First Slide
Title Page
So I did my presentation on Kaimanawa Horse Control Methods.
Second Slide
Contents
In my presentation I am going to be covering what Kaimanawa Horses are, why they have to be
controlled, some methods that could be used to control them as well as the method that is currently
used and what I think would be the ideal situation with best outcome for both horses and people.
Third Slide
What are Kaimanawa Horses
Kaimanawa horses are the horses that roam the Kaimanawa ranges in the central north island
near the army base at Waiouru. They were first recorded in the area in 1876 and are descendants
of horses released or escaped from the stations in the area as well as from the calvary unit at the
army base after they had to released all of their horses due to a strangles epidemic, which I think is
a viral kind of flu for horses that can be fatal. There are kind of two types of Kaimanawas, in the
north they are a lot taller and bigger, with more thoroughbred and clydesdale breeding, and to the
south more they have a lot of welsh and exmoor in their breeding, as a lot of them have the lighter
noses and bellies which they get from the Exmoor.
They are not actually a genetically unique breed, but rather a type as they have roughly the same
genetic makeup as your normal domesticated crossbred horses. It;s their history an their heritage
that makes them unique.
Fourth Slide
Why Must their numbers be controlled
In 1979 it was found that about 174 wild horses remained in the southern Kaimanawa area and in
1981 a protected area for the horses was established in response to concern that they would be
lost from the area. After they became protected in this area numbers increased until in 1997 the
population was at about seventeen hundred individuals, which was way too many for the area they
were in, causing the majority to be severely malnourished and a lot of inbreeding was going on
causing a lot of health concerns, so basically if someone actually owned the horses they would
have had them taken away and not allowed to own horses for the rest of their life.
At the moment, even after the control thats been going on for the last sixteen years, their breeding
rate is at 26% percent every year which means that without human intervention the population
would double every four years.
In the area where a lot of the horses were, Doc did a study and found about sixteen unique plant
species that are not found anywhere else in New Zealand, and they estimate that there are up to
31 species that the horses were endangering in the area due to overstocking.
So did a bit of research and found that 300 individuals was the lowest population size that can stll
remain genetically diverse and but have the least impact on the environment, which is the number
that the DoC aims to keep the population at after the musters every year.
Fifth Slide
Current Method
This is what has been happening since 2010 when the Kaimanawa Wild horse advisory group
decided to muster every second year instead of every year.
So in April DoC counts the horses, gets a rough estimate of how many horses need to be removed
to get the population back down to 300.
In June the surplus horses are all mustered, theoretically this is when pregnancies are considered
to be least vulnerable and most of the previous years foals are of a suitable weaning age.
Every single horse that goes into the muster yards must leave on the truck, whether its to a new
home or to be slaughtered.
Two organisations are currently able to put the horses in a home. Any potential owner has to go
through home checks to make sure they have suitable cattle yards for holding the horses in the
first few weeks as they have no idea what a fence is, and they have to have references to make
sure they know what they are doing, and know how to handle a wild horse that has never been
touched by a human before. They then say the approximate age and gender of horse that they
want and will be randomly allocated one and may not end up getting exactly what they want.
Sixth Slide
Problems With Current Method
These are some of the ethical problems with the current method of control. For starters, in 2012
there were 190 horses mustered, and out of that only 105 found homes and 85 horses with nothing
wrong with them other than the fact they couldn't find a place to live were slaughtered. Then in
2014(CLICK), so this year, 172 horses were mustered and only fifteen of those were slaughtered.
Of those fifteen, only ten were vetted unsuitable to be homed due to health issues like lameness or
serious injuries, or being to old to safely domesticate. So if you compare that to the previous
muster, if only ten of those 85 were unsuitable to be homed then 75 horses were killed just
because no-one wanted them.
I know that the numbers for this year were better than the last muster due to a lot of publicity in the
2012 muster, but when you think about it there are only so many people out there able and willing
to take wild horses in, and if they take them in this year then less people will be able to take in
horses next year as they still have horses that need training and feeding and won't have room for
another horse.
Seventh Slide
Problems with current method (pics)
So the muster is planned for a time when this years pregnancies are supposed to be at their least
vulnerable and last years foals are theoretically of a suitable weaning age. That isn't necessarily
true for all of the horses and there are going to be a few outliers in out there. I know of at least four
mares who slipped their foals in the first week after the muster, and some of those weren't even
the most stressed out horses. This mare, Bossy, we have a picture of her with a foal about two
weeks old in June of last year, and as you can tell from her tummy she's pretty much due to drop
any day now. And the foals are supposed to be of weaning age but this one here was only about
two months old when the muster happened, and she got left behind when the helicopter mustered
her herd in because she was too little to keep up. She is the most expensive horse ever mustered
off the ranges because the helicopter pilot then went out and followed her back in to the yards
since she probably would have died by herself being so young, and it took him an hour and a half
after he found her.
