American horsewoman Jean Jagola, 25, has completed an eight-month, 4,400-kilometre journey across Australia on the back of Fable, a once-wild brumby she adopted and trained, riding from the nation’s east to its west.
Jagola set out on May 20, 2025 from Tathra on New South Wales’ South Coast, tracing the shoreline through Victoria and South Australia before tackling the treeless Nullarbor Plain and finishing near Perth, at Forest Beach in Busselton, about 200 kilometres south of the Western Australian capital.
Prioritising the horse’s welfare, Jagola said she capped travel at about 32 km per day, dismounted for 10-minute rests each hour, and walked roughly a quarter of each day to ease Fable’s workload. Nights were spent camped beside the horse with a tent and saddle mat.
Fable, originally a Kosciuszko National Park brumby, was adopted via the Victorian Brumby Association. Jagola planned the expedition for six to eight months, then gave Fable three months of training before departure. The pair traversed the Nullarbor’s famed 1,200-km straight road, a stretch better known to motorists than mounted travellers.
Posting on her “Jean & Fable” Facebook page on January 20, Jagola wrote that she had ridden “from Australia’s east to west coast, 4,400 km,” calling herself the first person to cross the continent with a single horse and crediting her “brave companion” Fable for the feat.