Re: Horses and heritage
Posted: Wed 23 Feb, 2022 9:49 am
The issue now is the number of horses. In the original romantic time (1800s), there were about 200 iirc. Cattlemen used to shoot them as a pest which kept the numbers under control. If the horses go onto farmland adjacent to the park, they are still shot.
When the national park was declared, there were a lot of horse people unhappy because they were no longer allowed to ride their horses wherever they liked. So it became a political issue which the conservative side of politics chose to use to their advantage. And the horse people started pushing the romantic brumby idea, hoping to be able to get back into the park. They even said that if they were allowed in the park, they would do a brumby run and clear most of the horses out. (The hidden agenda here was that they would leave enough to justify having to do more each year. There are even stories of throughbreds being released into the park to improve the breed.)
When the numbers got too large to ignore, it was proposed to cull them. This became another political point. A limit of 200 horses per year was imposed. The horses were to be trapped and rehomed. This limit remained for many years, despite the fact that the breeding rate was higher than 200 foals per year. A few of the horses were rehomed, but most went to the abattoir. So each horse trapped cost $400 to end up as pet food.
Several surveys of the horse numbers have been done, showing quite large numbers, up to 20,000 at one stage iirc. The opponents reject all this, without offering any counter information on numbers. They cannot even say who they would believe.
This is my recollection. Others may correct any errors.
When the national park was declared, there were a lot of horse people unhappy because they were no longer allowed to ride their horses wherever they liked. So it became a political issue which the conservative side of politics chose to use to their advantage. And the horse people started pushing the romantic brumby idea, hoping to be able to get back into the park. They even said that if they were allowed in the park, they would do a brumby run and clear most of the horses out. (The hidden agenda here was that they would leave enough to justify having to do more each year. There are even stories of throughbreds being released into the park to improve the breed.)
When the numbers got too large to ignore, it was proposed to cull them. This became another political point. A limit of 200 horses per year was imposed. The horses were to be trapped and rehomed. This limit remained for many years, despite the fact that the breeding rate was higher than 200 foals per year. A few of the horses were rehomed, but most went to the abattoir. So each horse trapped cost $400 to end up as pet food.
Several surveys of the horse numbers have been done, showing quite large numbers, up to 20,000 at one stage iirc. The opponents reject all this, without offering any counter information on numbers. They cannot even say who they would believe.
This is my recollection. Others may correct any errors.