Descended from Arab horses via thoroughbreds and stock horses but born on the sandy plains of the Australian outback, the brumbies are now in training at the stables of the deputy ruler of Dubai, Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, for ‘the sport of sheiks’.

Back in 2006, Glen Innes veterinarian Alan Post was offered a job as stable vet with endurance riding experience, at the sheik’s Seeh al Salam stables, one of three such facilities he owns.

Since then, his job has evolved into spending more than six months of the year purchasing horses for the sport from around the world. When the sheik’s racing manager Ali Mohammed Al Mohairi heard about wild horses near Lake Gregory in the Tanami Desert of Western Australia in early 2007, he despatched Dr Post on a mission.

“As it was so hot up there and desert conditions, he thought they would possibly be suitable for endurance,” Dr Post told the Examiner on Tuesday, during a month’s stay back in Australia.

Negotiating with the elders of the Mulan community responsible for the Paruku Indigenous Protected Area, and with the blessing of the WA Department of Agriculture, Dr Post set about catching 4-8 year old brumbies, assisted by John Burton from Armidale.

The group of roughly half females and males then made their way to Glen Innes, to be broken in. With equine influenza (EI) restrictions stepping up at the time, Dr Post was forced to hire a set of stockyards and wait for a month in South Australia.

By the time they had made it three months later, one brumby had died, but a male foal had been born.

“The sheik rang and said he wanted a stallion for breeding, but all the older horses had been gelded at capture. Fortunately one of the mares had a foal and it was a colt - so a young stallion, he got.”