THE HORSE – A BRUMBY – A LEGEND

Wild horses, the brumbies, always evoke a passionate community response. While no doubt they are having an impact on the fragile environment particularly in National Parks, wild horses are also recognised as an important cultural icon especially in the Snowy Mountains.

“Snowy” is a most beautiful brumby, snow-white with silvery main and tail.

Now 9 years old, he was found and caught as a two-year-old at Ingebyra running with a mob of brumbies. Ingebyra is bordering Kosciusko National Park above Jindabyne.

Then a weedy little colt, Snowy has since developed into a solid 14.2hh pony with the making for great endurance.  While he is of trustworthy and kind character he also displays quite a lively temperament.

The mountain-bred pony Snowy is ideal to undertake a riding adventure such as the one from Darwin to Adelaide.

His outgoing character promises to be a winner especially with young teenagers and children.

THE HORSE TRAINER

Mark Layton has dedicated his past 30 years to working with horses including preparing the horses for the film “A town like Alice”. He is thrilled with the challenge of learning to communicate with horses and share his skills with others.

Mark grew up in the Sydney suburbs, and was studying to be an English History teacher, when a part time job found him working with horses. He became obsessed with this topic and it became a lot more than a “job”.

During the past 10 years in particular, Mark broadened his knowledge by studying literature and videos on horse training and attending clinics, including in particular those run by NSW based horse trainer Steve Brady.

Mark’s main work has been taking people on trail rides, teaching riding and horsemanship, breaking-in and educating horses and reforming problem horses. Over the last few years Mark has taken a number of young horses to shows with success including a couple of horses which came to him as problem horses.

Mark has generously offered to take on “Snowy” and give him some training to prepare him for the long ride, and fund-raising task in front of him.