Meet Our Horses
Our horses are humans too … well almost!
Some of our horses came from wonderful homes. Many were rescued from neglect and/or abuse. Each has their own unique story of hope. We’d love you to come and meet our horses in person … but until then, here’s a snapshot about each one.
Mercy
We would like to introduce you to our beautiful new Hope Reins equine family member.
Mercy
She was kindly donated by a lady who loves her dearly and wanted her to come and work with people in our program. She is seven years old and has not been ridden in the past 12 months so we are looking forward to bringing her back into work slowly! She loves people and being fussed over. We think she is going to fit right in here. (June 2016)
Toby-Too
A Vet friend moved to Canada and wanted a good home for her horse ‘Toby-too’.
Toby Too
She’s so thrilled that he is at Hope Reins because she always felt he would be a horse that would help other people. He has a gentle nature. We think he’ll be great for kids to ride.
Our friend did Parelli groundwork with him, float-loading, and started him under saddle. He gets so proud of himself when he achieves things!
Our friend rescued Toby-too from a paddock that was all dirt. His teeth, instead of being straight and meeting together, were bent inwards. It’s taken a few years for them to grow straight. He also has a little bit of big head.
He is a 14-year-old, 14.1 hand solid quarter horse cross paint with a star, four white legs, and a roan mark, up near his rump.
Lizzy
Lizzy is a black mare with red in her mane and tail. She was born in 2008 and is around 14hh.
Lizzy
She came from Kylie’s great uncle in Forbes. Lizzy had an accident when she was young. She ran into a barb wire fence and her neck was badly cut and needed stitching. Her neck was quite scared and ugly. You can’t see the scars now but you can still feel them on her neck.
Lizzy is the gentlest horse we have here at Hope Reins. She is patient, smart, friendly and has a need to follow you around – just to be with you – in the hope you might give her some attention.
She has been started under saddle and is going well. We don’t ride her in a bridle, just in a halter, as she is very sensitive to our touch and works beautifully without a bit. She suffers from Queensland Itch which means her skin needs special attention.
Ash
This beautiful colt was orphaned at 4 weeks old. He came to be part of our Hope Reins family when…
Lizzy
We were asked to take on the care of this little man by his loving (but exhausted) owner who felt that because we have lots of amazing volunteers we would be able to get him through. Not an easy decision for her to give her precious boy away!
A very special part of this story is that our beautiful Gypsy has been smitten with the little foal since he arrived, and he with her. She has been in the paddock next door and constantly watching out for him, nickering to him softly and trying to call him to her whenever he moves too far away. When he gets out of his little foal pen, he makes his way down to her too.
Gypsy has been a Grandma to most of our other foals. When we first let Gypsy in with him, she raced in and began licking him all over. Not long after, he lay down and had a very long nap with Grandma Gypsy standing watch over him! We didn’t get much work done as it was difficult to take our eyes off this beautiful mare and foal!
Now they are inseparable. Gypsy only has one eye and is around 16 hands high but the gentleness and awareness she has for that foal, and her care not to walk on him, is just amazing! Her protection of him is her priority. She is inspiring!
Thank you so much to everyone who made a donation to help us pay for the little man’s milk powder. We are so grateful for your help. He is growing stronger and showing a little of his personality – he’s just a little bit cheeky!
Everyone who made a donation was invited to suggest a name and now he is called Asher, to be known as Ash, which means ‘Blessed’. He has risen up out of the ashes, moved from adversity, hunger, and loneliness to blessing – receiving the very best care he can get and has amazingly has been adopted by Gypsy!
Thank you, Vee for his name. He is a blessing to her as he is to us and is now growing strong.
Thank you to everyone for so many beautiful name suggestions and for your support for this little man.
Eagle
One of our volunteers heard about a horse that was heading for the doggers because…
Eagle
We went out to see him and he walked straight up to Kylie and followed her everywhere; he was totally focused on her. It was if he knew we were there to save him.
The other amazing thing is that normally a blind eye is blue-gray. His eye was so clear. From a distance, it looked normal but when you looked deep into his eye you could see there was no life in the eye. This made us think what a powerful horse with a lesson for us already – we need to look much deeper than the surface level of people.
