The rise and fall of a wild horse venture

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 658, 15 October 1996, Page 10

The rise and fall of a wild horse venture

The debate over the Kaimanawa wild horses is raising sweat on the brows of animal lovers, conservationists and politicians. The sheer diversity of opinion perhaps indicates that not a lot is known about them. Ex-Ohakune resident Noel Shepherd notes here "afew personal observations, as someone who tried to make a living from them": In November 1986 my partner, Sue, and I tramped into the southern part of the Kaimanawa Forest Park. The first day of this trip took us from the Desert Road to the eastern Moawhango Stream. This section, known as the southern access corridor, was given to the then Forest Service in exchange for a finger of land that extended into the Army training area which interfered with artillery practice. That first night Sue and I camped on the eastern Moawhango at a point where the southern access corridor met Army land, Kaimanawa Forest Park proper and Maori land belonging to Tu wharetoa, an area that I was to come to know very well over the next five years because of what happened that evening. As we were preparing camp we were visited by four horses. They approached to within 50 meters and kept an eye on us as they continued grazing. Our cameras went crazy and we were pretty excited about the experience. That first encounter with the wild horses was nothing short of memorable. I began thinking about the tourist potential of such an asset. In early 1987 1 went back into the area with a friend for a four-day hunting trip. There were horses everywhere. We looked into the Tu wharetoa block from a ridge and immediately spotted four groups of horses. The closest group of about seven horses were all jet black, without a white sock or star among them. Near the Ngawhareangarua trig a lone old stallion kept guard on the eastem Moawhango. Pairs of younger stallions were very spooky and galloped away when approached. Family groups of up to 10 horses

were much quieter. The condition of the horses varied hugely. Some were scruffy and sway-backed. Others, mainly the stallions, were sleek and fit. They were every colour, from black to golden with blond manes. On prominent brows or strategic track crossings were large piles of dung — possibly territorial markings. The horses seemed to stay in their family groups but their territories certainly overlapped and the horses moved around quite a lot. Our most hair-raising encounter occurred when my friend Phil and I were out trying to chase up some camp meat. The Kaimanawa- country is largely rolling tussock lands, with rocky outcrops on the ridges and beech forest around the steep "head-guts" of small creeks. We were sneaking around one of these bush areas when we came within 70 metres of a group of about six horses. We sat down in the tussock about 20 metres apart to watch them. Regular Kaimanawa hunters will tell you that the horses have better eyesight than deer and certainly this group soon spotted us. They ran off 100 metres or so, the mares leading and a large stallion at the rear. The stallion soon returned to check us out, trotting to a position between Phil and I, only about 10 metres between us. I took a couple of photos, ran out of film, and sat back waiting for him to lose interest. But he didn't. He began walking back and forth between us, intrigued by these critters crouching in the tussock. We cocked our rifles. The magnificent animal came to within two metres of me. He propped his front legs, stretched his neck, snorted and trotted back to Phil. He did this about four times before finally chasing off (or being led off by) his mares, which had been edging closer. "Exhilaration ! Tourists will love this! !"I thought. "We' 11

make a fortune! Kaimanawa Wild Horse Camera Safaris here we come!!" By next summer I had a concession take people in to see the horses. The Kaimanawa Forest Park was no trouble — insurance, emergency procedures, pay some money — that's about it. For ease of access and an extended range we wanted to be able to go into the Tu wharetoa land. The Tu wharetoa Trust is a large iwi business and they were playing things close, but several individuals gave me permission to cross parts of their land. An Army officer checked that we weren' t going onto their patch. I printed a thousand brochures and were in business. Not!! Nobody seemed interested. "Who cares about a few scruffy brumbies? Is it a horse trekking businesses. We don't have to walk do we? Can we shoot them? We want to do it all in one day?" people said. Finally a family of three — mum, dad and daughter — booked for a four-day trip. I gave a money-back guarantee that they would see horses, they paid a deposit and we were on our way. The Gammons were to be our one and only commercial trip. Initially I didn't tell them that they were the first. I certainly didn't expect them to be the last. Organisation was formidable. With the help of Ohakune locals who were keen to see the horses, we packed all our camping gear into the area. We laid emergency caches, stocked food and wine, worked out menus, etc., etc. Phil and his wife, (another Sue), went in the day before to pitch camp and have a meal ready. The Gammon family, John, June and their daughter Carla, of Palmerston North, were charming. They were not particularly fit, which was a little worrying, but they had light packs and as mine was enormous our paces were wellmatched for the eight hoiirs to camp! On the way in we saw our group of horses, sopayment %as assured. The Gammons had a marvellous time, or said

