Come on guys slow down

More and more of this year’s wild horse foal crop are making their first appearance in this beautiful world.  This past Saturday I was accompanied by Sandie as I toured the back country to photograph the new arrivals.

A couple of years back Sandie had bought at an auction, a horse that she believed had been a wildie.  He was not quite a year old when she bought him and named him Juno.  The past little while we had exchanged e-mails and she had sent me a couple of pictures of Juno.  Once I looked at pictures of him, I assured Sandie that he was indeed, a wild horse that had been captured and ended up at the auction.  This just heightened her want to visit the wild horses and come in contact with the deep spiritual connection she has inside herself for these magnificent creatures.

Except for the wind, the day was great and we were able to come across several herds and observed 16 foals with the herds.  One of the first we found in the mornings was brand new, still wobbling and having to lean on mom for support.  It was a great day for Sandie and I let her know that she must be blessed because of the closeness we got to so many of the horses.

Sunday came and friends of Sandie’s phoned her to let her know that they had found this wild horse foal that was only around two days old and it could not get up at all.  They then took the foal under their wing until Sandie could get there to help.  After giving me a quick call to let me know, off she went with a friend to where the foal was being attended to.   The foal was indeed in extreme need of medical attention.  With her friend driving and Sandie holding onto the foal in the back of the horse trailer, they hurried to Moore’s Veterinary Centre.  When she talked to me from the back of the trailer you could hear the concern in her voice about the future of the little guy.

Once there the vets confirmed that he had almost no antibodies in his system and probably had not received any of the mare’s colostrum.  Why and what happened to the mare we are unsure of.

On the phone again I told Sandie that she had to do what was right inside her heart for the foal but that WHOAS would support her in her decision.  It was then decided to give the foal a transfusion of antibodies to at least give the small thing a chance.  Not arriving home until 3:00 AM, Sandie spent the night in the horse trailer with the foal laying it’s head on the same blanket that Sandie was resting her’s on.  The next night she did the same, in order  to make the foal feel safe and secure. From here the story just continues to be better, as the young boy has started to drink it’s milk, go for walks around Sandie’s farm yard with her and slowly begins to explore it’s new world and home.

On Wednesday I had a chance to visit Sandie, Juno and the new addition, the yet to be named foal.  My heart melted again as the litle guy came out of the trailer and walked right up to me putting it’s face up to mine and bunting me wanting a drink of milk. I would now like to introduce you to the young boy.

Save and secure

Gaining strength and wanting love

Oh goodie, dinner.

Oh, that tastes so good.

After having drank some of it’s milk Sandie and I decided to introduce Juno to one of his kin, another wildie.  After seeing it for myself with my wildie, Wylie, I believe that wild horses recognize their own.  Juno got extremely excited and wanted to run and play with the fragile little guy.  Both Sandie’s and my heart raced as Juno started to run and move the young boy, in order to get him to run too.  In order to protect the young boy from being bumped too hard we  had to intervene and I carried him back to the security of his own pen.  You could tell the foal is feeling much better and getting more strength and balance.  Once in the pen he put himself to bed and after all that excercise, quickly fell asleep.

I'm so tired

After such a rough start in life this young fellow is truely one of those miracles that makes me even more committed and in love with the work I do in order to protect his kind.

This coming Tuesday, Sandie will be having a native naming event to give her latest addition a name.  I want to thank Sandie, her friends and, Moore’s Veterinary staff who have given him a new chance in life.

Bob.

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Growing up Yepa and Snowstorm

Spring is slowly making it’s way back into wild horse country.  There is still lots of snow about, but the hillsides and valley bottoms are greening now.  With that the wild horse herds have migrated down into these lower meadows so that the pregnant mares will have a place to graze and give birth to this year’s foals.  This year I saw the earliest born foal, January 23/11, born to a wild horse herd, (Yepa,  above).  In March a mare in the same herd also had an early foal (Snowstorm, above).  These two are now the best of buddies and are also close together. Snowstorm’s mom seems to have taken on the job of babysitting them both.

Many other mares were still heavy in foal up to about two weeks ago.  This past Sunday it was pouring rain but that is never a reason to stay home and besides my Akita’s needed a good run.  Off we went with me vowing that I would stick to the main roads this time of year.  It was a pure joy for me to come across the herds we did, and to see the new foals some  of the herds had with them.

Mom's warm milk

In the pouring rain and sometimes snow, I felt a little bit sorry for the foals as the younger ones would just stand close to the herd with their backs humped up trying to stay warm.