Kylie was led to call him Eagle but thought what a stupid name. Why would you call a horse after another animal? But as she was riding her quad back from feeding the horses she sensed a still small voice say, “You’ll call him Eagle because he’ll rise above his circumstances.”
We think Eagle has a big future. He’s a quarter horse cross thoroughbred around 16 hands. He joined us early 2013 and will be three this year.
Faith
Faith is a buckskin mare who was born at Hope Reins in 2009. Her mum is Hope and her dad…
Faith
She is a very friendly little girl with a beautiful nature and loves a good scratch. She is very inquisitive and puts her face into everything you are doing if she is nearby.
Her mane looks like it is sun bleached so we nicknamed her “surfy chick”. She does a great job playing big sister to the foals keeping them company in the nursery paddock.
Faith’s best friend is Destiny and they love eating side by side and just chilling out together in the paddock.
We can’t wait to see how she turns out and look forward to helping her reach her potential.
Jeremiah
We would like to introduce you to a new member of our Hope Reins family. This is Jeremiah.
Jeremiah
We are so grateful to AgSolutions for generously donating the money for us to purchase Jeremiah and to Danni for choosing to sell him and entrust him to us!
Jeremiah is not a rescued horse, however he is here to change the lives of every human he gets to spend time with. We are so glad this young horse is now part of the team!
Promise
Promise was born on 4th January 2012 with a wry nose – twisted at the end like another of our horses…
Promise
Their friend suggested we look at her. We arrived 20 minutes before the Vet who was there to euthanise her. The owners agreed for us to have her and loaned us her mother Beauty, until she was weaned.
Promise arrived at Chelem one night in the middle of a storm. The Vet said we needed to keep her wound clean – a big ask when we couldn’t get near her. But we had four days of wonderful rain which continually washed it clean. Her wound is now completely healed!
We call her Promise because God promises us a hope and future, which this beautiful little girl now has. She is so sweet, soft, and gentle that even the most fearful person cannot say “no” to giving her some lovin’! We are so grateful to Promise’s previous owners for the gift of this beautiful girl!
Hope
Hope is a stock horse Arabian cross who came to Hope Reins in 2008.
Hope
Hope had a broken halter on and rope burn marks on all four legs in two places. We could only guess she’d had her legs tied together in order to “break her in” the old way, where it was about breaking a horse’s spirit rather than building a partnership. Somehow this amazing horse had managed to break free and run for her life.
At the pound, she would kick out, buck, and rear up to the point where she threw herself over backwards and hit the ground. We are so thankful she didn’t injure herself during those distressing times. It took a number of weeks for a friend to quieten her enough to get her on the float to bring her home.
Finally, the day came when Hope arrived at Chelem, her forever home! When she did, Chauvel went frantic. He had never spotted such a gorgeous, elegant mare and somehow he managed to get to spend some “quality time” with his girl! Eleven months later Hope gave birth to a beautiful, healthy filly which we named Faith.
Since she has been with us, Hope has been slowly developing trust in people and has learned to enjoy human company and attention.
Pippa
Pippa has been a very much loved family member at a miniature horse stud on the Gold Coast.
Pippa
However, when Pippa was born she was her mother’s first foal and her mother rejected her, so it was up to Pippa’s humans to raise her. Due to her stress and anxiety from not having her mum around and having to be fed milk replacer, Pippa developed digestive system problems which caused severe laminitis.
Laminitis is a very painful condition in her little hooves, where the bone and surrounding structures are separating. It would be like someone having a massive splinter under their toenail that kept being forced deeper and deeper into the quick and pulling off the nail – but much worse.
In order to help relieve the pain and try to fix the issues, the farrier had to trim Pippa’s hooves very short. Some little rubber cushions were made for all four of Pippa’s hooves and they were each bandaged up. Her loving breeders had to do this for around one and a half years. Pippa only stopped wearing bandages two weeks before she came to live with us. She still has a small problem with her little hooves but as long as we keep on top of it Pip should be ok.
