The Silver Brumby series is a collection of fiction children's books by Australian author Elyne Mitchell.
They recount the life and adventures of Thowra, a magnificent creamy/palomino brumby (Australian feral horse), and his descendants, and are set in the Snowy Mountains of Australia around Mount Kosciusko.
The majority of brumbies in the southern areas of Australia being black, bay, brown and grey, the appearance of a cream horse causes quite a stir among wild herds and humans alike.
Thowra is met with open hostility from other horses, stallions in particular, while the men of the mountains quickly become obsessed with trying to capture him for his rarity.
However, there is always the ever-present threat of man, and at the end of the first novel, Thowra is forced to pull off a seemingly suicidal trick to stay free.
In turn, when Thowra reaches maturity, he defeats The Brolga, leaving him alive, and becomes king of the Cascade brumbies.
Golden: A palomino mare who, born with humans, is bought by the man pursuing Thowra.
Although she lives in the wild, Golden lacked the confidence to give birth to Thowra's daughter without the help of man.
Kunama, having been trained in bush craft by both Thowra and Boon Boon, is cautious and wary of men, but not even this caution is enough to keep her in Thowra's Hidden Valley when her interest is captured by a young, spirited black stallion with an unusual splash of white on his flank, named Tambo, who is the son of a chestnut racehorse and another racehorse 'Highland Lass'.
In the wild excitement of running with another young horse, Kunama does not heed the warnings of the wiser bush animals, and runs in the mountains for far longer than she should, even returning to the Cascades with Tambo during the summer, despite it being 'a time a silver filly must remain hidden or fear capture'.
Kunama is eventually given her freedom by the boy out of pity, and she makes her way back to the Hidden Valley, remaining there with Tambo.
Kunama is full sister to Lighting and half-sister to Jillamatong and Wanga, both creamies but with dark freckles.
Though Lightning tried many times to (unsuccessfully) win Dawn over, she decided to run with the more compassionate Baringa.
In the events of Silver Brumby Kingdom, Dawn is separated from the herd by a terrible flood and Baringa goes to search for her, eventually finding her on a small island in the middle of a river.
She was originally owned by the black stallion, but when Thowra decided to steal her, she went along willingly, yet slowly.
Lightning is beautiful but arrogant and is said by Thowra to have been almost as difficult as Golden to train in the way of the bush.
He is captivated by Dawn's beauty and constantly pursues her for his herd, but appears that Goonda is the mare he loves the most.
She grows into a lovely mare with Thowra surprised at how beautiful she's become and the black stallion stopping in his tracks when he saw her.
She stays with Lightning's herd but spends most of her time wandering in search of Baringa who she considers to be 'the most beautiful horse in the mountains'.
Given Thowra's chustnut father, and Golden's name, the closest real-life analogue to 'creamy' would be Palomino.
In the cartoon series and the film released in the mid-1990s, the 'creamies' are represented as palominos, but earlier cover art shows the silver horses as greys (white).
It is heavily suggested by Elyne Mitchell that the "moon horses" are a special breed that is very refined and beautiful beyond their colour alone.
[13] Running for 3 seasons with a total of 39 episodes,[14] the series uses some character names, but is a loose adaptation of the books.