When Ivan Hajnal got his first paycheck, he bought a horse.
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Aged 15, he had no experience riding. In fact, he reckons it’s a wonder he didn’t die.
Now, the Heathcote resident has taken on the ultimate challenge in horse training – breaking in a wild horse.
Mr Hajnal is participating in the Australian Brumby Challenge, along with his partner’s daughter Arden Lee.
Read more: Brumby cull backflip a ‘disaster’: professor
Twenty adult entrants and and seven junior entrants compete in the challenge to break their brumbies over 150 days.
Participants receive wild horses captured from the Kosciusko National Park, and have to break them in for finals at horse expo Equitana in Melbourne.
From their wild state, adult competitors’ brumbies must be trained to be rideable for the event.
Mr Hajnal has broken plenty of horses before, but never a brumby.
It’s not the first time he’s done something completely new however.
Mr Hajnal’s horse-riding skills are entirely self-taught.
It was on that first horse, bought at age 15, that he learnt.
I didn’t even know how to sit on a horse when I first started.
- Ivan Hajnal
They gave him two weeks at Broadmeadows Riding School where the horse was agisted.
“I just had no understanding about horses when I first started, it was just learn as you go along,” Mr Hajnal said.
“I didn’t even know how to sit on a horse when I first started.”
Mr Hajnal is far from those days now. From knowing nothing at 15, he has now developed his own unique method for training horses.
It’s based on the premise that horses are very much like people: they’re all different.
When he trains a horse, Mr Hajnal focuses on its mentality.
“You’ve got to adjust to the horse themselves,” he said.
“It’s knowing how to understand a horse… it’s trying to work out the more mental side of it, to fix the problems.”
The end result is incredibly rewarding for him.
“To be able to trains something and get them to perform without asking them what to do just with body language, it’s fantastic.
“It’s all body language, there’s no words, you can’t speak to them.”
Avid horseman that he is, Mr Hajnal had always talked about entering something like the Brumby Challenge.
He had never gotten to it until his partner Narelle Lee took action. She entered Mr Hajnal and Arden into the Brumby Challenge.
It’s partly the pure challenge of breaking a brumby that Mr Hajnal relishes.
But, he also doesn’t like to see a good horse go to waste.
“Just because they’re wild, doesn’t mean they’re not useable in any way,” Mr Hajnal said.
“I wanted to participate to see how the challenges of a wild horse… and what can be achieved by a wild horse.”
“Let’s give them a second chance, at the moment they’re being culled.”
Mr Hajnal has been allocated a 14 hand chestnut horse called Percy for the challenge.
When Mr Hajnal got Percy, he was completely resistant to human touch. Mr Hajnal couldn’t even approach his front flank.
They have gradually gained ground however.
“You couldn't touch him, he wouldn’t allow it. He was really sensitive to human touch, so just desensitising him,” Mr Hajnal said.
“He has bitten me twice, telling me to back off, but that’s mainly out of fear, not being nasty or anything like that, but we’ve overcome that so now we can put a bit of gear on him.”
Young trainers
As a junior competitor, 11 year old Arden Lee needs to break her brumby in enough to do groundwork at the finals.
For the past five weeks she has been working to train her brumby, a yearling named Titanium, to trust her.
Arden has been riding horses all her life, but this is the first time she has tried to break one in.
Titanium is a temporary addition to her stable of two. Arden currently rides Poppy, after several years riding Guss.
So far, the training is going well.
Arden has been able to get a rug on Titanium, plait his main, and walk him to the top of the driveway.
Right now, her goal is to take Titanium to a Pony Club Rally, so he can get used to other horses.
It was a long process though. When she first got the nine month old he wouldn’t come near her, let alone be led.
It took Arden two weeks to build up enough trust for her to be able to touch Titanium.
With Mr Hajnal, Arden used a long pole to get the horse used to human contact.
It’s the absence of any human contact which makes brumbies such a challenge to break, Mr Hajnal said.
Building up a relationship of trust between horse and human is key.
“These horses haven’t been handled by people, whereas a normal horse that’s been born on a property has been handled since a baby,” he said.
“They’re always making sure that they’re safe...they think we’re predators.”
For Arden, the challenge has been enjoyable so far.
“It’s fun, this is my first time,” she said.
Mr Hajnal is also feeling positive.
“I’m really keen to see what can be achieved with these horses, it’s taken a lot longer to get through to him.