page_title: Free-roaming horse management in North America
section_title: Alberta Mountain Horses or "Wildies" of Alberta
hierarchical_section_title: Free-roaming horse management in North America / Western Canada / Alberta Mountain Horses or "Wildies" of Alberta
caption_attribution_description: English: A small herd of wild horses "Wildies" in the foothills of Alberta in winter.
context_page_description: Management of free-roaming feral and semi-feral horses, on various public or tribal lands in North America is accomplished under the authority of law, either by the government of jurisdiction or efforts of private groups. In western Canada, management is a provincial matter, with several associations and societies helping to manage wild horses in British Columbia and Alberta. In Nova Scotia, and various locations in the United States, management is under the jurisdiction of various federal agencies. The largest population of free-roaming horses is found in the Western United States. Here, most of them are protected under the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, and their management is primarily undertaken by the Bureau of Land Management, but also by the U. S. Forest Service
  Because free-roaming horses multiply quickly, able to increase their numbers by up to 20% per year, all North American herds are managed in some fashion in an attempt to keep the population size at a level deemed appropriate. In the western United States, implementation of the WFRH&BA has been controversial.
context_section_description: Free-roaming horses on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta are known locally as the Alberta Mountain Horse or "Wildie" (French: Cheval de Montagne de l'Alberta). On November 1, 2014, the non-profit advocacy group Wild Horses of Alberta Society (WHOAS) entered into a five-year agreement with the Alberta provincial government's Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD). This agreement authorized WHOAS to effectively and humanely manage the feral horse population in a 490 km2 portion of the Sundre Equine Zone on the Eastern Slopes. By November 2017 WHOAS had completed the first three years of a selective contraception program using Zona Stat-H, a form of Porcine Zona Pellucida vaccine, or PZP. WHOAS has vaccinated approximately 82 mares by free-range field darting, some of these mares have received booster shots.  With one shot a mare is 70-80% less likely to conceive for the 1st year, depending on the time of year in which she is vaccinated. This increases to 90% with the administration of a booster shot. The contraceptive effects wear off with the chance of conception increasing every year post-vaccination.  WHOAS also runs a 20-acre horse rescue facility west of the Town of Sundre for those horses that run into trouble and have to be removed from the wild. The rescue facility will also take in orphaned foals to be raised, gentled and adopted out. In early 2018 the Alberta Government agreed to consider proposals from other not-for-profit groups to conduct PZP contraceptive programs in other areas of concern to maintain the population at manageable levels. If successful, these programs will replace Government captures and culls.
caption: A small herd of "Wildies" in the foothills of Alberta in winter.
exif: {}