page_title: Feral horse
section_title: Semi-feral horses
hierarchical_section_title: Feral horse / Semi-feral horses
caption_attribution_description: Exmoor pony mare and foal on Porlock Common. The vale of Porlock is visible behind them.
context_page_description: A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated stock. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these horses often are popularly called "wild" horses. Feral horses are descended from domestic horses that strayed, escaped, or were deliberately released into the wild and remained to survive and reproduce there. Away from humans, over time, these animals' patterns of behavior revert to behavior more closely resembling that of wild horses. Some horses that live in a feral state but may be occasionally handled or managed by humans, particularly if privately owned, are referred to as "semi-feral".
  Feral horses live in groups called a herd, band, harem or mob. Feral horse herds, like those of wild horses, are usually made up of small harems led by a dominant mare, containing additional mares, their foals, and immature horses of both sexes. There is usually one herd stallion, though occasionally a few less-dominant males may remain with the group. Horse "herds" in the wild are best described as groups of several small bands who share the same territory.
context_section_description: In the United Kingdom, herds of free-roaming ponies live in apparently wild conditions in various areas, notably Dartmoor, Exmoor, Cumbria (Fell Pony) and the New Forest.  Similar horse and pony populations exist elsewhere on the European continent. These animals, however, are not truly feral, as all of them are privately owned, and roam out on the moors and forests under common grazing rights belonging to their owners. A proportion of them are halter-broken, and a smaller proportion broken to ride but simply turned out for a while for any of a number of reasons (e.g., a break in training to allow them to grow on, a break from working to allow them to breed under natural conditions, or retirement). In other cases, the animals may be government-owned and closely managed on controlled reserves.
  Camargue horse, in marshes of the Rhone delta, southern France
  Dartmoor pony, England; predominantly domesticated, also lives in semi-feral herds
  Exmoor pony, England; predominantly domesticated, also lives in semi-feral herds
  Fell pony, predominantly domesticated, also lives in semi-feral herds in northern England, particularly Cumbria.
  Gotlandsruss, lives in a semi-feral herd in Lojsta Moor on the Swedish Island of Gotland.
  Konik, originated in eastern Europe, lives semi-feral in the Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands.
  New Forest pony, predominantly domesticated, also lives in semi-feral herds in the area of Hampshire, England
  Pottok, predominantly domesticated, also lives in semi-feral herds in the western Pyrenees.
  Dülmen pony, a German pony that lives in a wild herd in Westphalia with little help by humans.
caption: Semi-feral exmoor ponies on Porlock common, Exmoor. They are gathered each year to remove colts and assess stock.
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