Photographers and good friends Joanne King, Barbara Bostock and Jamie Dear were about to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure when they set out in search of wild horses on Good Friday. The weather was glorious, with temperatures rising to a balmy 18 degrees. Turquoise blue skies stretched over the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains west of Sundre, Alberta. Long weekend revellers arrived in droves, pulling camping trailers and toy haulers loaded with offroad vehicles.
The trio didn’t have far to go before coming across several bands grazing on a hillside. This is the time of the year when the herds move down from the interior ranges to the lush spring pastures, where mares birth their foals and stallions challenge each other for breeding rights.
They came across the stallion Teddy and his band which to their delight already had two young foals in their midst. The band was grazing in an open area on the side of the hill, with another band in close proximity. Cavalier, a heavily pregnant mare, came into view, plunked down on the ground and to the astonishment of the photographers, proceeded to give birth.
The ladies kept a respectful distance, capturing the special moment by zooming in with their telescopic lenses. To say they were thrilled is an understatement. My grandson Hunter and I arrived shortly after and witnessed the foal struggling to stand. We, too, kept our distance, not wanting to disturb the new mom and baby.
The five of us huddled together at the bottom of the hill near the gravel road, speaking in whispers as ATV’s roared past and gunshots could be heard ricocheting in the distance. Some people apparently thought it was a good idea to have target practice today.
Cavalier, with her newborn foal at her side, moved downhill towards a small stand of mixed forest. A curious stallion trotted over to investigate. Cavalier let fly with both hind legs, while her foal scurried out of the way.
We watched nervously as other curious horses ventured over. Stallions from neighbouring bands have been known to kill a rival’s newborn foals. Two stallions arrived, snorting and blowing. In the ensuing skirmish, the foal was thrown into an overgrown cottonwood bush and stayed lodged there even after the stallions dispersed. Minutes later, Cavalier’s band left the pair, weaving single file through the forest, crossing the road for a drink of water. Joanne assured us she’d seen this behaviour before and said the band always comes back.
Cavalier was circling the bush in a panic, calling to her baby. For a moment I was afraid the foal would require human intervention to get herself untangled. Luckily, after ten agonizing minutes and the sound of branches cracking, the foal stood up on wobbly legs, unharmed.
We all breathed a collective sigh of relief and decided it was safe to leave them alone now, intending to check on them again in a few hours. Hunter and I returned around 4:30 and by this time Cavalier and her foal had moved further into the forest. We witnessed their band file back into the trees and surround them. One subadult lay down beside them in the clearing, but when he stood up a few minutes later, Cavalier gave him the boot with her hind legs. She was being protective ‒ a good sign. The foal, who had been resting, stood up to nurse. She had a hard time walking to her mom’s side, tripping over fallen logs and underbrush. Not the best spot for a mare and new foal, but they seemed to have bonded well and the foal was nursing. It was time for my grandson and I to go home.
Little did I know that in 30 minute’s time, all that would change. For some reason the band spooked ‒ possibly because of the quads and dirt bikes ripping around the area, although we can’t be sure ‒ and the foal, unable to negotiate the tangled underbrush and fallen logs of the forest floor, was left behind. Unlike their domestic counterparts, wild horses have an overly-sensitive and incredibly strong fight-or-flight response, and Cavalier had instinctually fled with her band.
Brook Jennings, who was camping in the area with her children, came across the abandoned foal in the forest, walking in circles and crying out for her mother. She sat and waited for 40 minutes, then hiked up the ridge and scanned the horizon. Nothing. Cavalier was nowhere in sight. Brooke jumped in her car, drove to an area with cell service and contacted Joanne King, whom she had spoken to earlier. She later discovered Cavalier and the herd more than a kilometre away, across a steep hill and down the mountain.
Brooke returned to keep an eye on the foal, whom her young daughter had already named Bubbles. She heard the sound of thundering hoofbeats drawing closer and watched in horror as two rival bands entered the forest. Several horses raised their heads, drew their lips back, and made flehmen responses to Bubbles, who was lying in silence beneath a pine. By some miracle they didn’t harm the helpless foal and moved on.
Bubbles had been abandoned at 5:00 and it wasn’t until 9:00 that she was rescued by HAWS (Help Alberta Wildies Society). It can be a difficult call to determine how long is enough time to wait to see if the mother will come back. Foals are fragile and can quickly take a turn for the worse. A newborn has only a short six-hour window to be rescued or they aren’t viable, whereas a four-week-old has a about a week. New foals also nurse every ten minutes and Bubbles had been without milk for four hours already. Bubbles never would have survived the night, alone and helpless, with an empty stomach and the temperatures set to plummet.
When Bubbles arrived at the HAWS North 40 rescue ranch, she was dehydrated and suffering from meconium impaction, a buildup of the first foal feces in her intestines. Left untreated, it can lead to life-threatening complications such as colic and intestinal obstruction. Bubbles required multiple enemas to relieve the impaction and afterwards required treatment with biosponge for persistent diarrhea. Dehydration caused by not nursing for hours also played a significant role in her deteriorating health.
Luckily there were many people watching out for her. Now she is safe and warm, with a full belly, her medical needs addressed, being bottle-fed while waiting for the arrival of a nurse mare to be her foster mother.
Bubbles was removed from the wild and can never be returned ‒ but the alternative would have been certain death.
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