Our winter on the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve got off to an early start with a snowstorm on November first, followed by a determined freeze. Thankfully we had a thaw not too long after that and though we have had more snow and freezing since, there has not been the harshness of persistent, prolonged storms like we had last year.
Frozen Hawberries
On December 9th, we had some freezing rain, which did not last long, nor was it as severe as we have experienced here on Manitoulin Island - in fact, it had a certain allure to it because the wind was not wicked and the air temperature was somewhat mild. I wanted to get out in the elements, so donned my rain gear, put my camera in a plastic bag and went out to check on how the horses were coping with the inclement conditions.
Hawberry Tree
The bachelors who live out on the range* on the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve are our Portuguese Sorraia stallion, Altamiro and his sons and grandsons out of our Sorraia Mustang mares.
Altamiro
Stallions Legado(Altamiro x Sovina's Zorita) Fidalgo(Altamiro x Belina) Gosto(Altamiro x Bella) Capaz(Interessado x Pinoteia) Sedutor(Altamiro x Sovina's Zorita) Ousado(Altamiro x Bella)
Legado
Geldings Interessado(Altamiro x Ciente) Silvestre(Altamiro x Ciente) *Two other Ravenseyrie residents are our 33 year old draft mule Jerry and the escape artist stallion, Destemido(Interessado x Fada) who have adjacent pastures near the house. Our eight Sorraia Mustang mares continue to reside on the Twinravens range in Tehkummah, thanks to the generosity of Mark Seabrook and Michelle Hrynyk.
The bachelors do not congregate all together like they did when the boys were young, but have been keeping in clusters that are not always fixed.
For the most part, Altamiro prefers to keep to himself.
Ousado, the youngest of the bunch laid claim to the geldings, Interessado and Silvestre, as if they were mares and does not allow the other stallions to have direct contact with them, though he will tolerate the other stallions nearby. This arrangement has lasted for several years now.
Fidalgo used to often hang out nearby Altamiro, but has now attached himself to the fringe of the main band of boys, while Capaz now hangs out nearby Altamiro.
Sedutor likes to float between the main band of boys and wherever Altamiro might be. Gosto is a firm follower of the main band of boys as is Legado.
These herd dynamics are likely to shift again, depending on the moods of the bachelors. We would like them all to be "best buds" and stick together as one group, but this is not up to us - they call the shots and determine who gets to hang out with who.
Ousado
Although I found it difficult to keep the horses in focus while the freezing rain fell, I decided the activities the fellas were engaged in, despite the inclement weather were interesting and attractive enough to put into a video for my YouTube channel. I hope you enjoy it!
Zorita (Portuguese Sorraia x Sulphur Mustang) and Esperanda (Portuguese Sorraia x Kiger Mustang)
This is the fourth autumn the Ravenseyrie mares will be experiencing down on the Twinravens range in Tehkummah, southeasterly Manitoulin Island. Do they miss living up on the East Bluff of Gore Bay were Kevin and I and the bachelor band of Sorraias continue to dwell? We certainly miss them and treasure those days when our conservation efforts included having an intact family band of wild horses showcasing their amazing equine culture day in and day out. Unfortunately we learned 360 acres is not enough space (both physically and psychologically) for more than one wild living family band of equines. Perhaps in the future there will come to be a large tract of land somewhere on the island or elsewhere in Canada where the males and females can live together in complete autonomy like what occurs on Sable Island. For now, we must be content with knowing we continue to safeguard these horses in non-breeding groups.
Pinoteia (Portuguese Sorraia x Spanish Mustang)
I continue to reserve my precious Mondays off from work to make the hour's drive down to Tehkummah and visit with Bella and Belina and Zorita and Fada and Pinoteia and Esperanda and Altavida and Rija. It makes my heart sing to see them in such good form and in an environment that is able to naturally sustain them most of the year. Being on a limited range, however, they do need hay supplemented to assist them in surviving the harsh winters Manitoulin Island experiences. In early autumn local farmer, Larry Cress, drops off large round bales of dried summer in the front sector of their range, while Kevin and I stock the mares' forest shelter sector with large round bales we bring from home.