Pippa’s breeders only sold Pip to us because they believe, as we do, that Pip will impact many lives with her sweetness and her story of overcoming pain and rejection! What a brave little horse we have the privilege of calling a part of our family!
Tobias
Tobias, “Toby” for short, is a brumby, born in 2010 in Toolara Forest Reserve in Tin Can Bay.
Tobias
He was bought from the dogger pens at the Gympie horse sale when he was very close to death. The lady who bought him, and the young women with her, had to carry him out to their horse float as he was so weak and emaciated.
His new owner nurtured him and he gained weight and strength. A few months later she had to move to another town and needed someone to adopt him.
So began his time at Hope Reins.
When he arrived he was about 18 months old, yet he was similar in size to foals about a year younger.
We gave him the temporary name Brumby Boy or BB for short. At our Official Opening Day in September 2012, we had a ‘name the brumby’ competition and the name we chose from the many entries was Tobias, which means “God is good!”
As we worked with Toby, it became increasingly obvious that he has had some major trauma concerning ropes, particularly on his off side. We are helping him overcome this intense fear and helping him to learn that people can be trusted. Toby also has some major hoof problems which we have begun to address but will take a long time to heal fully.
We love our little Brumby Boy!
Mr Darcy
Mr Darcy is a Quarter horse mix born from Gypsy and Diablo Spin in 2007.
Mr Darcy
We purchased a half-price service so we had to take Gypsy out to Kilkivan to Diablo Spin.
When Gypsy left, Chauvel was only young and he had obviously taken to her like his mother. He was traumatized, running along the fence line calling out to her. He actually loaded himself onto the horse float to be with her!
Three to four weeks before Mr Darcy was born, Kylie looked out the caravan window every night for any sign of a foal … One night there was this little palomino face looking back at her.
We think he is amazing – and handsome – which is why he is called Mr Darcy. He has had some training out bush mustering cattle. We were told by his trainer that he is a very smart horse and would do very well performing in the cutting ring.
Mr Darcy developed lameness which was a mystery to the Vets. Early in 2015, we received a lot of support for Vet treatments; as it turns out Mr Darcy has navicular problems in both front feet. He also has shifting lameness between his left and right back legs which the Vet cannot explain.
Mr Darcy needs to lose weight, get fit again, and we will get him some special therapy boots to wear while he is in the paddock. He will wear other boots once we begin riding him, which hopefully can happen.
We will always see Mr Darcy as our little blond haired, blue eyed boy (his eyes were blue when he was born) – sweet, sooky and amazingly handsome!
Poppy
Before she came to Hope Reins in 2015, Poppy (her name was given to her on arrival here)…
Poppy
As an 18-month-old, Poppy was National Champion Junior Miniature Horse and had a big show career ahead of her. She was purchased by a small Stud with the view of continuing her showing and then to breed some stunning babies. This all ground to a halt when Poppy developed stifle lock, a condition where her stifle joints lock in position and affect her movement.
For a Stud horse, this is unacceptable as you are not permitted to breed from a horse with this condition. Therein began a very long, drawn-out battle between the breeder and purchaser. Although Poppy’s breeders agreed to replace her, they kept changing their minds on how they would do that.
After such a long time Poppy’s owner was despairing. AS Poppy could not be used in her Stud and because she was worn out, she decided if she couldn’t sell Poppy she would have her put to sleep.
We heard about this situation through Facebook and discovered the only people interested in her wanted to put her down to use her skeleton to teach people from.
Poppy was only five years old and that seemed like a horrible end for such a sweet little girl who was caught up in a bitter battle through no fault of her own.
We decided to intervene!
When we met Poppy, it was love at first contact! She was as sweet as she looked – friendly, willing, quiet, unflappable! She was coming with us and thanks to our amazing neighbours at Bos Park Droughtmasters, who loaned us their float as ours was being refurbished, we were able to save our little Poppy!
Poppy has now had surgery on her stifle joints so we are praying that will fix her issues and help her to run free!
We are so amazed at how much she just loves hanging around with humans! She is such a treasure!!!
