Alberta Wildies in Spring

E and I spent a Sunday spring day west of Sundre recently. We trundled around looking for our beautiful Alberta Wildies and ended up finding 3 (possibly 4) herds. We are not sure if there was the larger group that we ran into was one or two herds that might have been sharing the large paddock that was rife with fresh new grass.

These herds are coming out of winter so are very thin and eating constantly to put on some summer weight. Just so you know, these horses are wild, they are not fed. They are a collection of released and escaped horses from the early 1800’s (or late 1700s) generations deep. They roam free in the foothills of our beautiful Rocky Mountains. They are magnificent animals living in a magnificent landscape.

Of course, we like seeking out the Wildies in the spring because of all the new foals. They have a lot of naps, and when tired just plop down on the ground and doze off.

They also stick very close to mom and can sometimes be difficult to spot.

We got a touch of snow and while we were still taking photos the horses went into the willows for shelter. Look at that sweet little curly tail!

Hiding in the willows and bush but still peeking out at us. BTW, we are always safe and so are the horses. We have very long camera lenses. Although we have never seen a stallion charge we always take precautions and never take risks.

This is our second herd, we ended up climbing a bit of a hill off the road and stayed within some bushes to watch and photograph these beauties. I think this herd was 12-15 in total although I didn’t do an actual count.

As I said they are eating and trying to get back into their summer weight. Mama is looking a bit skinny here. Babe is taking a nice little nap.

This is the only foal we saw in this herd. She (or he) kept close to the others at all times and peeked out at us cautiously.

Eventually an ATV with a dog running along the side of it came along and scared the herd off. E got great pics of the run.

This old guy looks a little worse for wear. He may be the herd stallion, he has been in many fights as evidenced by his scarring

He is looking right at me here – “stay off my pasture madam,” he is saying.

I waited so patiently to get this pretty lass. She has the most beautiful mane but she only lifted her head from eating for the shortest of moments for me to get this one photo. How many did I miss of the others while I waited? Who knows!!

Well, there you have it. Another successful day with the Wildies and E. We are hoping to get out again this fall in hopes of seeing these lovlies in much better health and dressed up in all the autumn colours.

Here’s a link to another of my Alberta Wildies photo shoots from back in 2019 https://azuretravels.com/2019/12/01/chasing-alberta-wildies/

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