Wild horses of Aveto Park (Italy)

In a high mountain landscape, pastures and extensive beech forests, in Liguria there is a hidden corner of pristine nature that represent an unique situation in Italy. We are in the Aveto Park, and here, for more than fifteen years, there is a herd of wild horses that live without contact with man.

Discovering wild horses in the Aveto Park (Liguria), Italy

Photo by I Cavalli Selvaggi dell’Aveto Wildhorsewatching

The mind immediately brings us to the American Frontier and Mongolia and in fact the behavior of the horses of Aveto Park is quite comparable to that of the Mustang of the American prairies and Przewalski’s horses in Mongolia.

It all started when the owner of a small group of domestic horses died. Now they were orphans, they have had to adapt to the hard winters of the Apennines, surviving and adapting perfectly to the new condition. Thus, the new generations have never had contact with the man, living in total autonomy for 365 days a year.

But you know, the relationship with man is not easy. Thus, in 2009 two horses were killed with guns. Since then, two Italian women, Paola Marinari and Evelina Isola, have begun to protect these wild horses, and then they founded in 2012 the Horsewatching project in which the horses have become resource and emblem of the Aveto Park territory.

Photo by I Cavalli Selvaggi dell’Aveto Wildhorsewatching

Thanks to the project you can get close to the wild horses: there are many trekking experiences, guided by the naturalist Evelina Island, that you can try to venture among the beautiful landscapes of the park, in the beech forests around the lake, high in the mountains overlooking the sea, to spot the horses and admire their behavior and their nature, so far from that of the horses that we know.

Cover photo by I Cavalli Selvaggi dell’Aveto Wildhorsewatching