finally back in NZ....not home yet only landing down this afternoon..tomorrow back to the farm. Thailand was absolute bliss..warm sunny and i got to look at exotic animals to my hearts content. No holiday however sweet is completely trouble free. Got message from the farm a couple days ago, saying that greys foot problems had resurfaced and that she had stared limping again.
Ahhh so i was in foreign country, while my wild pony is at home getting sicker by the day. Adding to the problem that no one at home can handle her or even catch her to treat the foot. Because I'm still the only human who can get near her. So this could have been a solved to, by putting some antibiotics in her food. to clear up any infection until i got home to check her out. Except she doesn't eat horse food yet. So while i looked through markets and lay on the beach, i constantly stressed about my poor grey girl in a paddock at home.
It seems though that grey with her wild horse sturdiness is already on the mend. This gives me some peace of mind until i see her tomorrow, and chech her out for myself. Bay stallion has apparently gotten fatter by the day, cant wait to see him too.
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What started as turning wild horses into show horses is now much, much more. Adventures, travel, wildlife, horses and me.
Where The Wild Horses Came From
If you wanted to get really technical, New Zealand only has feral horses, not wild. As all the horses runing free, are descended from domestic stock, that has either escaped or been set loose, and found their way to the Kaimanawa ranges. That they now habitat in the centre of the north island. The first reports of horses runing free on the kaimanawa ranges, date back to 1876. Some of bloodlines known to have made into wild populations are Arabian, exmoor, Welsh, a group of Comet horses, stock horses from cattle or sheep stations as well as a Cavalry posts in the area.
in 1981 the herds of horses runing free in the ranges, were put under protection by the New Zealand Government. numbers at that stage had plummeted to just 174 wild horses. But by 1994, numbers had risen to 1,576. With this many horses they were causing massive damage to their fragile and unique enviroment.
The New Zealand Department of Conservation has been carrying out annual musters and culls, since 1993. unfortunatly horses that cannot be adopted out to private homes are slaughtered. The aim is to keep the wild population at a managable number for the health of the horses and the enviroment.
The United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization lists the Kaimanawa horses as a herd of special genetic value that can be compared with other groups of feral horses such as New Forest ponies, Assateague ponies, wild Mustangs, and with free-living zebras. Kaimanawas are of special value because of their low rate of interaction with humans. This lack of interaction may result in a herd with more wild and fewer domestic characteristics, which is of special interest to researchers.
in 1981 the herds of horses runing free in the ranges, were put under protection by the New Zealand Government. numbers at that stage had plummeted to just 174 wild horses. But by 1994, numbers had risen to 1,576. With this many horses they were causing massive damage to their fragile and unique enviroment.
The New Zealand Department of Conservation has been carrying out annual musters and culls, since 1993. unfortunatly horses that cannot be adopted out to private homes are slaughtered. The aim is to keep the wild population at a managable number for the health of the horses and the enviroment.
The United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization lists the Kaimanawa horses as a herd of special genetic value that can be compared with other groups of feral horses such as New Forest ponies, Assateague ponies, wild Mustangs, and with free-living zebras. Kaimanawas are of special value because of their low rate of interaction with humans. This lack of interaction may result in a herd with more wild and fewer domestic characteristics, which is of special interest to researchers.
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