We would like to acknowledge that the Alberta Mountain Horses inhabit the traditional lands of the Stoney lyethkabi, (mountain) people.

It all started as usual as we went out to monitor the rate of grass growth at several locations in the Equine zones. As a note on this, we do have teams of volunteers doing this monitoring in the Equine Zones, except the Nordegg and Brazeau zones. This will assist us in our citizen research into what affect the horses have on the rangelands in these zones.

It was a chilly start to the day and the valleys were hazy filled with thick smoke. None the less, it is always great to be out in the foothills of our province. As we travelled we began to see the Alberta Mountain Horses we love so much and began to photograph the different horses that we came across.

As we went along we came across an area with several horses with a few young foals frolicking about or sleeping. Everything was serene and peaceful, making one appreciate so much what these beautiful horses represent to all of us that take the time to advocate to get them better protection and respect.

As we went along we came across the small family group we consistently see of a beautiful black stallion, a black mare and their foal. We are quite familiar with this family and they always seem to be off by themselves away from other bands in the area. It was great to see their foal is so healthy and growing quickly.

A little further along we noticed one little foal sound asleep with the mom a short distance away and another mare and its foal close by. Here’s where the story starts.

It is the little foal further out that we were about to have some anxious moments about. But in the meantime we enjoyed the beauty that surrounded us and continued our drive to another of our grass monitoring sites. We continued to take pictures of the horses we saw. We came across this family with a battle scarred stallion. They struck a wonderful family pose for us.

Heading back into the area where that we had just mentioned we found that the bands had moved off from where we had first seen them. We saw that one of the stallions was chasing a mare of his who kept trying to go back to where they had come from. We didn’t know why this was happening.

Just a short distance down the road we came across the foal all by itself still flat out. Something was wrong here as there was no mare nearby. Most of the bands had moved a considerable distance off. We watched this baby from a short distance and it appeared to be in difficulty. We were very concerned and were unsure as to what to do. We always have a baby halter in the truck just in case. We decided to approach it to see if it was hurt. It could barely lift its head and didn’t move. It seemed to have trouble breathing. Had it been hit or kicked? I approached it and it hardly responded to me touching it to see if its legs were okay or if we could see if there were other injuries. I pulled it onto a little bit of a side hill and this immediately seemed to help it a bit as it was able to lift its head. It started to breath easier but still its mare was no where around.

All of sudden the black stallion and his mare that stay off by themselves started to approach and call out to warn whoever that someone was touching their baby. At this point we backed off to see what would happen. Remember it is not unusual for mares to leave their sleeping foals as they feed off a bit. We stood back as these two continued to call and we wondered what would happen next.

All of a sudden thundering hooves and here came the stallion that was previously chasing his mare. He was at full speed coming towards the other three horses. Right behind him came the mare that he had been chasing. The stallion charged toward the horses that had been calling and suddenly saw his foal just laying there. Under his breath it seemed like he said “Get up and run!” That is exactly what happened. The foal sprung to his feet and raced off at full speed, joined up with the mare, his mom, and off they went at full gallop with the stallion chasing them at their heels.

Such a relief to discover this little foal was okay and able to join back up with his band. We when looked back we could see that he was nursing! It was not the fault of any of these horses. It is just the way it is in wild horse country. Sometimes you just have to let nature be. This is such a happy ending!