Mt Weld Comet with Ludwig

About us

Broomehill Horse Farm is situated on approximately 500 acres on Gnowangerup Road near the town of Broomehill in Western Australia, which is about 300 km south of Perth.

It was established by Ludwig & Reena Strehle to be primarily a sanctuary for rescued wild horses, in particular the iconic Walers and other Heritage horses whose old and hardy genes are in danger of being lost forever.

These horses Colonial ancestors worked alongside Australian pioneers and fought and died beside Australian soldiers.

We are members of the WHOBAA, the Waler Horse Owners and Breeders Association of Australia. This Association provides tremendous professional support with regard to all issues that arise from the keeping of originally wild horses in a semi-wild or domestic situation.

The majority of our horses match the strict Standards of the WHOBAA, and as a result of the Association's historical research, their registration as Walers has been granted. The registration of further horses with WHOBAA will be attended to.

In order to "Preserve the Historical Integrity of our Heritage Breed" the Association does not register horses containing the influence of historically insignificant and/or "modern" blood - as specified in the Standards.

Anyone interested in the Waler horse can obtain thorough information on the WHOBAA website www.walerhorses.com

Our horses

Most of our more or less thirty (30) horses are held in a semi-wild herd environment. Their number varies at times because of newborn foals or horses that will be passed on.

Mt Weld

A larger mob of Mt Weld Walers. The basic herd are ex-Brumbies from Mt Weld near Laverton, Western Australia, which is located near the Great Victorian Desert. The Mt Weld horses are extremely hardy horses that used to live on salt scrub and brackish water under such harsh conditions that can take a human's breath away. Only the very fittest horses are able to survive in that kind of environment. Some have been born since we accommodated this herd in our sanctuary.

These horses are recognised as Walers by WHOBAA. They have been genetically isolated for generations and exhibit the phenotype of the old Australian Light Artillery and Mounted Infantry horses.

Paints

A smaller mob of our horses are from another harsh area about 450kms east of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. They are not recognised as Walers due to the influence of modern blood, nonetheless they are beautiful and worth rescuing in every respect. This herd has grown due to some foals being born since we acquired them.

Some people prefer our Paint Horses to the Walers because of their beautiful colours, while for us personally...a horse does not have to have a particular colour or comply with certain modern standards in regards to looks. To us a good horse has the heart of a fighter and the character of a true friend.

This is what we truly can find in a wild horse when handled with understanding and "brought back from a range situation to domestic". However, it appears to us that our Walers have the strongest family bond as a herd. "Beauty is as beauty does".

The Stallions

We have six (6) stallions that are kept separate from the mares to avoid uncontrolled breeding.

Our starting horses

We have started several of our yearlings, some of them by Dan James and others by ourselves, combining what we have learnt from Dan James and Frank Bell.

Einstein, our black Waler stallion has been pole gentled according to Frank Bell's method, which worked well.

The book of Monty Roberts "From my hands to yours" has also given us inspiration and ideas, and we are very open to the contents of the books "Through The Eyes Of The Horse" by Carlos Tabernaberri and "Horses Never Lie" by Mark Rashid.

Another reference to good horsemanship is: http://www.double-dan-horsemanship.com.au

To be able to run our horses in a semi-wild herd environment allows us to observe their interactions, which teaches us a lot. It has contributed to giving us an insight to what we have known was there but could not grasp.

As a dear friend of us, who has been around wild horses for decades and dedicated most of his life to them, their rescue, and to bring them back to a domestic situation, puts it: " For as long I have been involved with horses I have been dissatisfied with any procedures discovered, always something missing, or wrong, or worked but not without pressure or mistake that should have been avoidable, or getting nowhere etc. etc. and unable to figure out why, and the only means of discovering this is truly see the world through the horses eyes."

We realize the problems of methods, without naming any, whilst they are vast improvements on the "choke em down & buck em out" , proponents are still lacking in their basic presumptions with regard to the horse's viewpoint.

While starting our horses, we kept asking ourselves, how to find that certain something, that let us drop 'methods' to an extent which let's us rather know the horses needs and give them freedom of choice so that we can work toward it in our communication with them and in their willingness to please us, so that they can thrive in a coopearative environment.

The answers so far we got mainly from our horses and from the books and people and association referred to on this page, which we don't claim to make the list complete.

There is not always the same key to every horse, it is rather a matter to be sensitive and follow our instincts and what we have learned from observing and from our mistakes we made. If we stay fully tuned to the horse, and not mainly to ourselves and to what we expect, we can notice and correct our mistakes, as our horses will tell us straight away. After all, it is never the horses that make the mistakes.

Quarter Horses

We have three quarter horses of top bloodlines. They have been extensively worked in polo crosse, camp drafting and cutting.

Their behaviour and needs demonstrate this difference to wild horses in all aspects which the WHOBBA describes on their website.

"One of the batteries of the Australian Mounted Division had only been able to water it's horses 3 times in the last 9 days....... had lost only 8 horses from exhaustion ........... the majority of the horses in the Corps were Walers, and there is no doubt that these hardy Australian horses make the finest cavalry mounts in the world".
The Desert Mounted Corps., Lt.Col. R.M.P. Preston.