they did. The first night and next day was a violent gale and torrential rain. On the third day mum and dad watched as Carla walked amongst a group of 10 horses. She was used to riding and seemed to know how to talk to them so that they weren' t alarmed. They watched her carefully as they grazed, The cameras ran hot and Carla, who initially had been least keen on doing the trip, was ecstatic. That evening a group of about six horses passed within 30 metres without noticing us until they heard the shutters clicking. There were no more commercial trips. In 1991 DoC published their Draft Management Strategy \yhich called for the elimination of h'orses from "my" area. The results of this report were profound. I was named as a concessionaire, with the comment that I had run no commercial trips. This was a bit embarrassing: I had to go and pay DoC their cut from the Gammon trip. Soon afterwards someone started chasing the horses, or perhaps shooting them. They became increasingly wary. On my last trip, the only horses I saw were running before I got to within "a kilometre. Many of the horses must have drifted back into Army land or out toward the Desert Road, where some problems occurred around this time. Other horses headed north into the high Kaimanawas, where they hadn't ranged since the 1960's. One was seen near the Waipakihi hut in 1992. DoC will never get all of these. .The management strategy was becoming, in my opinion, counterproducti ve. Publicity about DoC's plans had another result — large numbers of people were now interested in seeing them. I had to decline. Nobody would be much interested in walking four days to see the arse-end of a horse disappearing in a cloud of dust. Pressure groups wanted my support to preserve the wild horses. My pleas to them to work with DoC toward a compromise were ignored by most. My own work toward a compromise was also ignored. I surrendered my

concession and made a submission on the plan asking that DoC, Tu wharetoa and the Army work toward saving a nucleus of horses at the Moawhango East — Southern Access crossing area. My argument was and is that this was the only area where the public could walk in to see Kaimanawa wild horses at any time, and without getting permission from anyone I should emphasise that 'was' is the operati ve word. I couldn't guarantee that you would see much more than a few old hoof prints now. I see hope in the claim of a Tuwharetoa hapu over ownership of the horses. Maybe they have plans to preserve some horses on their land, which is outside the original "protected area." As things stand we are going to end up with around three hundred horses in the southern part of the Army land, with restricted access, and a managed, (not wild), herd. But the horses do damage the flora of the Kaimanawas. In my opinion it would be better to shoot every second horse over the whole of their present range and let the rest run free. So much for personal . opinion. There is a lot of itwhen it comes to the Kaimanawa Wild Horses. When Sue and 1 first walked into the southern Kaimanawas, when we first saw the horses, Sue became sick. She had drunk some water from a small tarn on the way in and we put her illness down to that. Over the next four days we walked in to the Rangitikei River, up the Rangitikei to the Thunderbolt T rack, over Thunderbolt to the Waipakihi, (atrulyexhausting leg on a hot day) and over "Urchin" and out to the Desert Road. Sue was still suffering from an upset tummy so we went to the doctor. Sue was pregnant with our first child. The tam, on the Waikato-Rangatikei watershed became known to us as "hapu pool" and our beautiful daughter was named Ngawai. Ngawai i$ pow just nine years old and already I would have 'trpuble taking her to some^ftpre she could see horses" rhnriing wild.