| LAKE GREGORY East Kimberley |
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The Wild Horses at Lake Gregory
There are over 5,000 wild horses living over the area from Bililuna to Balgo, an area in the far east of Western Australia, mostly around Lake Gregory, a fresh water lake formed from the Sturt Creek which has it’s origins in the NT.
Since the Mabo decision which gave Indigenous groups jurisdiction over these wild lands, the horses have come under the Tjurabalin Pastoral Lease which is held by the Aboriginal Lands Trust; part of the Pastoral Lands Board.
The two communities at Bililuna and Mulan, which together manage Tjurabalin, have no income with which to manage the horses and have been pressurized in the past to cull the horses for pet meat. The indigenous groups at Lake Gregory have grown up with the wild horses and love them, but have no resources to care for them or try to manage them.
These horses are extremely valuable.
They were bred from two purebred Arab stallions, taken to Balgo Mission in the 1950s by Father John Macquire, who was something of a horseman himself. They bred with stock horses from Bililuna Station, some of which had the desired Percheron bloodlines to give them strong bones. Now the horses have been running wild for years and have developed all the strong skills and endurance physical capabilities that are so valued by the racing, endurance and jumping competitors.
In 2007, the Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum sent his Vet to see me and after seeing the photos of the horses he went straight out to Lake Gregory and trapped 13 horses. The Sheik has the pick of the best horses in the world. He values these horses above all for his Endurance racing and is now using these horses in Dubai for breeding as well as racing. Other financiers have not picked up his lead.
Libby Lovegrove at www.wildhorseskimberley.com
Email: wildhorseskimberley@yahoo.com.au
Tel: 08 9192 1348
Mob: 041 761 2958
