Millions of years ago wild horses populated this area until their eventual extinction.
In the last hundred years domesticated horses have been released into the wild. There are now several generations on the eastern slopes of the Rockies. Several herds live in the Upper Red Deer River area. On nearly every trip up to our rafting launch point we see wild horses.
Because of the logging in the area you can now see horses as there are fewer trees to shelter them. They have been forced to spread out to find shelter. With identifying marks on individual horses you can differentiate many different herds.
Once the herds were mainly located in the western part of the valley. Now there are so many that they are carving out territory as far east as the border of Crown land and private property.
In the last few years there has been well organized attempts to bring the herds under some control in numbers. Over all the 35 years I have been rafting in the valley I have seen the numbers increase and they are becoming more visible.
People have tried to catch the wild horses for many years. Some of the old outfitters found them useful as pack animals if they caught them young. Now there are groups such as WHOAS, CWH and Help the Wildies that are adopting a few of the horses caught. Other horses are auctioned off to individuals where they live the remainder of their life under some care and comfort. The rest are sent for slaughter.
The method to catch them has changed over time. Now they use metal corrals and use salt or hay as a lure to entice the horses in. Once inside a trip wire closes a heavy door to trap them. This method decreases the stress of capture and is less likely to jeopardize the life of the horses as they struggle for freedom.
Another method was used by poachers before the number of horses or there existance became an issue. The old style that I saw was made of many logs strapped between convenient standing trees. Two long fences converged forming a V with a very small holding pen at the end. The animals would be chased in the open end of the V and driven through the trees down to the pen.
As the fences converged the colts or any desirable horse could be separated and forced into the pen. This would have been a brutish experience for the men as well as a nasty and brutish experience for the horses. The horses would have been running into trees and hitting the fences as they tried to find an escape. Once caught, the men had to get the newly captured horses from that remote location through the bush back to the waiting trailers. This made me think it would be mainly colts that were caught.
I don’t know if this trap is still standing. It has been many years since I was there and I doubt if I could find the place now. It is a relief to hear of the more humane corrals for trapping the horses that are used now.
Check out our website!