Jaxon
Meet Jaxon! He is an 18 hands high Clydesdale gelding, born in 2005. These “gentle giants”…
Jaxon
These “gentle giants” enhance our program by enabling bigger people to ride, as well as being a horse that takes trust and courage to approach.
Jaxon fitted all of our criteria and when we met him he seemed amazing. His previous owner loved him very much and took the time to make sure we were the perfect place for her boy to come to. She even visited us and checked out his new home – and loved it!
Jaxon joined the Hope Reins team on Easter Saturday, 2012. He took up two bays in the transport truck and is soooo big he makes the other horses look like miniatures.
He has one blue eye and one brown and the sweetest, sookiest nature. He looks like he put his head in a bucket of milk and was permanently stained by it!
Bandit
Bandit is a blanket Appaloosa. He came from Forbes from a Vet friend of Kylie’s called Patty.
Bandit
Bandit got an eye injury while in the bush and sadly it was not discovered quickly enough to be treated effectively. As a result, Bandit has some scarring in that eye that we think causes him to have some loss of vision. Bandit also has what is known as night blindness, which means he can’t see in the dark so he needs to be contained in a safe place with his friends to guide him at night.
Bandit is a sweet horse who loves attention, although he can be a little reluctant to approach someone new until he learns that they mean him no harm. The big fellow is currently being worked lightly under saddle and is responding well.
Squirt
We finally have answers about what has happened to Squirt, who was a well trained reining horse…
Squirt
The Vet had x-rayed him and told his owner to put him in a paddock for three or four months and then bring him back into work. After resting him as per instructions, they starting riding him again but sadly he was still lame. This is when he was given to Hope Reins.
When he arrived, his fetlock was swollen and we thought he certainly was injured there. His old owner said that swelling had been there since he was injured but the Vet, thinking they had found the problem, did not explore this. We rested him in a small yard for a while and saw a mild improvement in his lameness. We then released him into the paddock with a buddy but saw no further improvement.
In September 2015, we took him to our Vet to have his fetlock joint x-rayed and were devastated at what we saw. Squirt had a fracture in his long pastern bone, right up at the fetlock joint. There are some sharp edges on his cannon bone at that joint also and some of the cartilage at that joint has worn away. Ouch! That poor boy!
As a result of these images, we are very surprised at how well our beautiful Squirt gets himself around, particularly when we see him bucking and kicking up his heels. He is one brave horse and we are so glad he is part of our Hope Reins family!
Sadly, Squirt will never return to a riding career however we have other plans for this boy to give him a job and reach his potential in a different way.
Cokey Marshmallow
Cokey Marshmallow was born in 2006. He was named by a young girl who said…
Cokey Marshmallow
At Clermont, he was fed on buffle grass causing his body to be stripped of calcium resulting in a condition known as “big head”. He needed to get out of this environment.
He travelled from Clermont and was weak after his 10-hour journey. Kylie met him in Dalby to bring him back to Gympie. She and Anna, another Hope Reins volunteer, set off at at 5pm. Not far out of Kingaroy they drove into torrential rain. At one place, Kylie could see rushing water on either side of the road and water over the road ahead.
She realised that turning a horse float in these conditions was impossible and time was running out for weak Cokey. Kylie phoned Ruth and the people in Gympie who then prayed for their situation “asking God to part the waters as He parted the Red Sea.” A 4-wheel drive behind Kylie pulled out and drove through the water. Kylie and Anna made a quick decision to follow him. The water came up to the floor of the float but they got through, reaching home at 10.30pm.
When Cokey got off the float, he could barely stand. His front legs were shaking badly as he backed off. We thank God for the safe arrival of Cokey Marshmallow. He is on a special diet that continues to reduce the symptoms of the Big Head!
Cokey’s love is children. He is really drawn to little people, who can do almost anything with him, even when big people can’t!
Gypsy
Gypsy is a chestnut mare, born around 1992. She is the innocent victim of a marriage breakup.
Gypsy
Gypsy was very thin and had seedy toe in all her hooves. She’d had an eye injury on her off side. Left untreated, she was partly blind. Her eye became increasingly blind and fully crusted over. It was shrinking inside her head and annoying her so we had it removed.
