Chasing Alberta Wildies

If you go north and west of Calgary to the Sundre area there is an amazing opportunity to find some of the wild horses of Alberta. I missed an opportunity to go with E and Kim in the spring. They had signed up to go with Mountain View Photographic Services and had a very successful outing. I really wanted to be with them on that trip but was off to other parts of the world so I missed out.

I was super grateful that they kept track of where they were on the tour so that they could take me out this fall. Funny story… I have been friends with both E and Kim for a long time. They had never met until the spring trip to see the Wildies and after some discussion and a mutual cousin’s aid they found out that they are related – cousins, probably 3 or 4 times removed, but still, it really is a small world!

The horses are beautiful and, pretty much as expected, are a bit rough around the edges. Being wild, this makes sense. They had a lot of scarring and some even carried fresh wounds, no doubt from fighting and “horse-play” but it all just adds to the sense of their elemental existence.

We came across 3 herds in all while we were out. The first was right by the “unnamed” road (honestly, that’s what my GPS said) and consisted of about 15 -18 horses. Three of these were colts – so cute! The second herd was off the road and down a bit of a hill. There were probably 10 or 12 horses in this herd. And they were also the most active. Some horse-play ensued while we were photographing them. I got a couple of okay pics (you decide, but I wish they were in sharper focus). The last herd was small, just four horses. It’s possible there were more over the hill but this was the end of our day and we were losing light and ready to make the trek home. That last herd was a surprise really. We almost missed them but I am glad we stopped, backed up, and got some shots from the road above.

Herd 1

Herd 2

Herd 3