Helicopters are flying low over the tussock country near Waiouru this week as the Department of Conservation runs the third Kaimanawa wild horse muster of the year, herding the animals down off the range and into newly built yards to be sorted, vaccinated and found new homes.
The muster, on Defence Force land in the central North Island, is the latest stage of a long-running effort to keep the wild herd at a size the fragile alpine landscape can support. DOC is aiming to bring in between 150 and 170 horses over the operation, and the first day delivered 77 into the yards.
The wild horses have roamed these hills for about 150 years, and they have become one of the country’s best known free-living animal populations. The problem is that the herd grows faster than the land can cope with. The current wild population sits at around 540, while the level managers regard as sustainable is closer to 300. Left unchecked, the horses graze and trample the red tussock grasslands and rare native plants of the range, some of which grow nowhere else in the world.
For more than a decade the answer has been rehoming rather than culling. No Kaimanawa horse has been put down for population control in over ten years, a record the people running the programme are determined to protect. “We hope to bring in around 150-170 horses,” DOC’s Sarah Tunnicliffe told RNZ. “We can revax a bunch of mares of their second dose on contraception and also rehome some horses.”
That contraception work is now a central part of the plan. A trial that began in 2022 uses an immuno-contraceptive vaccine, given by qualified vets, that suppresses fertility in adult mares for up to four years. Over the Anzac period musters earlier this year, 97 mares were treated. The 50 mares first vaccinated back in 2022 received their second dose, and another 47 had their first, with the follow-up booster for that group being delivered during this June operation. The idea is to slow the birth rate so that fewer horses ever need to be removed in the first place.
Handling animals that have never known people is delicate and at times dangerous work. “They really are truly wild horses,” vet Lucy Russell told RNZ. “They’re not used to human presence or being handled.” To keep everyone safe, the mob is worked carefully through the yards. “We draft them through the race, draft the stallions off the main mob, so it reduces aggression,” vet Peg Leyland said.
The horses themselves are not making it easy. Chopper pilot Leon Parkes joked that the animals had the upper hand this time. “The horses are actually a bit stubborn this time around,” he said. “The last couple of rounds we’ve just done they’ve been mustering me, instead of the other way round.” Three helicopters work the range in coordinated pairs or alone, flying low to nudge the horses towards the yards, with operations winding up around 5pm as the daylight fades.
From this muster, 23 horses are due to be rehomed. That brings the total for the year so far to 81, after 58 were placed following the Anzac musters in April. DOC is working towards finding homes for about 150 over the course of 2026. The animals are checked, drafted and prepared before being handed to welfare and training groups who take over the long job of turning a wild horse into one that can live alongside people.
Demand for the horses has softened this year, and the reason is a familiar one. The cost of living has made fewer families willing to take on an animal that needs land, feed, time and patient training. Last year’s much larger muster found homes for more than 200 horses, which may also have gone some way to satisfying the pool of people able to take one on. Kelly Wilson, director of the Kaimanawa Legacy Foundation, which manages much of the training and keeps the database of rehomed animals, trained 16 horses from the April muster and expects to take seven from this one, well down on the numbers her facility handled a year ago.
Welfare oversight runs right through the operation. Carolyn Haigh, chairwoman of the Kaimanawa Heritage Horses Welfare Society, watches over the animals as they move through the rehoming process, while her organisation leads the push to find what DOC calls safe, long-term homes. The wider effort is steered by the Kaimanawa Wild Horse Advisory Group, which brings together several iwi, animal welfare experts, rehoming groups, environmental advocates, DOC and the New Zealand Defence Force.
The yards themselves are new, built in the south of the range to make the work smoother and less stressful for the animals. “The muster at the new southern yards went incredibly smoothly, which is a testament to the huge amount of work the DOC team and contractors have done to design and prepare them,” DOC Principal Ranger Nina Manning said in a statement.
For now the balance the programme is chasing is a quiet one. Keep the herd small enough that the mountains can recover, keep the mares’ birth rate down through the vaccine, and keep finding people willing to give a wild horse a paddock and a future. As DOC has put it, the musters are meant to be a win for both nature and the horses. You can read the welfare society’s own account of the contraception programme on the Kaimanawa Heritage Horses website, and the New Zealand Herald has reported on the expanding vaccine trial.
Have you rehomed a Kaimanawa horse, or seen the wild herd on the range yourself? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
Leave a Reply