Homes sought for wild horses following muster
Up to 80 wild horses will need homes after the 2019 Kaimanawa horse muster in April but so far there are only 13 applicants.
Kaimanawa Heritage Horses chairwoman Kimber Brown said the situation was now urgent.
‘‘We really need to make a big push for finding homes, and we really need people to get their application in as soon as possible.’’ The horses made amazing companions, Brown said.
The horses come from the Waiouru Military Training Area and are mustered by the Department of Conservation (DOC) to keep the ecosystem in balance.
Brown said the horses came from a family and removing them was breaking that family up. ‘‘It’s a huge pressure on them. They have to climatise to a new home.’’
The horses were also getting larger and healthier due to good nutrition, she said. However, as they were wild horses, extra care and attention was needed for them to settle in to fenced homes.
In the past few weeks, DOC had been counting the horses to determine how many must go.
DOC Central Plateau operations manager Dave Lumley said the horses would be mustered to maintain the herd size at 300. ‘‘[It] allows for both good vigour in the animals and minimal impact on the rare and fragile plants that make up the ecology of the Waiouru Military Training Area,’’ Lumley said.
The only mustered horses that would be euthanised would be those deemed unfit by a vet for transportation or re-homing.
Applications for homing the horses close on April 1 and the muster takes place at the end of April.