At first, she became quite nervous at the loss of her sight on one side and had to find it within herself to settle, let go of the anxiety, and find a way to cope with losing sight on one side. Horse’s eyes are on the sides of their head so they have more complete vision in order to watch out for predators. Horses are prey animals and get eaten by other animals.
Gypsy is a really sweet softie, even though she isn’t the friendliest mare in the paddock! We can’t ride her because before we got her, she’d had a nasty accident. She has scars up her back leg and a big dip in her rump where she’s hit something, so she’s not sound to ride.
While she doesn’t seem to link up with us, she is powerful in the way young people can be with her and she’ll just let them love her and takes everything they can give.
Gypsy has been a wonderful grandma to some of our foals and has adopted orphan Asher as her very own.
Esther
Meet Esther, the slowest eating horse in the world! Esther is scared of the Shetland ponies…
Esther
Esther is scared of the Shetland ponies, so each night when we feed them we have to stand guard over Esther or else the Shetlands who have literally gobbled their food down, will go over and chase her off and sink her food too!
Destiny
Destiny was born in 2008. She is a Quarter Horse cross, black with a white blaze…
Destiny
Destiny was purchased before she went to the dogger’s pens at the Gympie sale yards and the lady who had owned her delivered her to us before she even got off the truck.
She had never been touched before, so essentially was a wild horse. She has taught Kylie more about herself and about God than any other horse on the place.
Destiny is here to stay. She has a soft and gentle nature and is very faithful to Kylie having bonded with her more than anyone.
We use her at Hope Reins to teach participants how to communicate with and connect with a horse.
She came about the middle of 2011 and we are excited that she has an amazing destiny in store. Faith is Destiny’s best friend, apart from Kylie of course!
Yasha
Yasha was born on Sunday 27 November 2011. He is a solid, curious, friendly boy.
Yasha
He is Roanie’s first foal and Chauvel’s last before he was gelded. We almost didn’t get to meet Yasha.
In her eight month of pregnancy, Roanie had a discharge with a very small amount of blood. Kylie wasn’t sure if she should be concerned about it. Then Roanie developed a very strange lump on her lower flank. The Vet was called.
The Vet was puzzled and not wanting to put a needle in the lump for fear of introducing bacteria she suggested bringing Roanie to the surgery so the lump could undergo an ultrasound. The ultrasound proved that the lump was only a bruise – although the Vets were puzzled as to how she could be bruised in that part of her body. While there, Kylie asked if they could check that all was well with the baby. All was not well.
The ultrasound showed a perfectly healthy foal but the uterus and placenta were tearing apart and Roanie was about to miscarry. Hormones and antibiotics were immediately prescribed and these continued until the foal was born. The Vet suggested Roanie might come early but instead she was three weeks and six days late!
Kyle and Ruth were on “foal patrol” each night for a very long time!
The miracle part in this story is that the morning after the ultrasound that showed Roanie was about to lose the foal, the lump on her flank completely disappeared!
Yasha’s name means “God saves”, and he is our miracle boy!
Trooper
A Hope Reins friend contacted us as she had purchased ‘Rebel’ and saved him from certain…
Trooper
We said ‘yes’!
We believe he is around 26 years old and maybe a stock horse. His hooves were so overgrown it was painful for him to walk.
When he arrived here we trimmed his front hooves. After the first one got done, he placed it on the ground and started licking and chewing. He was so happy. He then started pawing gently at the ground with his other front hoof. “What about this one?” So we trimmed it and again he was licking and chewing. Finally, he was pain-free in those poor little hooves.
We have been giving him salt water baths as there is barely a square inch of his body that is not covered in little sores. He seemed to really enjoy the love and attention, except for the worming part which happened next!
He is now renamed ‘Trooper’, which means fighter. This is exactly what this amazing horse has done. He has fought to survive.
Grace
Grace is a grey Arabian born in 2000. We called her “Grace” as she is a precious gift, given to us by…
Grace
Grace has saved a life. It happened in July 2013…
Grace and Beauty (Promise’s mum) were having a long holiday at our friend’s place, the other side of Gympie, enjoying their grass. Beside the property is a house where a man and his brother live. The brother had recently changed medication. The change and new medication were causing him to be disoriented. At 10pm one night he wandered out of the house, crawled under the barbed wire fence between the two properties and stumbled across the paddock into the dam that is there. He can’t swim.
