Nestled deep within a diverse landscape of densely packed trees, logged corridors, muskeg, and open meadows is a home most classify as wild. Blending in with gnarly tree bark and tall prairie grasses are communities, often misunderstood, including some who’ve adapted to this environment that was not originally meant for them. Drawing wisdom from their ‘wild’ counterparts to sustain life are herds of wild horses.
One woman says she never would have found them without her greatest investigative partner, an intuitively smart and domestic chestnut Quarter Horse mare named Hope. Maureen Enns, a woman who casually refers to herself as an investigative artist, spent several years in the wilderness west of Calgary, Alberta, studying and documenting wild horses. Once you read her book, Wild Horses, Wild Wolves, however, you quickly understand that she is a brilliant trailblazer equipped with extensive knowledge of misunderstood animals, particularly grizzly bears, wolves, and wild horses.
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When Maureen’s research on wild horses commenced, she couldn’t locate them for an entire summer, even though she knew they were certainly there. Maureen and her horse Hope would walk by stud piles, remnants left by her research subjects, telling her as much. The wild horses were hidden. In the first year of her research, Maureen and Hope would walk down a trail, and Hope would stop without instructions to do so. At first, Maureen couldn’t find cause for her horses’ behaviour, dismissed it, and moved on. But as the months passed and the rides out into the same area of wilderness increased, Hope consistently repeated this tactic of stopping for no apparent reason. Maureen admits that she doesn’t look for the facts and rather allows knowledge to come to her, and after some time she considered that Hope must be stopping curiously for a reason; perhaps Hope knew something Maureen did not.
During one ride, Maureen decided that instead of prompting Hope to move on after stopping, they’d instead move from that point and around in a large circle to investigate the area. Low and behold, within the perimeter of that circle, Maureen spotted the swish of a tail. She paused and was pleased to have found horses watching Maureen and Hope frozen behind a cluster of trees. From this encounter, it had occurred to Maureen that the lead mare or stallion of the wild horse herd was signalling the horses not to move but to freeze, knowing they were in the presence of unfamiliar beings. Maureen deduced that Hope must have been picking up on that transmission from the wild horses and, therefore, freezing like her equine counterparts. This encounter further solidified Maureen’s belief that horses must have an innate ability to transmit messages amongst one another that humans can’t detect. Horses seem to communicate in ways we cannot and in ways we don’t fully understand.
Prior to studying wild horses, Maureen recognized that her domestic horse could decide when an animal was dangerous and when it wasn’t. This realization began with a horse she rode, a gelding named Spud, when studying grizzly bears in Banff National Park. Maureen and Spud were riding up a hill one day when they happened upon a mother grizzly hunkered over an elk she had killed, along with her two cubs. Her gelding didn’t move but instead turned sideways, and the cubs and their mother moseyed along closely in front of Spud, and the horse wasn’t afraid. The encounter of grizzly bears while riding Spud isn’t the only time she and a horse came within proximity of a predatory animal. During an early fall ride, Maureen, atop her mare Hope, spotted what she thought were black Angus cattle. Upon closer inspection, she discovered they were four black wolves. Maureen’s heart pounded with excitement, for with Hope, she wasn’t worried about the wolves at all because her mare was calm, instinctively knowing the wolves weren’t after her. She says, “If your horse is relaxed, you can relax.” This meeting with wolves would become the first of many, which Maureen details with the accompaniment of stunning pictures in her book. While collecting all that she could on horseback, Maureen decided to enhance her research on the wild horses by installing capture cameras within their usual habitats. This divulged an entirely different angle to how wild horses were interacting with the other members of their wild community.
Deer
Maureen believes the deer have been “wild mentors” to the wild horses by teaching them survival techniques. A deer will freeze in the forest if it senses danger and does not move. Wild horses seem to have copied that behaviour of the deer by freezing in place behind trees. When Maureen first started her research and couldn’t find a wild horse, she believed they were mimicking the survival behaviours of the deer.
Wolves
When Maureen was out and in the areas of the wild horses, she would continually see the tracks of wolves alongside the horses. The incredible thing was that she could tell by the tracks that neither the wild horses nor wolves were running, an interesting dynamic for these two species. A pivotal moment to enhance the theory of wild horses and wolves potentially co-existing happened with one of Maureen’s capture cameras. It showed a black wolf in the snow and in the stance of play mode, along with a stallion Maureen recognized and had named Kit. The stallion didn’t want to engage in play, but he turned sideways to the wolf, which, among wildlife, typically indicates trust. The wolf understood, laid down, and went to sleep as the stallion walked by it on its way. Maureen says, “Once you see something, you see it more often.” Another capture camera photographed wolves walking through a herd of wild horses, which had mares and their foals. There is also a picture of a pack of wolves with horses casually standing with them. Maureen wondered why the wolves seemed to consistently move with the wild horses. She believes that the wolves were cunning enough to understand that deer trust the wild horses, and if traveling with the horses, it offered them easy access to an easy food source, the deer. Wolves are particular hunters; they tend to appreciate killing what’s easiest.
Wild horses weren’t always “wild.” There was a time in Canada when people couldn’t feed their horses or sell them. The most humane approach to this crisis was thought to be to release the horses and allow them to roam free and forage. Wild horses have some incredible breeding—some of them thoroughbred. In the beginning, some of the wild horses were very good-looking. Incidentally, this created a new collection of horses, which we refer to in present day as the Wild Horse. Maureen calls it re-wilding, which means horses once of domestic origin have learned to live as wild animals—they learn how to eat and get out of the way of predators. Maureen has been around horses her entire life. Her family were ranchers, and they had an array of different horses, some of which she learned were rideable and some were not. Maureen has the ability to look a horse in the eye and trust or not trust them. With several decades of life experience, Maureen Enns knows a lot about horses.
Maureen still observes the wild horses in the same area where she documented them years ago. However, Maureen and Hope no longer investigate beyond their own backyard. At the age of 26, Hope doesn’t have much life left. Although she doesn’t have a horse to ride out, it doesn’t stop her from visiting the enchanting beings that capture her fascination. Instead, Maureen hikes out and feels fortunate to see a herd of wild horses each time she goes.
I have a unique trust in animals rather than allowing my own head to interfere. Animals are always willing to teach me if I’m willing to allow them to.
Maureen Enns is an internationally renowned artist, educator, conservationist, and author. Her book, Wild Horses, Wild Wolves, is published by Rocky Mountain Books and was the inspiration for this article. It is packed with stunning photos, art pieces, and incredible insights on wild horses. It is a phenomenal piece of work for any horse or animal lover.
Article by Amber Zierath, Photography credits Maureen Enns
About Amber
Amber is a Calgary-based, equine-focused writer and the author of the best-selling fiction novel Horse Karma. When she isn’t writing, you’ll find her with the horses; riding bareback in the mountains or spending time with the 60 geldings that inspire her. Learn more at: www.amberzierath.com.
