Sorraia Foals at Quinta do Sol

A young wild living Sorraia filly on Manitoulin Island c.2010

In 2010, here on the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve, two fillies were born whose lives have proven to be filled with historic adventures in faraway lands.  

Click on each filly's name to read about their births from the Journal of Ravenseyrie archives.

Tocara (Altamiro x Belina)

Tocara and Belina

Levada (Altamiro x Sovina's Zorita)

Levada

Sired by the Portuguese Sorraia, Altamiro, (who himself came to Manitoulin Island as a yearling from a zoological park in Germany where he was born) the fillies, Tocara and Levada are fine examples of the beneficial outcross to North American Mustang mares who show the Sorraia phenotype.  Tocara and Levada were selected by Claudia Radbauer to become part of her efforts to preserve Sorraia type horses in Austria providing her with several healthy foals sired by the Portuguese Sorraia, Grelo.  Last year Tocara and Levada were sent to a new conservation project overseen by the Associação Transumâcia e Natureza in northeastern Portugal.  

After spending the majority of 2017 receiving the amorous attention of a Sorraia stallion, Bimbo, (donated to the preservation project by Herdade do Azinhal) and despite going through a frightening period of drought and threat of wildfires, Tocara and Levada have presented ATN with healthy new foals, both colts!  These are indeed fit and hardy equines and definitely adaptable to a variety of wilderness environments - from the bitter cold of Northern Canada to the arid hills of Portugal!  

While it appears the preserve at Quinta do Sol is receiving good rainfall to assist in regenerating the vegetation, the land presently available to these Sorraias remains limited.  Until more acreage can be acquired for this project, there may still be a need from time to time to supplement the forage with hay, should there come again a frightful drought.  Those able to assist in any way are urged to contact ATN: https://www.facebook.com/faiabrava/posts/10155083833528014 

And now for some lovely images from Quinta do Sol!  Tocara and Levada...I am blowing a kiss in the wind and instructing it to find you from here to there!  We miss you and are so proud of your achievements.  

And we are immeasurably thankful to Claudia Radbauer and ATN for the good work they are doing to carry on with the preservation of one of the precious wild equine types of the Iberian Peninsula.

Three new foals in one week at Quinta do Sol preserve
in northeastern Portugal
(photo: ATN)

Left: Tocara with her filly, Epona, and newborn colt
Right:  Levada with her newborn colt
(photo:  ATN)

Tocara with her two offspring
(photo: ATN

Levada with her colt and a Garrano x Sorraia mare with her colt
(photo: ATN)

Tocara (Altamiro x Belina)
formerly of Ravenseyrie, with her newborn colt
at Quinta do Sol preserve in Portugal
(photo: ATN)

Levada (Altamiro x Sovina's Zorita)
formerly of Ravenseyrie, with her newborn colt
at Quinta do Sol preserve in Portugal
(photo: ATN)

Tocara and colt
(photo: ATN)

Sorraias at Quinta do Sol
(photo: ATN)

More about Tocara and Levada's early life on Manitoulin Island can be experienced by clicking on these links to archived stories in the Journal of Ravenseyrie:

A Precious Mischief

Tocara and Levada

What's in a Name

Tocara

"Who would we be without the horse?  What was our horse's ancestor and does he still exist? [...] What once was one of Man's most important companions has nowadays been reduced to a luxury item and a sports equipment.  And the ancestral populations?  Gone!  What do we know about them? Very little!  Otherwise, extant wild populations would not be cause for a constant dispute among scientists.

"If we want to keep our planet worth living on in its diversity and endless facets of life, we must try to preserve the genetic diversity of all living species.  In this context it is almost secondary if a population is 'wild' or 'feral'.  Wild horses are adapted to their habitat, in which some have lived for centuries.  Each adaptation represents a contribution to that big cocktail we call diversity of life."

