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Wild horses in western Canada are found primarily in forested areas, typically lodgepole pine woodlands interspersed with pockets of dry grassland, shrubland and sedge meadows.

While wild horses evolved on this continent, they went extinct over 10,000 years ago, and the horses currently roaming free are actually descended from mustangs that were introduced in the 1600s by the Spanish.

Nevertheless, after hundreds of years, many argue that the horses now here are a part of the Canadian ecosystem. Some experts also claim they’re the same species as the horses that disappeared millennia ago, meaning they’re really just a native species that has been reintroduced.

Nova Scotia’s Sable Island has its own genetically unique breed of wild horses. These small pony-like horses have been living on the island since the 1700s, and while they were once rounded up and sold, leading to near-extinction in the 1950s, they are now protected by the Canadian Government, in part due to having become a genetically unique group.

The only land-based mammals on the island, they have persevered partly because their digestive system is well adapted for the marram grass that covers the windswept dunes, explained McLoughlin, whose team researches population dynamics, behaviour, functioning within the ecosystem, parasitology and maintains an extensive database. 

Further Research:

Sable Island

Soon everyone will know the “definitive story of the Sable Island horses,” said Philip McLoughlin, a University of Saskatchewan population ecologist. He has studied these iconic animals for two decades. For 400 years, the horses have endured the punishing environment of what is essentially a 140-kilometre-long, 1.5-kilometre wide, crescent-shaped sandbar off the southwest coast of mainland Nova Scotia.

Romantic lore says they are descended from horses that swam to shore after countless area shipwrecks. Historical documentation has suggested they were introduced deliberately by the British during the expulsion of Acadians from Atlantic Canada in the mid-1700s.

However, using the latest in genome sequencing, McLoughlin’s team has discovered some fascinating details about the horses’ origin. With official results slated to be released this spring, McLoughlin can’t divulge further details, but he did share this intriguing tidbit: “It’s not what people think. The horses come out as being kind of special and related to a special branch of horses.”

Approximately 1,000 horses are believed to live in Chilcotin Plateau in B.C.’s interior, and like the horses of Sable Island, they are quite genetically isolated. In fact, recent genetic studies have found that these horses do not seem to be descended from Spanish horses the same way most North American wild horses are. They share more in common with the Canadian Heritage Horse (which has French ancestry), and even the Yakut horse from Russia. How they ended up in the interior of B.C. is a bit of a mystery, but it’s likely they’ll remain there, as the Xeni Gwet’in First Nation, which holds the title to the land the horses live on, has created a preserve for them — the only horse preserve in Western Canada.

The horses in Saskatchewan’s Bronson Forest are another group that have courted controversy in the past. In 2009, a private members’ bill protecting the horses passed.

Saskatchewan

The best-known free-ranging equines in Saskatchewan are the wild ponies of the Bronson Provincial Forest, about 100 kilometres northeast of the Alberta-Saskatchewan border town of Lloydminster.

No one knows for sure, but it’s believed these hardy, small-statured animals, none higher than 14.3 hands, are descended from horses used by pioneers and First Nations peoples, although community elders say they weren’t spotted until the late 1960s.

Following an incident in which five of the ponies were shot dead and dumped in a pile, a private member’s bill was introduced in the provincial legislature by local rancher and MLA Tim McMillan to designate the ponies a heritage breed. In 2009, the act passed, making it illegal to molest, interfere with, hurt, capture or kill them. Violators face a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to two months in prison. It’s the first Canadian legislation that specifically protects wild horses.

For 20 years, retired Alberta Fish and Wildlife officer Wayne Brown has unofficially tracked the ponies, which tend to range within five to 10 kilometres of his home on Bronson Lake.

Brown said the current population is now about half of the 70 or so he first counted many years ago. Split into three smaller herds, their biggest challenge is “significant wolf predation,” he said. “Colts are extremely vulnerable.”

However, Brown thinks the population is currently maintaining. He credits a wet 2017 for hampering ATV drivers from venturing onto grazing areas and “harassing” the animals. Plus, there’s been limited public access due to difficult-to-manage trails, good winter foraging conditions and permitted cattle grazing in meadows commonly used by the ponies (wolves favour calves over colts). “They do seem to persevere despite all the challenges they face.”

While the Bronson Forest ponies are safeguarded by law, other horses freely roam elsewhere in Saskatchewan. Largely considered pests, they destroy crops and property and create public safety issues. The problem is worst in the mid- to southwest quadrant of the province where many of the horses are owned by individuals in local First Nations communities who intentionally let them loose due to a lack of resources or infrastructure. Sometimes the horses escape.

Take, for example, the 40 or so roving horses living around the Resort Village of Cochin about 35 kilometres north of North Battleford that occasionally traipse through populated areas. “We’re almost immune to it now,” said village administrator Linda Sandwick. The real concern is horses on remote roads, especially in winter when grazing is scarce, and the animals gravitate to eat at the side of salt-laden highways. “It’s always a safety concern, especially at night. You’re travelling down the highway and five or six horses head up out of the ditch. It’s startling.”

She said the problem hasn’t seemed as bad in the past year or so, but the village continues to field complaints.

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture defines the horses as feral, so they fall under its Stray Animals Act. The onus is on the 296 rural municipalities (RMs) to round up horses within their own boundaries. The RM’s assume impound expenses if the owner can’t be determined. If the owners are found, they face penalties of up to $100 a day per animal.

Wild Horse Count 2021 – The Wild Horses of Alberta Society