Wild at Heart

From the moment French-born Alienor encountered a pair of wild horses in the Australian outback, she was transfixed. Fiercely loved by some and considered a scourge by others, brumbies have a complicated place in Australian culture and history. Inspired to celebrate their character, Alienor tamed three brumbies and teamed up with them to conquer Australia’s longest trek.

Wild at Heart follows Alienor and her horses on a three-year journey stretching an extraordinary 5330 kilometres from Healesville in Victoria to Cooktown in tropical Far North Queensland. Through her travels across some of Australia’s most spectacular terrain, battling isolation and the elements, she built a profound bond with her horses and made life-changing discoveries where she least expected.

Featuring stunning photography from world-renowned adventure photographer Cat Vinton, Wild at Heart is a quintessentially Australian story of breathtaking beauty and indomitable spirit.

About the Author

From a young age, Alienor developed a passion for travelling and taking on adventures across the globe. Some of her previous expeditions include a horseback trek in Mongolia at the age of 22 and a sidecar motorbike expedition from Siberia to Paris. Alienor was working in an Aboriginal community, Docker River near Uluru, in the Australian Central Desert when she first discovered the existence of brumbies and hatched a plan to embark on her most ambitious solo expedition to date, more than 5000 kilometres on horseback, to draw attention to the plight of Australia’s wild horses. She lives on a cattle station in outback Queensland.