Even though the people taking in the horses have extensive home checks to make sure they have
the facilities to hold wild horses and they aren't complete beginners in horse handling, there are
going to be a few cases when the situation doesn't turn out to be ideal. Boy was taken by a woman
as part of a mare and foal combo, she then weaned Boy so she could work with his mother not
expecting him to be as young as he was. Not knowing any better she left him in the yards by
himself for two months after the muster as she only had one other buddy horse for the mare and
the foal couldn't really be expected to stay in a paddock alone. He was fed hay and a little bit of
hard feed, which may be okay for horses in work who are used to it, but for a four month old foal he
needed better nutrition than that. Because there are no follow ups he might have stayed like that
had the neighbour not offered to take him in and look after him.
Angel and Freddie were kind of a surprising case because Angel was left at the dispersion yards
due to a large cut on her face from coming off the truck. The people in charge of getting the horses
to their new homes, and these people had also done the home checks to make sure places were
suitable for wild horses pretty much put her out on a hill paddock to heal and didn't do any handling
of any sort with her. They went out to check her one day and found she had a two week old foal on
her that nobody had noticed, and came to her new home covered in lice, severly underweight and
with badly ingrown feet that were making her lame. She was in such a bad condition that if she had
been left where she was either her or the foal, maybe even both of them, would have died very
soon. And then, still in this state, after an accidental escape through a gate that should have been
shut she then went on to get pregnant again, showing how tough these horses are and how easy it
is for their population to grow despite being in terrible condition.
Eigth Slide
Possible Methods of Control
These are some of the methods that have been researched or tried out in the past to control the
population. They are immunocontraception, a auction and the methods that other countries use to
control their own wild horse populations
Ninth Slide
Country Comparisons
In Australia, they shoot their brumbies from a helicopter. Obviously this is not ideal to the general
public and for animal welfare reasons. Because the Kaimanawa Ranges are a much smaller area
than the whole of Australia we don't have to resort to such severe methods.
In America they have a no kill policy for their mustangs. Thousands of acres of yards are
constructed where mustered horses live for the rest of their lives, 34,000 individuals are currently in
holding facilities or long term pastures. Something ooof this scale is not ideal as it would be at the
tax payers expense, with all of the building and ongoing costs to keep them there.
Ten
Immunocontraception
This aims to slow the population growth so less horses need to be slaughtered. It means that they
owuld have to be mustered less frequently and would have less human interference.
One that was used was PZP. It was trialled in 1990's and failed, partly due to a faulty batch, and
had a lot of unpleasant side affects to horses health, wellbeing and behaviour. It was seen as
unpractical and uneconomic and the trial was stopped.
One that is a possibility is GnRH, which currently only has up to four years infertility but no effects
on the long term fertility known at the moment. It is being researched in North Dakota and is in the
middle of a eight year long term study of its effects on horses.
Eleven
Auction
This was tried out at the first few musters that happened. The buyers would have to be
preapproved as they are wild horses and would need suitable yards to hold them with people who
now what they are doing to handle them.
There were complaints at the first auctions that those with the biggest budgets take the best horses
instead of having an equal chance at all of them.
The whole process is far too stressful on the horses as the central muster yards are not suitable for
them to be auctioned from, so they would all have to be transported and housed elsewhere
probably for a few days before an auction could happen. And you can only imagine what damage
would happen with about 150 horses who have never been yarded would cause if they were all put
in cramped conditions, especially with mares with foals at foot and stallions in the mix, all from
different herds and getting very territorial.
Twelve
Suggestions/Ideal Situation
This is what I see as the ideal situation for both the horses and the people.
Continue to muster as at the moment it is the best method of keeping numbers down with the least
stress to the horses.
Have more research into the immunocontraception as in theory this would be the ideal way to keep
numbers down and have to muster less horses, possibly even extend the muster to every three or
four years instead of biannually if it works as it should.
I know that not all of the horses that are mustered would be suitable to be rehomed due to age or
persistent inury so there are a few who it would be kindest to put down but the makority are healthy
horses, so if there are twenty or so horses every couple of years kept in a similar way to the
American mustangs it's not going to be a huge expense to the taxpayer and it would be quite easy
for volunteers to settle that many horses to a stage where people who hadn't been sure about
getting a completely wild horse that had never been touched by humans or hadn't had the facilities
to hold them would be able to safely handle them.
ALso I think it would be a good idea to have follow up checks on the horses in the weeks after the
muster so that the people who are struggling can have help, and the welfare cases can be
recognised. They may not even realise that the way they are handling their horses could be a
problem later on, like Boy being fed wrong for his age. Sometimes people just need to be told that
its not a race, to just back off and let the horse settle in as it takes more than a month for a jumping
superstar to be created. Home visits wouldn't be neccessary to every home, maybe just to those
who are first timers, and phonecalls to people that have been dealt with before to see how they are
coping. At the moment the horses pretty much arrive at their new homes and the owners aren't
really given much ongoing support other than a number to call if things get really out of hand, when
its the small problems they often need help with that they don't see as being big enough to call up
and ask about.
Thirteen
References
Fourteen
Questions?