Days of freedom over for Kaimanawa horses

By JO-MARIE BROWN

Having spent their entire lives thundering through the Kaimanawa Ranges, the wild horses captured during the long weekend's annual muster nervously eyed those who surrounded them.

"They've seen humans before because the Army trains right through here, but they're used to seeing them on their own terms," Department of Conservation technical support manager Bill Fleury explained.

In the past two days, 187 wild Kaimanawa horses have been rounded up by helicopter over 22,000ha of steep country and herded into yards set up in the Moawhango Valley just east of Waiouru.

There, members of the Kaimanawa Wild Horse Preservation Society, musterers and a veterinarian have patiently sorted them into groups so they can be transported to new homes around the North Island.

This year marked the 10th anniversary of the muster - an event that has become necessary to protect the indigenous plants, landscape and the animals themselves by annually trimming their population to 500.

"We're actually trying to work to maintain a healthy, productive herd of horses as well as meeting the requirements for the conservation of a very special area," Mr Fleury said.

Wild horses have roamed through the Kaimanawas for more than a century after being released by settlers and escaping from farms.

And having been left to their own devices, they have developed their own characteristics, travelling in "bands" or family groups and developing a thicker coat to cope with the cold.

"We tell people who take them not to put them in a paddock on their own because they've never been on their own before," Mr Fleury said.

"They're also a bit smaller, and that's generally to do with the food availability and the parasite burden they carry because they haven't been wormed or anything."

Homes for 94 of those rounded up over the long weekend have already been found, while those which cannot be relocated by the preservation society will eventually be killed.

"The foals are much more in demand because people can do something with them." Mr Fleury said.

"They're not set in their ways like the big and wilful animals that just want to be let go again."

Preservation society committee member Michele Haultain said hundreds of Kaimanawa horses caught during the muster were successfully relocated and broken in each year.

"Now the horses are out there doing A&P shows, pony club and being used for trekking.

"Because they've been breeding in the wild for so many years, their weak traits have been culled ... so what you've got left now is a very tough, sure-footed little animal."