Woodbrook Jaspin...
     An Individual Rescue

Background

In early 2007, the Secretary of the OHHAWA was contacted by Marti, a woman living in Roebourne, up north of WA. She had rescued a filly from what she described as an old aboriginal station outside Roebourne formally used to breed remount horses. (These horses look very similar to the Kimberley Walers and there are still a number in the area.) Marti was able to keep the filly because she knew the station elders, who allowed her to have the filly (and later the rescued colt Jaspin who wandered in from another nearby area).

Marti sent photos of the filly - a lovely black brown - for interest's sake and to get some advice on feeding up the then emaciated young horse.

Dr Sheila Greenwell, OHHA veterinary advisor, Committee member and unofficial head of our rescue team, took an interest because of the old bloodline look of the horses in the photos sent by Marti. Members of the OHHA were already aware of several very old stations in the Roebourne area, some of which used to breed remount stock – including a station called Mt Welcome, which is still known for it's horse breeding. (Sheila has a contact there.)

So the general area contained wild old bloodline stock, although the OHHA was also aware that modern Thoroughbreds and other stock were occasionally released in to the bush in the area, as well. It's the sort of information we note, for future reference...

A number of months later, Marti made contact again. She now also had an orphaned colt, rescued at only a few weeks of age when his mother was hit and killed by an ore train in the vicinity of Woodbrook Station, south of Roebourne.

By the time Marti contacted the OHHA, most of the hard work - the actual saving of the colt's life - had already been done by herself. A tremendous job. The colt was now five months old and although not thriving, was still alive. Marti had spent a huge amount of time and money on him, but as she already had her filly and another horse, she was looking to re-home the colt.

Marti had decided that she wished to send the colt south for the OHHA to re-home him, as she was not happy with the homes available in her general area, however she was unable to afford to do so.

After much discussion and research, the OHHAWA decided to accept the colt as having heritage value, and donated a sum of money towards his transport south to Wadi Farm at Nannup, where he could be cared for until a suitable home was found.

The colt's chestnut colour, slight roman nose and large shoulder indicated that it was possible he contained some slight Suffolk Punch bloodlines - a neat, chunky draught horse rare in Australia but two stallions were known to have been sent to northern WA for breeding many, many decades ago.

When what was thought to be the colt's herd was later located (chestnuts were not as common in the area)...the herd stallion was a massive chestnut animal with all the appearance of also containing Suffolk Punch. The mares, on the other hand, were of Thoroughbred appearance. The stallion was quite different, right down to his big boned frame and roman nose...

Other indications of the colt's old bloodline toughness and ability to survive were spelt out in Marti's story of his ordeal and eventual rescue...

“I actually was called about 3 weeks before I got Jaspin.

A train driver called someone and then that someone called me saying a horse has been hit by a train…a little foal was seen days later by itself just hanging around the dead mare. So I loaded the float and my hubby and I drove for about 50 mins following the train line and couldn't see anything…we went home.” 

Marti received several phone calls and went out several times searching for the foal but to no avail.

“… Then my hubby and I drove out to the station where I got my filly to get the correct name {of the station} because I wanted to see about getting her registered…in the round yard, laying down in the 50 plus heat day was the little foal - I thought he was dead, his legs were swollen and bleeding. {The station dogs had attacked him.}

Apparently the police called the aboriginal elder from this station...they ran him {using dogs}...into the local cemetery and caught him, bound his legs and threw him in the ute and took him back to the station. Once I saw him I went straight home got my float…asked the elder if I could take him to get medical attention…he agreed. I had no intention of keeping him I just wanted to get him better. But {he was} too precious to return to the mob. This little man walked a long way to end up where he did…definitely a Woodbrook horse.”

“I thought he wasn't going to make it, he was so emaciated when we got him it bought tears to my eyes daily. I thought there is no way he will survive…his legs were infected and so swollen he couldn't walk well. But his strength was amazing, and his temperament towards my dogs even after what he'd been through was humbling to see.

My son calls him "Jaspin", he's Pokemon mad and apparently there is a robot off Pokemon that is a fighter/warrior that doesn't give up...”

*** *** ***

So Jaspin came to Nannup, and within a matter of weeks was re-homed with OHHA member Coralie, an experienced horsewoman, who took him to live with her and her own horses near Dunsborough. Today, Jaspin is a contented, healthy yearling, growing well and looking forward to a productive life under saddle. He is much loved and very tame, appearing to have what Marti always described as "an old soul". Having been through such an ordeal in his youth, his calm and serious side these days also has a playful and cheeky edge, with a touch of heritage horse stubbornness, which is great to see! (After all, without that stubborn edge, Jaspin would never have survived.)

*** *** ***

An interesting aside to this tale is that it has been said that modern Thoroughbreds introduced to the general Woodbrook area years ago, died some weeks later due to oxalate poisoning because they could not adjust to the native grasses.

Domestic horses in northern WA have also been known to suffer from native grass toxicity, although it appears that over the decades, wild horses forced to live on the same land have somehow developed a degree of immunity.

*** *** ***

WOODBROOK STATION HISTORY

Woodbrook as a station is mentioned as far back as 1864. It was a big station – people from the eastern states once shipped a German made piano up there for the drawing room! Woodbrook is today Heritage Listed with the WA Heritage Council, and is also a listed water catchment area, which accounts for populations of wild horses still surviving and breeding there.

In 1961 the Roebourne Roads Board became the Shire of Roebourne. In 1971 the area of the Shire was reduced to 5900 square miles, including Roebourne, Cossack, Whim Creek, Point Samson, Wickham, Karratha and Dampier and the stations Karratha, Mardie, Mt Welcome, Woodbrook, Warambie, Pyramid, Sherlock, Mallina and Cooya Pooya.

Marti has stated that all the horses from Woodbrook are of a similar type – bigger boned and mainly chestnut - slightly larger than the darker Kimberley look-alikes who reside at nearby Mt Welcome and Warambie Stations.

At right are photos of Jaspin's progress, from top the first pictures taken a number of weeks AFTER his initial rescue, to the most recent, below, taken just a week before the publication of this story, in December 2007.