--Dr. Thomas Jansen, from the foreword of Wildpferde Gestern und Heute by Hardy Oelke

Mares and foals at Ravenseyrie c. 2010

 Heritage Futures:  offers a good summary of the Associação Transumâcia e Natureza 

Associação Transumância e Natureza (ATN) is a non profit environmental NGO, created in 2000, at Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, Guarda District, in the northeastern part of Portugal. The name comes from an international foundation (Transhumance and Nature Foundation), which was one of the founders. The name is a reference to the extinct activity of transhumance – an old tradition of shepherds, who brought the flocks of sheep a long way, in order to take advantage of pasture land at different altitudes and times of the year. Owning around 800 hectares of land at the Côa Valley, ATN is the manager of the Faia Brava Reserve, the first private protected area in Portugal, located inside the Côa Valley SPA (Natura 2000) and the Côa Archaeological Park (UNESCO World Heritage Site). ATN owns and manages several other reserves in the Northeast of Portugal and is the Portuguese local partner of the Rewilding Europe initiative. Our researchers will work with Association of the Friends of Côa Park and Côa Museum (ACOA) to study the objectives of a large-scale rewilding project, with specific attention to the management of (abandoned) built heritage within the designated area.

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"Whether as zoological gems, genetic resources, important ecological factors, objects for ethological studies, or as pure inspiration - wild horses are always and everywhere of great value.  What many would not give today to be able to lay eyes on Tarpans in the steppe of southern Russia!

     "We may not fully understand what treasure we still have in our surviving primitive horses.  Their protection should be a matter of course."  

--Hardy Oelke from Wild Horses Then and Now

Sorraias at Quinta do Sol

Tocara (formerly of Ravenseyrie) and two Sorraia x Garrano mares greet the Sorraia stallion, Bimbo
Quinta do Sol, Côa Valley, Portugal

There are to be found on the internet many "My Pretty Pony" type pictures of impeccably groomed, glossy horses and numerous photos of sport horses trained to high levels for human enjoyment.  Such photos have great meaning for some and no doubt provide the tingling sensation of awe and appreciation for those who like to see horses portrayed in those ways.

For me, it is a rawer image that quickens my pulse and generates a swell of entrancement.  Speaking from the perception of life I am presently experiencing, I prefer to see horses living in wilderness environments - free to choose: when and what to eat, where and when to take shelter, when to run and when to not run, etc.

You can imagine, then, how giddy I was to receive new photos from António Monteiro - (who we read about in last month's journal entry:  Genetic Migration in the Conservation of Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang Horses) - showing where some of  Claudia Radbauer's horses, including two mares born here at Ravenseyrie, are now living.

Levada, Tocara, Epona, Estrelinha and Tieta at Quinta do Sol

Levada (Altamiro x Sovina's Zorita),  Tocara (Altamiro x Belina) and Tocara's filly, Epona (by the Sorraia stallion, Grelo) along with two young Sorraia x Garrano mares were released last month into a property called Quinta do Sol, adjacent to the Faia Brava Nature Reserve in northeast Portugal's Côa Valley.

Epona, Tocara and Levada at Quinta do Sol

The lovely landscape at Quinta do Sol

With the participation of Hardy Oelke and Martha d'Andrade, António and his team were given the opportunity to acquire two Sorraia stallions from Herdade do Azinhal, one of which I saw in person during my visit to Portugal in 2011.

The stallion named, Bimbo (an Italian word of endearment for a child) will live with the mares at Quinta do Sol, while Sombra will be the male force present in the Middle Côa preserve where some of the mares from the Vale de Zebro now live.  The atavistically striped Lusitano colt, Larápio, that Claudia purchased for ATN to run with the five mares will be given time to mature before being expected to live the wild life with the ladies.  Martha tells me that ten year old Bimbo was the leader of their bachelor group of Sorraia stallions and with them was a show off and a bit of a bully...sounds very much like our Altamiro!


This image of António's is one that overflows with poetry...how marvellously Bimbo fits the landscape, as if he was sculpted from it!:

Sorraia stallion, Bimbo day one at Quinta do Sol
An image of inherent poetry!

Sorraia stallion, Bimbo and the windswept expanses at Quinta do Sol

António also sent along a bit of video he took when Bimbo was released (after a many hours journey) into the Quinta do Sol landscape.  The mare who comes up to say "hello" is our very own Tocara...how it makes my eyes wet with happiness to see where she is now!

Squalls at dawn, over Ravenseyrie

Spring comes much slower to Manitoulin Island than it does to Portugal, but our spectacular vistas are enjoyable all times of the year - and when I hike out to visit with our Sorraia bachelors and sit for a sip of the warming magic of Alpen Bitters No. 7,  it is immeasurably pleasant to be thinking of Tocara and Levada grazing in the Côa Valley with a fine looking Sorraia stallion - free to "be"!

