Jan. 23. Wild horses out West !

This is a herd of wild horses in the West country. Some of these horses would have been born in the wild, some horses would have joined the herd of wild horses while they were out in the back country as saddle horses and one night followed the call of a stallion. There is different herds of wild horses in the Eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains, interesting enough they never wander towards the farmland. These picture is taken on the Nordegg-River-Road, driving from the small hamlet of Nordegg North on the Forestry Trunk road; about 80 km West of our ranch.
The wild horses are generally in good shape and seem to do very well even in cold winter with plenty of snow. They don't have many natural enemies, only very few cougars can kill a horse, most cougars and all other predators would not attempt to hunt a wild horse. These wild horses often prefer to graze near a back road, since there is more grass in the ditch and clearings, and they are quite used to trucks driving by, but they would scatter quickly if somebody would approach them, similar to deer.