Page 38 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 3 8

Therefore, the preservation of primitive breeds (primitive in the sense of “original”),
which still live in their natural habitat and are subject to complete natural selection, is of
inestimable importance. Only these animals - like the Dülmen wild horses here - retain
the original genetic material that will one day be necessary to enhance man’s domestic
livestock with the natural genetic material in all its fullness.

To avoid rank fights among the sexually mature stallions, the yearlings are caught. The

one-year-old stallions are caught by hand and offered for sale by auction. The yearling
stallions quickly lose their shyness towards humans and get used to their new
environment. They are said to have a clever, good-natured, undemanding, but above all
an easy-going character. Therefore, they are very popular as riding horses for children or
as carriage horses.

So only one sexually mature stallion remains with the herd. This means that there is a
certain degree of human intervention. Nevertheless, there can be no question of selection
for breeding by man, as is also explained above. What is important at this point is that the
captured stallions obviously get used to the conditions in the human environment quite
quickly and are quite easy and friendly companions. This already shows that a wild animal
does not necessarily have to be frightening or terrible. One could therefore call such a

wild stallion a “natural pet”.

Dülmen wild horses © City of Dülmen, Germany