Watching the horses while the sun sets at Ravenseyrie

View from the Top of the World at Ravenseyrie

Fidalgo, full brother to Tocara

Altamiro, sire of Tocara and Levada

Genetic Migration in the Conservation of Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang Horses

(Click on image to enlarge)

It was in January of 2015 when António Monteiro sent me an email inquiry.  António is with the Associação Transmâcua e Natureza, a non-profit organization (established in 2000) in northeastern Portugal.  ATN is dedicated to revitalizing abandoned agricultural landscapes in ways that return them to self-sustaining natural biospheres, as well as creating a new economy that thrives on the ever growing human need to experience wild spaces in non-invasive ways.  ATN presently manages five different nature sites.  Their award-winning ecotourism in the Faia Brava Nature Reserve is testament to the excellent vision and management skills of all involved.

Anótonio's love of nature and commitment to it also extends to horses, specifically those that are allowed to live wild lives.  Among other keystone herbivores, ATN already has incorporated Portugal's Garrano horses into their Faia Brava preserve and are now desiring to create a similar situation for Sorraia horses as well. 

Sorraias formerly of the Vale de Zebro now living in the Côa valley

While traditional breeders of Sorraia horses continue to protect genetic patrimony by utilizing only registered purebred Sorraia stallions and mares into their programs - a course that is no doubt important - they continue to risk further loss of genetic diversity.  

ATN is taking a supportive role along a different path - one that they believe will not only insure the physical and genetic fitness of their horses for virtually autonomous lives in the wild, but will also consolidate and enhance the primitive traits that are attributed to the extinct European Wild Horse (the Tarpan) which morphologically continue to be expressed in local rustic breeds in many European countries, including Portugal.  The Iberian variant of the Tarpan may have been the wild horse of medieval chronicles known as the Zebro, a swift-running, small, mouse-grey, dark-faced, striped equine that remains an enchanting, enigmatic creature even today.   By including Sorraia Mustangs from North America and atavistically striped Lusitano horses along with purebred Sorraia horses, ATN draws from a related yet diverse genetic resource pool, increasing the propagation of notable characteristics of the Zebro.

Having heard about our Sorraia Mustangs from Hardy Oelke and reading about them here in the Journal of Ravenseyrie, António sent me an inquiry regarding what the expenses associated with importing horses from Canada to Portugal might be.  In my reply to António I let him know that the expenses associated with flying horses to Europe are very high indeed, but I provided him with alternative options to check on within Europe.  He connected with Claudia Radbauer in Austria, who imported two fillies from Ravenseyrie in 2012.  

(Claudia's acquisition of our own girls Tocara and Levada born here at Ravenseyrie can be read here and further reading about her Sorraia preservation efforts can be read here and here.)

Over the course of last year, Claudia and António worked out an agreement where ATN would pay for the transportation of three Sorraia Mustang mares from Claudia's herd, which she would continue to own but would loan them to their Sorraia/Zebro rewilding project.  In addition to this, Claudia funded the purchase of an atavistically striped Lusitano colt that was purchased within Portugal to also become part of ATN's Zebro project.

I wanted to wait and report upon this phenomenal event after I knew for sure the mares made a safe journey from Austria to Portugal.  Tocara, Levada and Epona arrived in Portugal in the evening of the 25th of January - a history making event!

Ravenseyrie mares are now in this region of Portugal

Photo: ATN/Faia Brava

To more adequately relay the excitement and importance of our Ravenseyrie offspring sharing their genetics with the Sorraia/Zebro rewilding project in the Côa valley, I put together a mini-documentary which I published on YouTube and include embedded in this journal entry.  Note:  To view the video properly, you may have to go directly to YouTube using this link:  

https://youtu.be/muAkUAuSZYI

This rewilding project initiated by ATN is especially timely as last year the Vale de Zebro Sorraia Refuge was terminated due to the land they occupied being sold.  The horses there have been dispersed, but some have been sold to new preservation initiatives like the one ATN has undertaken.

I will be following ATN and their great work and reporting new events with the Sorraias there, here in the Journal of Ravenseyrie.

Some photos from the days when Tocara and Levada were still here in Canada with us at Ravenseyrie on Manitoulin Island:

Levada as a newborn

Levada (left) and Tocara on the Ravenseyrie beach

Tocara!  Such a beauty!

Levada, looking oh so wild!

There are many wonderful articles on the web describing the efforts of ATN, here is one that shows you some of the Sorraias already part of their rewilding project.  Here is a fabulous video showing the Côa Valley and the prehistoric rock art.  And here is an older video that provides a good look at the Faia Brava reserve.