Until the landscape is deeply locked in with snow, the mares prefer to dine upon what their range offers them naturally. In the photo below, Rija purposefully selects dried thistle stalks...a delectable treat, or for medicinal purposes...she did not say which! (see her eating these prickly plants in the YouTube video link below)
Rija (Portuguese Sorraia x Spanish Mustang)
The mares coming up from the back range for treats and a visit.
Rija (Portuguese Sorraia x Spanish Mustang)
Rija tells Akina to skedaddle.
Our Majestic Mares! How much a part of the landscape they are!
In this video, back at home, our purebred Portuguese Sorraia, Altamiro and one of his sons come up to say hello. How different their lives are without the presence of the mares...I am sure they miss them being on the home range as much as I do.
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 theFaia Brava Nature Reserveis 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 preserveand 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 hereand further reading about her Sorraia preservation efforts can be read hereand 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:
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.
For some time now I have been wanting to introduce one of our most colourful Manitoulin Island artists, Mark Seabrook, who along with his wife, Michelle Hrynyk, graciously opened up a sector of their ample property in Tehkummah for our Sorraia Mustang mares.
Outside the Ravenseyrie Studio & Art Gallery, Mark Seabrook stands next to
one of his magnificent paintings on display in the hallway of
the Gore Bay Harbour Centre
In my journal entry titled, A New Phase of Conservation for Ravenseyrie, I wrote in detail about our decision to suspend breeding and the need to separate males from females. Making that decision was difficult but has enabled us to keep all our remaining offspring as part of our continued preservation of the Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang horses, removing the pressure to sell horses into less than ideal situations. Relocating the mares to a completely different range made it possible for us to leave Ravenseyrie a wide open landscape with fencing only on the parameter of the preserve rather than chopping it up with the type of fences capable of keeping "wild" stallions from accessing "wild" mares when the tempting aromas of estrus raise amorous testosterone to feverish levels.
A priceless photo, from the glory days when Sorraia stallion, Altamiro, first pursued the
affection of Ciente (Kiger Mustang of Sorraia type) in the early years of
the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve
photo: Leslie Town Photography
While looking for suitable range land that could sustain wild-living equines, we were fortunate to be introduced to Mark and Michelle by the project coordinator of Manitoulin Streams. Having purchased the many-years-fallow farmland along the Manitou River, Mark and Michelle were exploring ways to "use" the acreage that would keep the grasslands from being overtaken by scrub brush and forest - something that had already begun to occur. It appealed to Mark's love of the untamed wilderness to imagine wild horses living on that land, integrating with it, not subduing it like field crops would, yet keeping it from returning to a tangled forest. A perfect fit for what we had in mind! Mark and Michelle are a very "forward thinking" couple and immediately understood that by opening up their land to our mares, they were setting a standard in our part of the world that has already been widely embraced in Europe -- using large herbivores to assure grassland habitats that have become essential to the survival of an amazing number of plants, birds and small mammals are not lost when old family farms are no longer being used for agricultural pursuits.
Ravenseyrie mares living well on the wilderness sector of
Mark Seabrook's property
Tehkumaah, Manitoulin Island
In the nearly two and a half years that our mares have been living on the Twinravens range, it has been wonderful to get to know Mark and Michelle better and share in each others lives. What a pity, though, that Twinravens is an hour's drive away from Ravenseyrie, or I would be able to interact with the mares and Mark and Michelle more frequently than my weekly Mare Monday visits.
For much of the year, the Twinravens range supports all the needs of the mares and they live self-maintained. While Kevin and I continue to make sure the range is safe and secure for the mares and sufficiently stocked with extra forage to see them through the long island winters, it is a comfort to know that Mark and Michelle keep a look out for them to alert us should there be some need arising requiring human intervention. I gave Mark a pair of field glasses and he makes good use of them monitoring the mares from a distance, while Michelle (who feels a bit more comfortable around horses) likes to now and then walk out onto the mares' range and enjoy the wonderful trails their hooves have made through the different sectors.
