Sable Island horse

Sable Island horse

Feral Sable Island horses
Country of origin	Sable Island, Canada
Traits
Distinguishing features	Small, stocky feral horses
Equus ferus caballus

The Sable Island horse is a small feral horse found on Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is usually dark in colour. The first horses were released on the island in the late 1700s, and soon became feral. Additional horses were later transported to improve the herd's breeding stock. They were rounded up for private use and sale for slaughter, which by the 1950s had placed them in danger of extinction. During the 2018 study, the estimated population was 500 horses, up from the roughly 300 recorded in the 1970s.^[1]

In 1960, the Canadian government protected the horses by law in their feral state. From the 1980s on, long-term, noninvasive herd studies have been performed, and in 2007 a genetic analysis was conducted that concluded the herd was genetically distinct enough to interest conservationists. In 2008, the horses were declared the official horse of Nova Scotia, and in 2011, the island was declared the Sable Island National Park Reserve. The herd is unmanaged, and legally protected from interference by humans. The horses live only at Sable Island and, until 2019,^[2] at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park on the mainland of Nova Scotia, with the latter herd descended from horses removed from Sable Island in the 1950s.