Wild Horses Of Alberta

I had heard all kinds of stories about the “Wild Horses of Alberta” some people said they were farel horses meaning horses that had either escaped or been turned loose and allowed to roam and breed free.
Other people told me the number of supposedly wild horses was proportionate to the price of hay – meaning when times were tough and hay at premium prices people were guilty of just setting their horses free to fend for themselves and hopefully be accepted into the herds of wild horses.
Others claimed these wild horses were brought to Alberta by the first nations people long before the land was settled by white folks. The first record of large herds of wild horses roaming in the Sundre area was in mcDougals journals written in the 1800’s
So I was very keen to go and see for myself.
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that there are free roaming horses in the foothills – this is a fact.
Bob and Doreen Henderson head up WHOAS - the wild horses of Alberta society and they are active in trying to protect these horses. They very kindly offered to take me out to see them.
I met the Hendersons in Olds and they took me and all my camera gear in their all terrain vehicle on out quest to find the horses.
Bob told me there were about 300 head but they live in small family groups made up of one stallion and his mares along with the youngsters. He explained the bachelor males who hadn’t yet managed to secure and females for themselves also live in small groups this is for both company and safety. Bears and wolves are their natural preditors in these parts.
I ask Bob about the farel horse theory and he said some horses do get tuned loose out here but most of them don’t survive the winter, domestic horses that are used to being fed good quality feed and fresh water really suffer. The streams are frozen all winter and there is no grass – only the hardiest of horses can not only survive but thrive and breed in these conditions.
We traveled about an hour and a half west of Olds and turned of the main road onto the logging roads, I was extremely thankfull that Bob was both driving and knew where he was going because everywhere looked the same - snow and trees - it would be very easy to get lost up here.
As we were driving Bob told me to look for both horse poop and fresh tracks as this would be our clues to finding these elusive horses.
We spotted several white tailed deer but after driving around for about an hour we still hadn’t seen any horses, then Bob stopped the vehicle and told everyone to get out quietly. He had spotted what looked like horses in a clearing. So I grabbed my camera and followed quietly behind Bob eventually we cane upon a family group of horses. The stallion was a very flashy chestnut with white stockings and large white blaze on his nose. He had 11 mares and youngsters in his group.
He was very aware of where we were and patrolled around his mares snorting and pawing the ground in warning for us not to get too close.
I was thrilled to watch the group interact and forage for food, and got some great shots.
Back in the vehicle Bob asked me if I still thought they were farel horses and I had to readily admit they were all of a very definite type.
They were all stocky horses around 14 hh , they had good bone and feathered fetlocks. They had rather large heads with characteristic roman noses, along with thick full manes and tails. These horses were not like any other breed I had encountered in Alberta.
Even though we are nearing the end of winter and you would expect to find horses living free - looking poor and malnourished - that is certainly not the case all the horses looked well and fat, their coats were thick but shiny. Some of the mares looked like they were in foal and even the young stock appeared to be in good health.
After watching us for a little while “Socks”decided to take his girls to a less populated place and he herded his family off into the dense trees. Bob explained they are not only very elusive they are extremely skittish and at the first sign of someone encroaching in their space they take flight.
So we set off to see if we could find more family groups.
We had a very successful trip and throughout the course of the came across 5 groups of horses ranging in size from 5 to 13 and all these horse had the same body type and were around 14 hh.
I am sure that without the help of Bob and Doreen to locate and track the horses I would have never found them.