Aongatete trainer works to rehome wild Kaimanawa horses

Bex Tasker, an Aongatete-based horse trainer who runs her business Positively Together, is currently working with two Kaimanawa mares delivered straight from the wild to her Wright Road property on 27 April. The horses came from the annual autumn muster of the herd that roams the Kaimanawa Range on Waiōuru military training land in the central North Island. It is Tasker's third time taking on Kaimanawa horses — she first adopted one back in 2012 when she lived in Hunua near Tāmaki Makaurau.

The Department of Conservation aims to keep the wild herd to around 300 horses to protect the fragile ecosystems of the Moawhango Ecological Zone, but a recent survey showed numbers had grown to more than double that target. The April muster aimed to remove and rehome more than 250 horses, though that goal was not fully met, and a second muster is now planned for July. At that point, a further 123 horses will need removing from the ranges — and so far only around 20 have secured homes.

One of Tasker's current horses belongs to an Auckland client and will head north once basic training is complete; the other belongs to 17-year-old working student Radha Foulds, who will keep her horse at Aongatete with Tasker's ongoing mentorship. The arrival was not without drama — the nine-month-old weanling came with a joint injury and infection, requiring field surgery from a vet during a week of torrential rain.

Tasker is urging the public to help. People can offer private homes for horses from the July muster, sponsor horses through the Kaimanawa Legacy Foundation's Givealittle page, or visit kaimanawaheritagehorses.org to learn more. She notes that once contraceptive treatments introduced by DoC begin taking full effect over coming years, the scale of rehoming needed will gradually reduce — but for now the push is urgent.

Originally published in Katikati News (Sun Media).