Sometimes Mark comes to visit with me at my Ravenseyrie Studio and Art Gallery located in the Gore Bay Harbour Centre. Those visits are always filled with mutual appreciation, discussions of art and music and how poetic life on the island is. Mark is a very humble man and through our many discussions he never told me that just a few months before we put our mares on his property, a film crew came out to Twinravens to make a documentary of him and his work. It was by chance that I stumbled upon it during some online research.
A screenshot of the webpage hosting the Mark Seabrook documentary
The documentary is titled, Mark Seabrook / The Spirit Within and while I am not seeing a way to embed that video directly into the blog, you can click on the title and it will take you to the webpage where you can view it.
Three of the Mark Seabrook paintings from this author's personal collection
I am definitely a groupie when it comes to Mark's work and have several of his paintings on display over my checkout counter at work with a sign directing people to the multidimensional Whytes gallery across the hall from mine where some of these captivating paintings can be purchased.
If you watched the documentary, you know that Mark Seabrook is well trained in the "Woodland Style" of First Nations painting and obviously adept at putting his own "essence" into traditional Native American motifs. As much as I admire those "Woodland Style" paintings, Mark's more exploratory works are the ones I get weak in the knees over. Mark's love of abstract and modern art, specifically the work of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko serve as inspirational influences as he explores integrating his overwhelming affection for Nature and occasional appetite for more urban sensations.
As it happened, on one of my Monday visits with our mares, Mark was at home, and working up some of his small canvas board acrylic "sketches". He had already painted his backgrounds and was now in the process of layering on heavier pigments in a manner adapted from Jackson Pollock's "drip" technique. I'd been waiting for such an opportunity to photograph Mark "in action" (the technique he uses is quite an athletic workout!) and he was generous enough to let me document some of that day's efforts before I took my picnic lunch out to check in with the mares on the range adjacent to where Mark's "Art Bridge" is. With Mark's permission, I am able to share some of those "paintings in progress" with you:
The artist, Mark Seabrook
Two "in process" paintings by Mark Seabrook
Once dry, Mark returns to ponder over these small canvas boards and lets the painting itself tell him what to add next. Here is a finished piece of one Mark did earlier in the summer and which is now in my personal collection:
Untitled acrylic painting by Mark Seabrook, summer 2015
Captivating, don't you think! A mythic story unfolding before our eyes!
Now that you've had opportunity to experience some of the evocative paintings of Mark Seabrook, perhaps you are, like me, anticipating the day when the forms of those Ravenseyrie mares that Mark so loves to see (and hear) galloping over his beloved Twinravens landscape show up in equally compelling artworks. Mark is not as familiar with the forms of horses as he is those of birds and bear and fish...but he is observing and practicing and one day we are sure to see something come of this!
The lovely Sorraia Mustang mare, Esperanda (Altamiro x Ciente)
perhaps one day Mark Seabrook will immortalize her in a painting
Before ending this journal entry, I want to also tip readers off to some of the fantastic music Mark was making in the 1990's with the aboriginal band, No Reservations, (which was featured in the documentary on Mark). Here is a link to one super track that Mark has a good guitar solo on, More Than I Can Say.
And a bit of live video:
This group should have gone places! They had all the right "stuff" if you ask me. But as it happens in so many bands, internal conflicts and deleterious use of creative energies facilitated its eventual breaking up. Their last album, Hollywood Indian (my favourite song on this one is "Civilized Man") still has some limited copies available which can be purchased through Whytes gallery.
Sunrise: White Pine between The Birches at Ravenseyrie
"To know the pine, go to the pine. To know the bamboo, go to the bamboo."
