General News
7 October, 2025
Historic brumbies on the hoofs find sanctuary in the West
Since February this year, and about five minutes out of Harrow, the horses from some of Australia’s most iconic bloodlines have a place – about 172 acres of it – to quietly graze and call home. But the story of how they’ve ended up in Western Victoria goes back to when the organisation HOOFS2010 Inc. (Helping Our Old Friends Survive) had its beginnings in 2010.
Founder and secretary, Lynnette Sutton explained how far the mission has advanced since the time when her then-15-year-old daughter caught wind of some brumbies available at the sale yards in Camden, NSW, that had been left unsold and were destined for the abattoir.
Her daughter was indignant about the situation.
“She and her friend were crying and carrying on, ‘Mum, you have to do something. They’re all pregnant! You can't let him slaughter them’,” Lynne said.
Uncertain of what to do, she contacted a farmer friend for help and through a complicated series of events, the horses had an eleventh-hour reprieve and about a month later, they were put up for sale once more.
“So we ended up going to the sales and buying them all,” Lynne said.
“That’s the first mob of mares – who all successfully foaled.”
With a generous neighbour letting the horses run on 300 acres, she began to set about raising awareness and funding to get the horses properly looked after on her own property or rehomed; Lynne said she felt the horses had such a special quality, it was always going to be a worthwhile project.
So, in conjunction with her own modest 10 acres at Berrigan in NSW (just north of the border at Cobram), she said she was pleased with the work done to give the horses the life they deserve.
“I’ve had over 250 horses come through the gates, most rehomed,” Lynne said.
“What's left are either horses unsuitable for rehoming or horses that have been rehomed and come back on our boomerang policy.”
Lynne said the purpose of this was to ensure they were “safe for life instead of ending up in the system” when the circumstances of people changed and they could no longer keep them.
But in the background, the need for a larger property for HOOFS was growing, and fundraising began.
Enter Dunkeld local, Lisa Barr, who had been following the organisation since about 2017, and after a visit with her mum to Berrigan in 2021, her commitment expanded from mere supporter to committee member; she is now vice-president and treasurer.
“I just fell in love with the brumbies,” Lisa said.
“They’ve just got their own personalities, because they're unspoiled by humans, from the wild.
“I got on really well with Lynne, and then I decided to help out with the fundraising.”
With knowledge of the land project, she came across a likely property for sale near Harrow, but it was considerably more than they could afford.
“We let it go, because we just didn't have the money,” Lisa said.
However, Lynne kept on periodically asking Lisa about it.
“Every now and then she says, ‘Is that place still for sale?’ – and then we got a very generous donation from an anonymous family.”
The donation tipped the scales – with their offer accepted and various steps to set up the property now well underway, horses have been on the property since June, and Lynne was thrilled about the potential at Harrow, given how she had reacted when first seeing it.
“It was the perfect property,” Lynne said.
“It just had everything. When you go there, the environment and the surroundings, with the wild horses being free, is just such an amazing aura. You can actually feel it, that they belong there."
Lynne said she wanted the sanctuary to be an important part of the local community and hoped to organise events on site that were cooperative and beneficial for all.
She said she wanted people to understand “we're not mad, horse-loving people who don't care about the environment” and hoped the organisation would give back to people as much as it helped the brumbies, inasmuch as the political debate about their place in alpine regions and other areas continues to rage.
“We don't believe that management shouldn't take place,” Lynne said.
“What we want to see is humane management. There are other ways, and we've proven it over 15 years (with) no government funding: 250 plus horses saved, and all stallions desexed, so no breeding – they can live out their life in sanctuary.
“And they do give benefits. The horses give benefits to kids. I can send you photos that will make you cry of the kids from the special school. We had one of our trained ones, and we had a day where all the kids came on the bus, and they all got to handle a horse. And most of them weren't horsey at all, but to see the smiles on their faces…”
Lynne was also keen to talk about the scientific research HOOFS was actively involved with and how it worked into the sanctuary, providing a snapshot of the history of Australian horses, including the famous Waler breed.
“These horses have been living free for over 200 years,” she said.
“The DNA research is proving that a lot of them have bloodlines pre-1949, so that's our Waler time.
“I've been building a database for years, but yesterday, I had a look at over 300 DNA tests from different animals to see what the ratio was of Waler, because a lot of them are coming back with Waler in their DNA – it was 74 out of 300.”
She started the project with the late Richard Crispin, a well-known name in DNA research on Australian horses.
“He got the Australian horses accepted in the world wild horse database, which is a project of Texas University and Professor Gus Cothran, who is a world-renowned equine genetic specialist,” Lynne said.
“They started sending Waler DNA from established Walers that had documentation that they could trace back and then we started putting the wild horses in there.
“So it was just fantastic to build this database.”
With an office shed, barn and more needed to add to the new water tanks, hay shed and electric fencing, Lynne said while it was just “baby steps” for now, they were looking forward to the Harrow property becoming everything it could be.
But at the end of the day, she was glad the horses benefited the most.
“It's us that's failed them, it’s not them that's failed us,” she said.
“It's the lack of our foresight and our management that's seeing the problems and the issues arise.
“It's not something the animals have done. So they deserve at least some form of humane management.”
More information about the Harrow project and HOOFS2010 Inc. can be found online at hoofs2010.org.au.
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