In the Rockies, advocates say feral herds are being wrongfully blamed for ecological damage that the province wants to contain, if necessary, with population control…

Among vast meadows dotted with yellow flowers and sprawling evergreen trees, wild horses gallop freely in central Alberta, playfully fighting in the summer sun or grazing on grasses and shrubs with their equine buddies.

On a breezy day in June, two young stallions, chocolate-brown coats glistening, circle each other before jumping into the air and wrapping their front legs around each other’s necks. A lone white stallion disappears into a forested area nearby while other horses, in shades of grey, brown and black, blend into the rolling landscape.
But what these carefree creatures don’t know is that they are at the centre of a decade-long battle between a wild horse advocacy organization and the provincial government. At stake is the horses’ very existence.

Alberta argues it has to manage the wild horse population to prevent damage to its pasture land – it says the horses’ grazing habits contribute to ecological decline. The province has, in the past, ordered the cull of hundreds of horses.

Meanwhile, the Help Alberta Wildies Society (HAWS), which was formed in 2014 to fight a government-sanctioned slaughter, asserts that the province’s concerns are overblown and that the population must be protected at all costs.