--Basho
Since the first days of taxonomic records (esteemed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr credits Aristotle with being the progenitor of taxonomic classification), it seems there have been conflicting opinions regarding whether horses roaming the landscapes were truly wild or represented feral landraces derived from domestic stock. Early study relied upon anecdotal accounts, ethological observations, morphological comparisons, cursory dissection, i.e. that which could be seen and experienced externally or with superficial anatomy, and most of the time taking into account the habitat where one's subject was originally found. Present day study gives itself almost entirely over to the internal characteristics of the equine genome. What once was the authorship of philosophers, naturalists and field biologists is supplanted now by discoveries being made in the "sexy" domain of molecular genetics.
Beautiful light over the Twinravens range where our Sorraia mares now live.
It has been nearly a decade since I felt the "call" to assist in the preservation of the Sorraia and Sorraia Mustang horses. I was naively oblivious when I first began to study more intricately the history and biology of these enigmatic equines that there are such conflicting perceptions of where this Tarpan-type horse fits into the overall understanding of wild horses. I continue to research and evaluate what others have to say regarding the Sorraia, the Tarpan and other present day equines that bear the characteristics of those evocative cave paintings rendered by prehistoric humans, but I no longer believe there will be a unified consensus of the important role this type of horse plays in conservation paradigms. What is particularly bothersome, however, is that the Sorraia (whose recovery from near extinction is remarkably similar to that of the Konik horse) is too frequently erroneously discounted as being a repository of ancient wild horse genetics based on limited interpretations of phylogenetic research (Lira, et. al, 2009).
The Sorraia filly, Esperanda...looking like she is stalking prey.
There are enough problems with using molecular genetics to prove or disprove ancestral relatedness (Hillis1987, Roger & Hug 2006, Grechko 2012, Moreira & Phillippe 2000, Cummings & Meyer 2006, Zander 2013, Weins 2005 to name a few...) that I find it inappropriate for assumptions to be made about the Sorrraia's origins based on this alone. I am especially flummoxed that most recently the Sorraia has been overlooked as a candidate for rewilding programs taking place in Europe. (Linnartz & Meissner, 2014) This unfortunate situation is something I am looking into, for I find it unfathomable that the Sorraia has been so inappropriately marginalized, when they (and their Sorraia Mustang counterparts) meet the criteria listed in the Rewilding Horses in Europe / Background and Guidelines document and have proven themselves in semi-wild environments (Vale de Zebro/Portugal) and (Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve/Canada). There may be no more horse type in need of a boost from inclusion in rewilding programs than the Sorraia and Sorraia mustang who continue to be precariously close to extinction, moreso than any other wild horse type listed in the document cited above.
Full sisters Altavida and Pinoteia (by Sorraia stallion Altamiro) with their dam, Bella, on the right
Whether or not it represents a "prehistoric relic", a "true wild" horse, or a "feralized manmade breed" matters very little to those Sorraias that are living in the wilderness. They don't care about their past, nor do they worry what scientists and conservationists think of them...they live in the now and they dance among the myriad of wild things that know them as equals in their shared habitat. The grasses don't need a consensus, the wind blowing over lichen covered rocks aren't conflicted in their appraisal of the equines galloping by and the Ravens flying overhead look upon them as blessed large herbivores restored to their rightful place. Let the Earth decide such things, not the scientists. What lives and thrives and in due course dies in the wilderness spaces of our Great Mother Earth (and if given enough habitat for its need can carry on without the persistent manipulations of humans) sings the song of a the "wild", irregardless of initial origins.
Ravens in the Zen Elm at Ravenseyrie...and a fantastic sky!
While many humans seem to find it fascinating to create classifications (and make life altering decisions) based upon the extrapolations of computers analyzing data extracted from molecules, believing this shines a bright light upon what living organisms truly represent, there will always be those who see the limitations to such classifications. Perhaps as never before, 17th century haiku master, Matsuo Basho's words (quoted at the top of this journal entry) provide us with a simpler, more direct, more holistic and more reliable way of coming to know non-human entities. "To know the pine, go to the pine"...to know the wild horse, go to the horses living in the wilderness...they tell us more about what it is to be wild than do historical texts or phylogenetic data.