Claudia Radbauer - Safeguarding the Sorraia Mustang

Levada (Altamiro x Sovina's Zorita)

(all photos for this journal entry kindly provided by Claudia Radbauer)

While preservation efforts for purebred Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang horses have quite a number of admirers and "virtual supporters" the truth is that "real time" safeguarding of present-day equines who have retained phenotypic and genetic "tarpanoid" characteristics, remains limited to just a scant handful of breeders and conservationists in Portgual, Germany, Canada, France and the United States.

Levada nurses her 2012 filly, Alegria in the Viennese woods...reminiscent of the forest she knew well when she lived at Ravenseyrie

At this time the registered Sorraias in Europe continue to be plagued by infertility issues provoked by dangerously low numbers (less than 250) and severe inbreeding.  In North America, mustangs exhibiting tarpanic Sorraia type are spectacularly fecund, but apathy for mustang horses in general means their numbers are even lower than those which originated in Portgual.   It hasn't helped that there has been a debilitating economic depression on both continents, further limiting interest in preserving a horse that is better suited to grassland habitat management projects than domesticated life as a saddle horse (though many Sorraia type horses do lend themselves to riding and driving quite well).

Given the sense of isolation Kevin and I can sometimes experience with carrying on our conservation efforts for these horses here in Canada, we have been deeply appreciative and impressed with an Austrian woman, named Claudia Radbauer.  Claudia felt a longing to lend her spirit and resources to establishing a preserve for Sorraia and Sorraia  Mustang horses at a rehabilitated ranch on the outskirts of Vienna.

Claudia's ranch, "Aktivstall Mauerbach", is based on a system of horse management where the environment has been designed to stimulate healthy movement ("aktiv") throughout the day as the horses seek out food and water in a rather structured, limited landscape in the village of Mauerbach.

 

An adjacent tract of more naturalized land has now been made available for Claudia's growing group of grulla girls.  Little Spanish Annie is a captive bred Pryor Mountain mustang mare of Sorraia type that Claudia imported from Wyoming.  Tocara and Levada are two of Altamiro's exquisite fillies born here at Ravenseyrie who began new lives in Austria in August of 2012.  Alegria, Claudia's first Sorraia foal, was born to Levada (sired by Altamiro's son, Interessado) shortly after taking up residence at Aktivstall Mauerbach.  Another Sorraia type mare (a Portuguese crossbred from France) will soon join this group - her name is Baïka.  Claudia is actively checking into leasing or purchasing a purebred Sorraia stallion to breed her mares to and will likely make progress to that end in the near future, which will be of great benefit to both the Sorraia and the Sorraia Mustang populations.

Sorraia Mustangs dining at the feed station at Aktivstall Mauerbach

While a small village on the west side of Vienna may seem completely out of place for the preservation of "wild" horses, Austria happens to be located in the middle of vast range where, in centuries past, regional strains of the European wild horse (referred to as tarpan and tarpani) roamed from Iberia to central Russia.  One of the first descriptions on record for the Tarpan was chronicled by the German naturalist explorer Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin in 1774 and it was this description that Helmut Otto Antonius (Director of the Schölbrunn Zoological Gardens in Vienna) used to categorize the Tarpan as Equus ferus gmelini in 1912.  If modern Austrians are unfamiliar with images of rustic, mouse-grey, striped horses, their ancestors were not.  Unfortunately wild Tarpans became extinct in Europe during the early 1900's due to over-hunting, loss of habitat and hybridization with domestic horses.  

The first Sorraia Mustang born at Aktivstall Mauerbach is the lovely filly Alegria! (Interessado x Levada)

But conservation of the Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang is not an attempt to "breed-back" or recreate the extinct Tarpan, rather its intent is to consolidate what survived in the Iberian strain of this type of wild horse, believing that both the remnant populations in Europe and in North America require a genetic exchange to assure that the remaining characteristics of the Tarpan that persist in these horses do not wither away into oblivion.  One can never truly recreate the past, but one can provide a foothold for what remains of the past to assure that it flourishes as a contemporary expression of its extinct predecessors.  The Polish Konik horse is one example of a tarpanic strain that has successfully been reclaimed by consolidating and preserving what persisted within indigenous hybridized peasant horses from the  Białowieża Forest.  The Sorraia and Sorraia Mustangs suffered very little dilution of their "wild"  tarpanic genetics from hybridization with domestic Iberian horses - made quite obvious when viewing the homogenously authentic offspring that have been born here at Ravenseyrie.  What a gift of nature we have in these Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang horses and how important it is to provide them the same recognition and advantages that the Konik horses have!  