His absence was almost immediately noted, but where would they look for him? Should they jump in the cars and go down to the main road nearby? Was he wandering in the dark around the house?
The brother at this point noticed Grace. “She was going ballistic,” he later said. “She was tossing her head around and rearing up a little on the side of the dam. And she appeared to be glowing white. We raced through the fence and found my brother in the water. Another few minutes and we would have been too late.
The next day, our friends found the man’s jacket shredded in the barbed wire fence. Their neighbour came to apologise for all the noise and lights from the night before (none of which they heard!). “The horse saved my brother’s life,” their neighbour said, “I don’t know how to thank her.” Our friends replied, “She really likes carrots!”
Grace was born with the end of her nose badly twisted (called a wry nose). Her tongue hangs out sometimes and her teeth don’t line up, but that doesn’t stop her eating! It’s interesting that the majority of people upon meeting Grace, have one of two responses … either they instantly find her beautiful and sweet or they think she is angry and might attack them.
In reality, Grace has such a sweet, gentle spirit that her personality breaks through and people see the amazing little horse that she is. Her story is one of coping with a disability. We focus on her ability.
She runs with all the grace and beauty Arabians are famous for, however, due to her twisted nose, one of Grace’s nostrils is partially closed and she is not able to breathe in as much air as most horses. This means she can’t run for as long but she doesn’t seem to mind!
Grace loves life, and really loves people. She enjoys as much attention from humans as she can possibly get!
Grace’s party trick is to eat a mango whole and spit out the seed while the juice runs down her body!
Roanie
Kyean Roanies Rattler (Roanie for short) is a 14.2hh registered Quarter Horse mare…
Roanie
Roanie gave birth to her first foal Yasha on 27th November 2011. Roanie was started under saddle by a friend and is a great horse to ride.
She has had her challenges – She has Queensland Itch and so spends most of her life wearing a rug that covers her face and body. She has had a nasty injury from a steel picket accident. She has been healed from cancer on her ear and side, which was definitely a miracle, as was the discovery three months prior to the birth of her foal that she was starting to miscarry him.
For the remainder of her pregnancy, Roanie was put on hormone treatment and antibiotics in order to retain her baby. When Yasha was born, it was no mistake! We believe he was a miracle and just to prove it, Roanie carried him three weeks and six days past the due date. She certainly kept us waiting!
Roanie is a real joy and gift to us here at Hope Reins. She is an affectionate, beautiful girl who knows what she wants and when she wants it!
Lily
A man called us after hearing Kylie speak on the Christian radio about Hope Reins.
Lily
He said, “I’ve got a horse that needs to come to your program because she just loves people.” Even though we didn’t need another horse, we met her and although she’d not been handled much or haltered before, she had a real desire to be with us.
We committed it to prayer and felt God say we should take her (even though it made no sense!). An amazing circle of relationships have come out of us accepting Lily. A friend of her previous owner specializes in teaching horses to float. Within two hours he had Lily leading, following and on the float.
Lily’s had some hoof and teeth problems but they’re being sorted. She’s learning so quickly and we are excited about what she is going to bring to our program. And in the short time she has been at Hope Reins, she has already won a number of hearts because of her sweet nature!
Nikky
Nikky is a chestnut Arabian, born in 1988. She came from an Arabian stud…
Nikky
Although she had been in a paddock with plenty of grass, she was starving, unable to graze properly because she had teeth problems. She is now on a special diet and will be for the rest of her life.
Nikky is a fiery girl who will give you a good rid if she feels you are up for it but with small children she is the quietest of horses, looking like she could fall asleep at any time.
She is patient and kind and is easy to do most anything with. A very sweet girl is our Nikky!
Chauvel
Chauvel is a 14.1hh buckskin gelding born in 2005. His stud name is Commander So Smart…
Chauvel
Chauvel is like a bronze statue when the sun is on him, just gleaming and reflecting the sunshine. He has sired five foals – four fillies and one colt. The fillies all have the same back leg markings as him and all his foals are very personable, friendly, and quick learners just like their dad!
