problem with this, she was left with a rope halter on and it was never removed. I'll get to the consequences of that later.
She was then bought by a lovely lady, I'm now friends with, she sold her after a short while, as she had her hand full. She has another brumby and she's done amazing things with that filly. I think she and Halo didn't gel. She sold her for $500, as she was looking for the right home.
I bought her and I have no regrets in doing so. She's a darling mare. The herd leader. Highly intelligent and a character. Very gentle, no nastiness. Never tried to bite, kick or strike in fear and she was pretty much petrified of humans as she really wasn't handled much at all since she was trapped.
It has been challenging and I made the super mistake of getting her backed by someone who doesn't know brumbies and made her fear and distrust of people worse.
So I got her out of there and started training her myself and it's been a slow process. We don't push her. We want her to trust us above all else.
It took a couple of weeks and I was finally able to cut off her halter. It had been on so long and pulled on when she was tied up, so the know was so tight it had to be cut off. The relief was palpable. She had indents where the knots were and you can see she has scars on the sides of her face above her lips and slight indents on the sides of her head above her eyes. The halter had been on for over18 months.
She was so petrified and I could see she was desperate to take that step and trust me, it must have been exhausting to be constantly stressed around me. She gradually has taken steps to trust me and I work hard at not ambushing her. I'm allowing her to go at her own pace. There's no rush.
She's a sweetie and engages in mutual grooming with us.
The thing I've noticed about the brumbies it, they study humans and the interactions humans have with the other horses. They have great survival instincts and they puzzle and work out why the heck other horses willingly engage with these apex predators. They work out, there's benefits, like scratches and treats. Developing a trusting relationship with their human brings a level of safety. I've found that herd leaders enjoy having a break and if the human is higher than the horse, they can take a load off when their human is around. That's purely my thoughts. As they have to rely heavily on themselves - even though they have the herd, the herd looks to them for the lead.
Thank you for reading.
#brumbies #brumby #GuyFawkesHeritageHorses #WildHorses