The message came on Monday afternoon, August 19th, from Samantha Potvin Besler, who’d been camping for the weekend with her family out in the Alberta backcountry near Cutoff Creek. They’d set up camp and had been exploring on their quads when they came across a young wild horse foal standing guard over his deceased mother and jumping on her body to scare away the winged predators. He hid in the cottonwoods beside his mother when Samantha approached, but she managed to coax him out, crouching low to the ground and reassuring him with her soft voice.
The month-old foal had been surviving on grass and drinking from the putrid puddle of water beside the rotting carcass of his mother. His herd had abandoned him and he was all alone.
Samantha checked on him daily, unsure how to help, aware that it was illegal to remove a ‘wildie’ foal from the wilderness without a capture permit.