Kylie spent a year looking for Chauvel, an affordable stallion with reasonable bloodlines, in order to breed quality Quarter Horses and sell them at affordable prices. Chauvel’s sire, on the Australia Quarter Horse points score for camp drafting, reached eighth in Australia. His mum was a cutting bred mare shown at halter then used as a brood mare.
Chauvel has been gelded. Two of his foals live here – Faith and Yasha.
While Chauvel comes across as a strong boy full of attitude, when you spend a moment with him you soon realise he is a sooky boy who loves attention. Chauvel is the best watchdog we have on our place, often letting us know someone is here before the dogs are even awake to it!
In March 2016, Ruth, Kylie and Chauvel attended a clinic hosted by Total Equine Queensland at Toowoomba with Double Dan Horsemanship. The clinic was Liberty Training, which is working with your horse without using leadropes and halters, unrestrained. There is so much to learn and we are very proud of Chauvel who Kylie said went better than she deserved him to, since he hasn’t had a whole lot of training lately. He was fabulous!!!
Kylie and Chauvel now have a lot of practice to do to continue to improve liberty work and Ruth has a big job ahead supervising.
Emmie-Lou
Emmie-Lou is a paint Shetland, around 23 years old. She has only ever been a brood mare…
Emmie-Lou
Emmie and Shiloh came from a good home. Their owner wanted them to go somewhere where they would be used to make a difference. They are now part of our Hope Reins family and are great with little people.
Bella
Bella is a buckskin brumby from Guy Fawkes National Park in NSW, and was born around 1995.
Bella
The brumbies in this National Park are descendants of the “Walers” used by the Australian Light Horse in WW1.
After the war, the horses that were trained for service were released into the Park. They are a part of our National Heritage. In 2000, National Parks & Wildlife decided the horses were feral and began to cull them by shooting them from helicopters. They shot about 800 horses, the same number that carried Aussie soldiers in the famous battle at Beersheba.
When people went in to see them, some of these horses weren’t dead. Some were so terrified they’d tried to climb up cliffs. They found horses in the middle of giving birth. The RSPCA was involved and the National Parks were taken to court. It was a shocking thing. After the 2000 cull, changes were made.
We believe Bella was part of that cull. She’s closed off to people. There is something vacant in her eyes and she’s very suspicious of people. She’s obviously been caught and handled enough that she came here on a truck but she’s never connected with us. We don’t want her to be ridden. We just want her to have a happy and healthy life because of what has happened to her.
We can catch her when she is in a yard and trim her feet without even holding onto her. While ever we can care for her health and she is happy, that is what matters to us!
Jageeta
Jageeta is a 15.3hh registered Quarter Horse mare, born in 1992. She is the mother of Genesis.
Jageeta
Kylie owned Jageeta before Chelem was purchased. The woman Kylie bought her from had bought Jageeta and four other horses, sight unseen, according to bloodlines and photos.
They were off a huge property where there were large numbers of quarter horses. As they bred and grew in number, they were herded into cattle yards, loaded on a cattle truck and gotten rid of. The horses had never been touched.
Jageeta’s previous owner decided to move her on as she was such a nervous horse. We set aside three days to see if we could go to her and teach her to lead, tie up, and float. She did everything we asked her to do. She was nervous about it but there wasn’t one ounce of nastiness in her.
Jageeta continues to be a very nervous horse all these years later. It’s amazing to walk into the yard with her. She is massive and could easily hurt us if she chose to. Instead, she trembles.
Jageeta is another horse we use to teach people how to reach out and build trust. She is gentle and willing, even in her fear. What a great example of “doing it afraid” that is. Even though she is scared, she is prepared to keep going and trying. That’s true courage – doing it afraid!
Cheeky
Cheeky is an Australian Stock Horse, born on the 11th October 1993. She is a gutsy, hard working…
Cheeky
She has thrown two fillies and one colt and has retired from both hard work and having foals.
