Kaimanawa horses cross a stream during a frosty morning muster of the wild herd. Photo / Alan Gibson
Animal welfare advocates fear wild Kaimanawa horses could again face mass culling after decades of work to protect the herd if this year’s muster is cancelled.
Kaimanawa Heritage Horses Welfare Society (KHH) has blamed the situation on “a year‑long dispute over management responsibility” between the Department of Conservation (DoC) and the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF).
“It became evident through last year that something wasn’t right,” KHH chairwoman Carolyn Haigh told the Herald.
She said concern was growing that the muster might not happen this year.
“We honestly thought it would all be sorted by now.
“We think it is a dispute because DoC has always funded the muster . . . we did hear the rumours that they weren’t wanting to carry on with doing the musters.”
DoC has long overseen the herd’s management. NZDF controls the military training land the horses occupy, making the annual muster a joint operation between the two government departments, with assistance from veterinarians, iwi, welfare organisations and charities.
Both departments confirmed no date had been set for this year’s muster but denied any dispute.
Since the Herald contacted the departments this week, it’s understood ongoing meetings have been held with KHH to find a resolution.
Haigh said the charity’s exclusion from discussions until now was unprecedented.
DoC deputy director general of regional operations Henry Weston said there was no dispute.
“We have long talked about a transition of roles for the Kaimanawa horse musters at Waiouru. We are discussing this with NZDF, as the work has increasingly become about horse population management in the training area rather than biodiversity protection.”
An NZDF spokesperson said only that the agencies were “in discussions” and could not comment further.
“We understand DOC has not yet committed to a muster date this year.”
Musters cost DoC about $130,000.
Last year KHH helped cover a shortfall, despite already struggling to fund rehoming, Haigh said.
“We already spend around $100,000 a year on the horses. It’s constant fundraising for the charities to be able to even rehome the horses and manage them once they do get rehomed.”
Since 1996, DoC has developed management plans to maintain smaller horse populations to protect habitat, improve the horses’ condition, and reduce effects on the land.
The area the horses roam is geologically and climatically unusual and includes at least 16 threatened species.
The Kaimanawa horses evolved over 150 years from a blend of released farm and military horses.
Without intervention, the herd grows fast.
DoC’s 2025 aerial count found 669 horses on the ranges – well above the target of 300-400 considered sustainable for the fragile landscape.
Two musters last year removed more than 200 horses, bringing numbers down.
However, without this year’s muster the population could surge past 700 within a year, and to more than 1000 in three years, Haigh said.
“If we don’t have a muster this year, all the progress made last year will be undone.”
For KHH patron Elder Jenks, who has worked with the horses since 1997, the prospect of skipping a muster carries grim implications.
“If musters don’t happen, what would happen? Well, I might be outspoken, but the only alternative is to have them shot.”
Jenks remembers the early musters as disturbing and painful. The heritage’s roots lie in outcries over early culls where horses were shot from helicopters, sometimes only maiming the animals.
As an alternative, musters deemed more humane began, but still led to horse deaths, Jenks explained.
“They were put on trucks and trailers and sent straight to the abattoirs. Magnificent creatures, just hundreds.
“It’s a pretty sad sight if you’re standing there watching, believe me.”
Before 2014, many were slaughtered rather than rehomed. Since then, thanks to the work of KHH and Kaimanawa Legacy Foundation, healthy mustered horses find homes, a turnaround Jenks credits to the “good work” of DoC and a collaboration between the NZDF, charities, vets and iwi.
“The horses are the winners, and we want to keep it that way.”
Another casualty of delay is the fertility control programme trialled in 2022. Fifty mares received the first dose of the GonaCon vaccine, designed to reduce fertility by up to 70% once the second dose is administered.
The same mares are due a second dose but without a muster it cannot be administered.
“It seems as though it was futile to give them one dose and not follow up with a second dose,” Haigh said.
KHH envisions a future where fertility control replaces costly and logistically challenging roundups.
“It’s getting more and more difficult to find homes, find good homes for them.
“If the fertility vaccine was given to another 50 horses this year, that’s going to decrease the population over time and eventually there may be just a population of 300 or 400 out there easily maintained by only having to rehome maybe 20 or 30 horses a year.”
Mike Scott is an award-winning visual journalist with more than two decades’ experience telling stories across multiple media platforms.
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