Wintering well, Sorraia stallion, Altamiro of the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve, Manitoulin Island
Even that old horse
is something to see this
snow-covered morning
--Basho
Sorraia bachelors running for the shelter of the forest during a snow squall at Ravenseyrie
references: --Ancient DNA reveals traces of Iberian Neolithic and Bronze Age lineages in modern Iberian horses, Lira, et. al, 2009 --Molecular Versus Morphological Approaches to Systematics, Hillis, D. 1987
—The origin and diversification of eukaryotes: problems with molecular phylogenetics and molecular clock estimation, Roger, Hug, 2006
—The Problems of Molecular Phylogenetics with the Example of Squamate Reptiles; Mitochondrial DNA Markers, Grechko, V., 2012
—Molecular phylogeny: pitfalls and progress, Moreira, D., Phillippe, H.,2000
—Magic bullets and golden rules: data sampling in molecular phylogenetics, Cummings, M.P., Meyer, A., 2006
—A Framework for Post-Phylogenetic Systematics, Zander, R.H. 2013
—The Role of Morphological Data in Phylogeny Reconstruction, Wiens, J.,2004
—Rewilding Horses in Europe, Linnartz, L., Meissner, R., 2014
Sorraia colts playing boy games as the snow falls
Ravenseryie Sorraia Mustang Mares on the Twinravens range, Tehkummah, Manitoulin Island
Just in time for St. Valentine's Day, I have put together a video slide show which, in essence, is all about love...my love for the amazing landscape of Manitoulin Island, for our "wild" horses and for the music I wish to share. My suggestion...watch the video first, and only after that, come back and read the rest of this journal entry. (the embedded video does not seem to be centered nicely and won't view properly like that. click on the title within that embedded video or click here to go directly to YouTube for the best viewing)
Ondas do mar de Vigo is a "cantiga de amigo", a Galician-Portuguese medieval love song. In this particular song it is more a lamentation, - a pleading for the return of the beloved - an aching like no other, in rhythm with the swelling surf…
Many musicians performing medieval music have recorded this cantiga, some with great feeling, most with an stiff, academic duty. Only Evo, a quartet from Valencia, has infused a palpable authenticity that transcends 800 years of time passing - so honest in delivery that such passionate yearning we all recognize as a very current emotion in our modern lives. Listening...you hear the ancient aspects of the music, yet you feel its resonance as something living and breathing - inside you!
Evo's version of “Ondas do mar de Vigo” has been so adeptly arranged by band leader, Efrén López its sound is as richly archaic as the time in which it was originally composed by Martin Codax in thirteenth century Galicia - yet it vibrates also with a present-day sensitivity, exceptionally portrayed in the vocal artistry of Iván López. The spare accompaniment of Efrén on the hurdy gurdy and Miriam Encinas on the recorder is so intuitively played one hears not so much the sound of period instruments, but rather slow incantations of elementals that inhabit the seaside. This is not mere interpretive music…it is soul music, steeped with "duende" and contemporaneously in the "now".
When I first heard the music of Evo and watched a video of a live performance of "Ondas do mar de Vigo" I knew it was just the type of music I wanted to accompany the collection of images I was assembling for the video slideshow of our horses at the beach. It is SO emotive! and seems to express in sound all the love I have for the horses and the type of freedom we can offer them here at Ravenseyrie. The joy of that love is often bittersweet, being always overshadowed by the realization there is not enough human desire worldwide to allow wilderness spaces to be populated by "wild" equines (and in fact in Canada and the United States feral mustangs continue to be persecuted and exterminated). That reality and the concomitant limitations of our personal resources (which forced us last year to limit further natural breeding by relocating all the females to a separate range) has me often sitting on our rocky shore, pleading with the waves of Lake Huron for the return of a time when we humans were not manipulating the natural world in such deleterious ways that day by day push plants and creatures toward extinction.
(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:
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
