Canada's Chilcotin Wild Horses located in the Forests of the Brittany Triangle in British Columbia

The Brittany Triangle itself is approximately 155,000 hectares, a visually stunning ecosystem comprising high elevation lodgepole pine forest extensively dotted with small lakes, streams and associated riparian areas with spruce and aspen groves. It is rich in wildlife including grizzly and black bears, cougar, wolves, wolverine, coyotes, fisher and marten. Ungulates like moose and mule deer abound. Extensive wetland areas, increased in size by beaver activity, provide rich habitat for an incredible array of bird life. And of course there are the horses!



Wild horses in western Canada are found primarily in forested areas, typically lodgepole pine woodlands interspersed with pockets of dry grassland, shrubland and sedge meadows, where they feed on a variety of grasses and sedges throughout the year.

Most herds consist of 5-10 animals, although smaller and larger groups also occur. Horses are non-territorial, and home ranges of several herds may overlap.

Although populations may increase under favourable conditions, high mortality rates due to starvation and increased susceptibility to predation by cougars and wolves during severe winters are probably limiting factors.



Since these horses arrived before European contact in the region, their origin was most likely from the Spanish stock which provided mounts for the plains Indians over 400 years ago. This was the most likely source of horses at that time. It is documented that some of the Spanish horses had filtered up into the Kootenay District well over 200 years ago. Given there have been wild horses in the Chilcotin District for 200 years, we have no reason to think they have not been in the Brittany Triangle just as long. Genetic dilution has occurred with the arrival of ranching in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when domestic stock began to augment existing wild bands.

We hope you will support Friends of the Nemaiah Valley Society.

If you wish to receive a tax receipt for a donation of $100.00 or more, please make your cheque payable to Ecoforestry Institute and write "Brittany Triangle" in the memo line.

For more information:

Telephone: 250 592-1088
Email: info@fonv.ca
Website: http://www.fonv.ca

Friends of the Nemaiah Valley
1010 Foul Bay Road
Victoria, B.C. Canada V8S 4J1

Wolf hunter: At a Xeni Gwet'in First Nations powwow, a dancer wears the head of a wolf. Photo by: Lauren Kramer, Saturday Star


It is dusk when we finally stumble upon them. All day, our truck has been veering along the dusty, gravel roads of the Chilcotin, our eyes keenly searching the meadows and forests for the shape of a horse.

But it is not any old horse we seek. The horses we are looking for have been here for centuries, if the rumours are true. Some claim they are descendants of the Spanish Colonial Horses, while others argue they carry the bloodlines of the earliest horses introduced into America - the conquistador's horse. Genetic testing is inconclusive as yet, and only one thing is certain: these horses are wild and carefree, roaming over this great, vast Fraser Plateau with grace, dignity and determination to survive.
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The truck stops sharply and cautiously, we venture out under the watchful eye of a white stallion. He is guarding two chestnut mares and a foal, and while they skitter behind a tree, he calmly assesses the potential for danger, his eyes constantly on us. When we get too close, he bucks his head dismissively and canters off across the meadow, his herd in tow.

Stunned by this all-too-brief moment of sheer beauty, we listen to the hollow sound of hooves beating against the earth, the proud swish of their tails as the horses disappear like fleeting ghosts into the distance.

Elusive: The wild horses are proud and dignified, but wary of humans. Photo by: Lauren Kramer, Saturday Star


Somehow they have learned to survive in this rugged terrain, along with the moose, bears, coyotes, wolves, wolverines, fox, lynx and cougars indigenous to the Chilcotin. They appear robust, healthy and proud, with the long, shaggy manes and tails characteristic of the Spanish Colonial Horse.

'Just like falling in love with a woman'
Though the horses are relative newcomers in this ecosystem, they have carved a space for themselves and fiercely protect it, galloping to safety at the first sign of danger and remaining elusive, skittish, painfully shy and only slightly curious of their human admirers.

"Sometimes you find yourself falling in love with one of them, just like falling in love with a woman," confesses Edmund Lulua, a member of the Xeni Gwet'in First Nations who resides in the Chilcotin's Nemiah Valley. His is one of six bands comprising the Tsilhquot'in national government, and the horses have been part of First Nations' cultural life in this area for many generations.

Lulua, for one, learned to ride at the age of five, and owns 11 horses, using them for backcountry and range riding, as well as for hunting moose and deer. Eight of his horses were taken from the wild herds, caught using corral traps and broken in over a period that can take anything from a day to a week. "You rub down their body, talk softly to them," he explains.

"When they begin to trust you, they will start coming towards you."

It's not that easy for everyone. Ian Bridge, a manager at the Elkin Creek Ranch, caught a few wild horses using the same technique. Six years later, they remain unbroken, but have made good breeding stock.

Outside of the Brittany Triangle, an area roughly the size of Luxembourg, the wild horses are fair game and folks like Bridge do not need permission to catch them. But inside that triangle, it is a different story.



'We caught them from the wild'
In 1996, members of the Xeni Gwet'in band began working closely with a non-profit group called Friends of the Nemiah Valley (FONV), its goal to protect the wild horses of the Brittany Triangle and their habitat, bound by the Teseko and Chilko rivers.

The triangle represents what is possibly the last true wilderness in Canada's British Columbia, a vibrant ecosystem that has remained untouched by loggers, and one kept in equilibrium by the prey and predators that inhabit it. The Xeni Gwet'in and FONV created a Wild Horse Preserve in this 155 000-hectare triangle, which is home to approximately half of the 400 wild horses that roam the Chilcotin.

It is these horses that we have come to see. The only trouble until now has been finding them. "The chances of finding them in a day are pretty small," Bridge explains.

For one, you have to venture out early in the morning or at dusk to give yourself the best odds. Those fortunate enough to spot them relish those seconds, for the horses are nervous around people, trusting no-one but each other.

You can hardly blame them for mistrust. Over the last four decades, government-approved slaughter programmes were the norm. The ministry of forests paid a bounty per pair of horse ears produced by ranchers and settlers, and more to those who brought in the testicles of wild stallions. While wild horses have been protected in the US for 35 years, in Canada they do not enjoy the privilege of legal protection.