by: Margi Keys

This was a trip with a difference. We were a convoy of 12 vehicles making our way through tussocky army land east of Waiouru, in search of the famous wild horses that roam an area the size of Tongariro National Park that includes the Moawhango Ecological District. A fire-induced landscape, it was forested 600 years ago and grazed as a farm until 1990.

Our leader was Peter McNaughton, now a consultant to the army, who briefed us on unexploded ammo and the rules of army roads (eg 40 kmph speed limit). We were accompanied by conservation analyst Bill Fleury from DOC’s Wanganui office and Staff Sergeant Bert Jordan in camouflage gear.

The first horses came to New Zealand in 1814, thanks to Samuel Marsden. Explorers, surveyors and the constabulary used them. Maoris traded them. Some escaped and had become feral by 1876. The horses were given protection under the Wildlife Act in 1981. DOC assumed responsibility for them from 1987, taking over from the Wildlife Service.

An annual muster in June, using experienced stockmen with a background in polo and handling wild livestock, aims to keep horse numbers down to about 350, to reduce damage to wetlands and rare plant species. About 2000 animals have been removed from the area in the last 24 years. The Kaimanawa Wild Horse Preservation Society advertises for people to take the horses. Wannabe owners are vetted for suitability and if they pass they pay an admin fee before collecting their horse. The society and Kaimanawa Wild Horse Welfare Trust have a representative on the management group. Forest & Bird, SPCA and the Vets Association are also represented.

Our trip included checking out Lake Moawhango and its dam, plots of hard tussock and bristle tussock which have been fenced off for 18 years; some bush remnants which included at least two beech species, mistletoe, alpine toatoa, Hall’s or mountain totara (Podocarpus hallii), pahautea (Libocedrus bidwillii), koromiko, braodleaf (Griselinia littoralis), kanuka and manuka, and Westlawn Camp. A quaint historic hut in a copse there had rafters of beech poles and sacking lining. I spied a tomtit in the bush.

We stopped for geological interpretation of the landscape (an ancient shoreline boundary) and at one point searched for fossils. A 20-minute walk to a redoubt enclosed by a barbed-wire fence had Annette puzzled as to its design.

We were rewarded with many sights of groups of beautiful horses along the way. Some were curious. The first foals of the season had already been born.