Chris Pollitt's Brumby Channel Episode 7: Meet the Brumby Bands - The Simone Band

In this episode you will meet the four mares, their foals and two stallions that make up the The Simone Band. The band is named after Simone who wears a GPS collar. She is a tall, dappled grey mare and by her side at all times is her well-grown, piebald, male foal (Fingerbone). The GPS function delivers a position every 6 hours. Thus, we can locate the Simone band whenever we need to and over the months since August we can describe the Simone Bands home range. Two grey stallions accompany the Simone Band at all times. The stallions, named Romulus and Remus, could be brothers. Physically they are difficult to tell apart; being the same size, colour and body shape. However, the video shows they have distinct behavioural differences, which does set them apart. Only Romulus intermingles with the mares and foals and we see him mate with Argo who was strongly in season (oestrus). When the band is on the move Romulus travels within the group and we see him herding them with his head in the snake-neck position. Remus on the other hand also travels with the band but always some distance behind and invariably with Romulus between him and the band. Interestingly we see Remus rush off to investigate and challenge another stallion while Romulus stays behind with the mares and foals, seemingly oblivious. Remus is a satellite Stallion and It has been suggested that this behaviour is co-operative, performed in the expectation of future sexual rewards from band mares. Remus may be younger and one day his unrequited loyalty to the band may be rewarded if he can turn the tables on Romulus and become the dominant stallion himself. ‘Argo’ is the Palomino mare with the skewbald foal ‘Matau’. Xena the Warrior Princess rode a palomino called ‘Argo’ in the TV series. ‘Matau’ has a facial blaze resembling the stylised fishhook ‘hei matau’ of the Māori people of New Zealand. It represents strength, good luck and safe travel across water. The grey mare ‘Dark-tail’ travels with her plain, brown colt foal 'Spotless' and her last year’s weaned, roan, colt foal. The threesome invariably stayed together. ‘Dark Tail’ is so named because her tail had a streak of black hairs running through it. The chestnut skewbald mare ‘Speckle-rump’ has white speckles over her rump - hence the name. Her adolescent chestnut foal ‘Ministar’ was still being suckled by his pregnant mother.