Even though she is a bush horse at heart, she quickly learnt the ropes at Hope Reins including playing soccer! Maybe she thinks the big red and yellow ball is a cow! She is doing a great job teaching people to ride.
Cheeky is soaking up the extra attention she receives here at Hope Reins and is a welcome addition to our family and program.
Diamond
Diamond is a brumby from Oxley Rivers National Park in northern NSW. When she was found…
Diamond
Diamond is shy and very suspicious of people. At the same time she wants to get know you and once you gain her trust you soon see the gentle, sweet side of her nature.
We are continuing to build the relationship between her and humans and often use Diamond to teach people about their own body language and leadership skills. A horse will not follow someone who cannot communicate clearly, form a connection, and show kindness, and in order to do that we need to work on ourselves.
Once Diamond knows someone cares about her she will trust them and follow them wherever they lead her.
Genesis
Genesis was born on the 17th December 2005, the night Ruth moved to Chelem. Her name means…
Genesis
Her sire, a registered Quarter Horse, is the most docile stallion you’ll ever find. Her mother is Jageeta.
When Genesis was born, we had no fences apart from a boundary fence so we couldn’t catch her. Because Jageeta was nervous we couldn’t get near her and by the time Genesis was six months old she was difficult to handle.
Genesis thinks she’s got it all, that she’s free and can roam. She doesn’t understand that there’s a better life of freedom for her. If she would just submit to us she could enter into a whole new purpose. This reminds us of people who think they have it all yet if they chose to live God’s way they could have a greater freedom. Like Genesis, they can’t see that. It would be much better if she could trust that we’ve got her best interests at heart.
We’ve done nothing to harm her yet he gets blinded by her fear. She has come up to us and eaten out of our hands and we have touched her but that’s as far as we can go. We live in hope though that one day we’ll be friends.
We will never give up on her, just like God never gives up on us!
Shiloh
Shiloh is around 15 years old. He was a stallion until he was 10. He and Emmie-Lou…
Shiloh
He and Emmie-Lou were given to Hope Reins by a loving family who have outgrown them and who really like what Hope Reins is about.
Love comes in small packages and our young visitors to the farm love these little guys.
Please note: donations of $2 and over are tax deductible.
Desiree
Desiree (A.K.A. The Princess) is a rose grey Arabian. She was given to us by a friend…
Desiree
She has a dimple on her rump we think might have been caused by a star picket being thrown at her and we’ve since discovered that as a result of this abuse, her pelvis was broken. A Vet examination showed that the ear of her pelvis had broken off and is now fused lower under where the star picket injury was.
Understandably, Desiree is quite a nervous girl until she gets comfortable with new people and situations. One of our volunteers has been working with her helping her to trust people and to cope with new situations and Desiree is learning and responding very well.
We call her “The Princess” because she is so beautiful and elegant and she enjoys having people wait on her so much that we think she believes she is royalty. And maybe she is!!!
The changes in her have been amazing and we look forward to seeing her flourish into the horse she is destined to be!
The Donkeys
We are still surprised by people’s reaction to the Donkeys: “Ah, you’ve got donkeys!”
The Donkeys
We bought Hosanna – Jose for short – when he was a seven month old colt. The moment Jose set foot on Chelem he fell in love with Diamond, one of our little brumbies. As a result, Jose was gelded quite quickly.
Our two girls came from Cooran. They were in a paddock where their feet were constantly wet and the Vet told the owner she needed to get them out of there. She was very sad about selling her much loved girls but wanted to do what was best for them. One’s called Bindi (named after Bindi Irwin). The other if Franki (she was born near Christmas time so her actual name is Frankincense).
When we went to pick them up we couldn’t load the donkeys onto the horse float. They just planted their feet. We had all these burly blokes around pushing and pulling trying to help but the donkeys were winning. In the end we decided when all else fails we should read the donkey training book. So we found out how to load donkeys. You’ve got to link hands behind the hind quarters and basically lift the hind quarters because that’s where they get all their strength to dig in. We shifted the float to face downhill then were able to load them on.
The ‘girls’ are very sweet and affectionate. They love to eat carrots and they soak up any love anyone offers to them! We are so glad they came to live with us!