Trail riders honoured for efforts to save wild horses

Every glimpse of a wild horse, running free, is as “awesome” as it was the first time, says the winner of a prestigious national award.

In Olds on Saturday, the International Fund for Animal Welfare presented local trail riders Bob and Doreen Henderson with its 2008 Wildlife Protection Award. Winners from previous years include novelist Farley Mowat and primatologist Jane Goodall.

Doreen Henderson said she and her husband, a retired Calgary police officer, have for years spent their weekends on horseback, looking for herds of wild horses in the hills along the Red Deer River, southwest of Sundre.

And then, in 2002, a woman who lives in the area wrote a letter to the Olds Albertan about two horses that had been captured in an illegal corral, shot, gutted and split — their remains left to rot.

The Hendersons were outraged.

They immediately set out to investigate provincial laws governing killing and capture of wild horses. Their discoveries led them to found the Wild Horses of Alberta Society, now nearly 400 members strong.

With the Hendersons at the helm, WHOAS efforts include constant lobbying of the provincial government, along with rescue of horses that have been brought into local auctions as slaughter animals.

“We still make a big stink when we do find dead horses and we’ve found 24 now, since 2002.”

Sadly, says Doreen, little has changed and the number of free-roaming horses has continued to decline.

“The government sticks to their guns about the horses are just feral and they’ve made minimal changes to the horse capture regulations, not even favourable to the horses.”

With help from Bear Valley Rescue at Sundre, the Hendersons recently salvaged 13 horses that had been captured and were on their way to the meat buyer.

A fellow advocate of wild horses had learned about the horses and sent the Hendersons a picture, from which Doreen and Bob recognized some of the horses they knew from the wilds.

All 13 horses, including four pregnant mares, have now found new homes, said Doreen.

She and her husband have also acquired a “wildie” of their own, a four-year-old that was found as a yearling, injured in a vehicle accident.

Wyley is now perfectly sound and learning his first lessons as a saddle horse.

Olivier Bonnet, IWAF’s Canada country director, said the Hendersons were the unanimous choice of the group’s selection committee, whose members are based in Guelph and Ottawa.

Bonnet said he hopes the award will help further the Hendersons’ and WHOAS’ efforts to save the wild herds.

bkossowan@reddeeradvocate.com