It is an extraordinary and laudable effort Claudia Radbauer has aligned herself with!  Given Claudia's sensitivity, sagacity and resourcefulness, she is sure to bring a higher-profile to the preservation of Sorraias and Sorraia Mustangs, perhaps even inspiring others to actively participate in the safeguarding of these horses before they, like their wild Tarpan ancestors, become just a memory.

To follow Claudia Radbauer's preservation efforts check out these links:

Website

Blog

Article and Radio interview with Kate Farmer

There are many ways to go about preserving a nearly extinct type of "wild" horse and while Aktivstall Mauerbach is less of a wilderness than is Ravenseyrie, it nonetheless offers the Sorraias and Sorraia Mustangs another opportunity for not only surviving, but thriving well into the future.  Kevin and I are very happy that two of our Ravenseyrie fillies are part of this marvellous venture Claudia Radbauer is undertaking.

The former fillies of Ravenseyrie, Tocara and Levada, along with Alegria are wintering well at Aktivstall Mauerbach

     

A Precious Mischief

Zorita's 2010 filly is just over a week old and from day two has been a very spunky gal, reminding me very much of the cavorting Pinoteia engaged in as soon as she discovered what her out-of-womb foal body could do. Only, with this new filly, there is an element of the "devil-may-care" scamp in her. Any mother who has felt the frustration of trying to contain a toddler on a tear can sympathize with Zorita's frustration in this video:

Knowing that Susan Mathia (proprietor of a lovely bed & breakfast establishment called The Queen's Inn) enjoys the occasional video clip from Ravenseyrie, I emailed her a copy of the above sequence, to which she replied: "What a precious little mischief she is!"

Of course, between the activities of the new filly and the comments of Susan, I soon was deep into my Portuguese/English dictionary and researching words which might make potential names from online translation sites as well.

Precious by itself did not convey the imp quality to this emerging personality of the new filly, but "mischief" certainly did. There were many offerings, one of which came back with "maliciosa" meaning "playfully mischievous". "Perfect!" I thought. That evening, I sat near her, on a log that she was sampling with her tongue. "Hello, Maliciosa." No response. "Filly, would you like to have the name, Maliciosa?" Without altering her position, or ceasing to lick the log, she gave me a dubious sidelong look. "You do not care for the name, Maliciosa?" Zorita's new filly, walked away, without a backward glance in my direction. I would take that as a pretty distinct, "no", wouldn't you?

Some of the other suggestions provided by dictionaries which in one way or another defined impish/scampish behavior were: moleque, diabrura, pressa, and levada. The only one that had a direct connection with "mischief" was "levada" which is another adjective meaning "mischievous". I presented it to the new filly this morning and when I spoke it, she immediately pricked her ears and looked straight at me, almost with a look of, "Well, finally, you've found it!"

Here is a video clip of Tocara (my hasn't she grown lovely!) attempting to make friends with Levada. For her part, Levada is making it plain that she's not easily won over. A very similar scene (near the end of this blog entry) was presented to me when last year Silvestre was hoping to befriend Levada's full sister, Segura. How marvelous that even very new foals have such a sense of self!

Zorita has come into her foal heat and this has Altamiro enforcing a wider "buffer zone" between the family band and Mistral's group. I took a short (but poor quality) video clip during a "conversation" Altamiro was having with Jerry, as the Sorraia stallion defended his territory. The conversation looked something like you see below (from a combination of still scenes extracted from the video and one photo):







The conversation was ardent, but brief and essentially non-violent.

Here are a few photos taken during one of Levada's mad dashes which she engages in for the sheer joy of being (and also maybe for the "precious little mischief" delight she receives in provoking her mother's ire as well.)

And lastly here are some photos of Tocara attempting to befriend Levada:

(That is Silvestre in the foreground)

(I apologize to those of you who have maybe subscribed to the Journal of Ravenseyrie and today received three versions of "A Precious Mischief"...I must have hit the wrong key while working on the text, not once--but twice, which accidentally caused the entry to be published before it was ready.)

And not to be left out of images of the 2010 fillies, here's a quick head shot of Pinoteia: