Every year about this time the 2-3 year old studs that have been with their family band since birth are chased out of their herd by the dominant stallion. This is way it is in the herd dynamics of wild horses.
For the most part these young boys will wander around by themselves until they have the opportunity to join up with other bachelors.
Here they form bachelor bands that continue to roam free throughout their range. Usually causing no trouble except among themselves. You always see the young boys testing each other as they begin to mature. There is safety in numbers and so they are more brazen and don’t always flee from humans.
By banding together they are also a lot safer from the predators that share their habitat. Can you see the wolf next to the boy above? He was with four other boys all strong and healthy. The pack of wolves sensing this just wandered right past them looking for easier prey.
On the private land that borders the public forestry, some of these youngsters looking for their own mares or even other horses for company, stray onto this private property. Here they can cause a lot of problems for the landowners and their domestic horses. In the past they were just picked up and sent to the meat buyers.
WHOAS continues to respond to complaints such as this in order to rescue these trouble-makers. If possible we try to push them back into the forestry and assist the landowners with fixing their fence lines. Sometimes nothing works and these boys keep coming back and at this point WHOAS steps in.
Currently, government policy will not allow us to relocate these horses further back into the forestry. Therefore, we attend to where they are causing problems and rescue them. We then transport them to our handling facility where the gentling process begins to prepare them for adoption. This is Caruso who is coming 2 years old. He had jumped into the landowners corrals to find company. Once he is gelded and gentled so he can be handled safely, he will be available for adoption.
This is Comanche who is also about 2 years old. He too got into the pens of a landowner who had a very old mare and was causing her extreme stress. Again once he is gelded and gentled so he can be handled safely, he will be available for adoption.
This is Chinook who got himself into trouble on a rancher’s property. We have been working with him for awhile and he has already been adopted.
This is Crimson who was causing havoc in a provincial park and had to be removed. He too is lucky enough to already be adopted.
We also have beautiful Bernie, a 6 year old who we are still working with and getting ready for adoption.
We hope that the rest of these young boys stay out of trouble and don’t need our help. If you are interested in adopting any of these boys, contact us to come out for a visit to see them.
WHOASalberta@gmail.com
