Until very recently it was accepted scientific fact that horses had died out in the Americas approximately 11,000 years ago during the so-called Late Pleistocene extinction event. Recent studies, including investigations funded by the Cana Foundation, have shown that this traditional interpretation is incorrect. Horses survived in northern North America until at least 6000 years ago, and possibly much later. The reason this is important because it means that horses may have disappeared for only a short time before the arrival of Europeans and their imported Old World horses. Ancient DNA studies have additionally shown that these ancient horses do not differ in any significant regard from our domesticated horses, and that they should all be considered to represent a single species, Equus caballus. In other words, scientifically there is no basis for considering the horse as “invasive” or “alien” in the USA . The late survival of horses in North America after the end of the ice ages means that they are, in fact, part of our modern native mammal fauna, and should be treated with the same awe—and given the same rights--as our few remaining megafaunal species. Wild horses are the last survivors of a bygone world, and we will not see their like again on our landscapes if we allow their harsh and inhuman treatment to continue.

Just as ecosystems differ from place to place, rewilding efforts should be tailored to specific areas and their needs. Cana’s emphasis is on rewilding species native to North America, such as the horse, because they evolved here and are adapted to American conditions. All of our other large herbivores, including bison, deer, and elk, are also native, and should therefore be part of our total rewilding efforts. Although they have their own economic importance, cattle are not part of our rewilding program because they are not native nor representative of any past American ecosystem. Along with other native species, bringing horses back offers a chance to balance landscapes that have been dramatically altered by human interventions.

Species that are native and well-integrated with other species in an ecosystem do not normally cause problems—quite the opposite. Horses, along with bison and mammoths, dominated the grasslands of North America for hundreds of thousands of years before the present, and were responsible for maintaining the health of this ecosystem. Bringing horses back should benefit, not harm, American grasslands.

Yes, they are, but this is based on the view that horses are interlopers and therefore should always take second place to other concerns, such as commercial interests. Under natural conditions horses are no more detrimental than bison. Both consume grass, both turn over the soil and manure it, and both are native. Far from being pests, under the right conditions they enable the grasslands to thrive, along with all the other organisms living there.

Through better land management. Horses can thrive in steeper terrains than cattle. There is more than enough land to share.

Rewilding can potentially solve some problems that the usual method of rounding up horses and confining them to government-run holding pens never will. Such an approach will never be self-sustaining nor cost effective, and therefore should be abandoned. Returning horses to the land in the context of a well-conceived rewilding program is the only way to begin to restore balance, mitigate carbon, elevate biodiversity, and ensure taxpayer funds are not wasted.

Rewilding should be thought of as a road we are just starting to travel along. We already know that centuries of accelerating environmental damage have had terrible effects on biodiversity and planetary health. Reversing or mitigating this will take a long time, but rewilding has particular promise because it allows nature to find its own balance with minimum human intervention. As we have seen during the recent pandemic, when human impacts are reduced remarkable changes can rapidly occur.

Measurement and observation to track restoration and oversight to ensure reintegration (rewilding) is smooth. Among Cana’s funding priorities is to establish long-baseline ecological studies to monitor the effects of introducing horses to different environments, including beneficial effects on other species.

Although there are several rewilding initiatives currently proceeding in the US, there are none currently involving horses. However, rewilding Europe has experienced very positive results with horse rewilding in places like the Rhodope Mountains of southern Bulgaria. Agriculture, always marginal in this area, has been abandoned, leaving extensive areas of potential habitat for large herbivores like horses. Now the Rhodopes function not only as a wildlife area but also a tourist attraction.

For the past 6000 years, since the first efforts at horse domestication, human cultures have relied on horsepower for everything from transportation to agriculture to warfare. Although their economic roles have been almost completely lost in developed countries, humans remain emotionally connected to horses. Hippotherapy, for example, is a recognized method of improving the wellbeing of people suffering from a wide a range of emotional or mental problems. Many Native American groups consider the horse to be fundamentally important to the preservation of their cultures. One of Cana’s programs is to make this connection even stronger by encouraging Native Americans to participate in rewilding efforts on tribal lands.

1. 1. Talking about rewilding and the plight of wild horses educates with greater depth with every conversation.
   2. Voting for decision makers who support humane wild horse and land management and environmental rewilding initiatives.

Building small ARKs (Areas of Restorative Kindness) in and around your own space teaches us how rapidly nature can respond. Rewilding your own space and even yourself drives the concept forward.