I'm cold

The foals that are two to three weeks old were not as perturbed by the weather and put on some hilarious antics pretending that they were as big and brave as the adult horses.  They would go on alert and run to the front with the stallion or lead mare to see what the fuss was about.

What are you looking at

I will protect you mom

With the birth of the foals some of the herds are very wary and flee at the first sign of danger.  We ran across this with one particular herd that has a white mare, (“Isatas”).  I have found that the herds with a white gene prevalent in it,  will always seem to be much more elusive.  I believe this may be due to the way they stand out against the landscape.  In her herd, that is sired by stallion “Chatan” there were two other mares with foals.  “Isatas” foal was completely black though, while the two with the other bay mares were the typical fawn color.  As soon as they saw us the herd dashed off for the safety of the trees.

Off to safety

Come my child

One little foal in the Kline Lake herd put on quite the show for us as it investigated a forestry warning sign, bugged it’s mom and  then danced around in an effort to stay warm.  Even though the day was dismal with the rain, watching this little foal made the sun come out in my heart.

Bear!!!!! What bear.

Then there was the other foal that was so busy and excited about investigating a log that it’s little tail was straight out quivering with excitment.

This smells funny

The weather is supposed to warm up for awhile now and this will allow the foals already on the ground to strengthen and allow the mares still in foal to be give birth in warm sunshine.  I will be out there again this week to check on them and to keep our members updated.

I just need to get this baby on the ground to feel better.

Thanks to all who continue to support WHOAS and the work we are trying to do to protect and save your wild horses.

Bob.

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On April 26, 2011, in Calgary Provincial Court charges against the three individuals that were charged over the killing of a wild horse in 2009 were withdrawn by the Crown. At this point WHOAS would like to clarify the information as I know over this incident.

In August of 2009 Crime Stoppers did a segment over the killing of three wild horses in April of that year in which it stated that WHOAS was offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individuals responsible. Subsequently the RCMP advised us that they had indeed received information from informants and as a result had arrested the 3 adults and youth for this offence. Quite quickly we began to receive phone calls from individuals stating that they were the ones who had provided the information and that they were eligible for the reward money. When speaking with these people I continually informed them that the reward would be payable upon conviction. A few of these people accepted this and never bothered to phone again. However, one individual in particular, Chuck Kollin, continually harrassed and threatened us demanding that he be paid the reward money immediately since these 3 had been arrested. He was continually advised that the payment of the reward was always upon conviction.  I had approached Crime Stoppers to seek their help in distributing this money if it was to be paid out. However, the RCMP Crime Stoppers refused to help me as did the Calgary Crime Stoppers. I, myself, felt we were abandoned by the system in dealing with this alleged confidential informant. This was despite his onslaught against myself and my wife at that time. This caused great fear for my wife for our safety and we had to hire a lawyer to represent us and WHOAS to deal with this person. Again this did not work. He began to write to my employer defaming me to them; he wrote to the bar association over our lawyer’s refusing also to submit to his demands for the money. He went as far as to get hold of some of our private donors again defaming me over my refusal to bow to this pressure.

All along stories continually surfaced that the accused in this case had been set up by someone just after the reward money was announced. It is my understanding that the accused were not charged with the shooting of the 3 horses in April, but rather one that was supposedly shot in September of 2009. Of this I’m not totally sure because we were not privileged to this information even though we were personally having to deal with Mr. Kollin. Thoughout the time up to the date of the trial I always believed due to my experience that there was something wrong with this case. I would pass any information along to the proper authorities.

Why would someone be so urgent to get the money and why would somebody shoot and kill horses so close to where they lived and worked and that draws the public to this area? This is my own personal belief, as I have also photographed wild horses directly across the road from Mountain Aire Lodge. WHOAS has never come out and demanded blind justice against any individuals in the killing of any of the horses we have found. Even in my statements to the media, I always expressed my belief that the judicial system has to have the chance to work properly.

It is always unfortunate when people are brought before the courts when they are not quilty of any offence and I know this personally myself. WHOAS continues to hope that whoever did commit these offences will finally be brought to justice. You can be assured that the reward funds are intact in a trust fund, in the event that it may be necessary in the future to hopefully bring the perpetrator(s) to court. WHOAS will always continue to stand up for the protection of the wild horses of Alberta, which is our mandate.

I felt it very necessary to finally present this information to all our members and supporters as I was not able to beforehand due to being subpoenaed to court over this matter.

Bob.

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