Cavas Causes Chaos

Welcome back!! and if you’re knew here, my name is Brooke. I am a wildlife photographer, as a family of 5 with 3 young kids, we travel the back country to see what Alberta’s wilderness has instore for us.

Now this is a 3 month long story, however i will try to not take 3 months to explain it. Although if you know me, I like details, minor things. things that may go over looked, so it may be a bit of a read. I suggest to sit down, half a coffee and enjoy unpacking the journey of Cavas with me.

Cavas is a 2 year old wild Alberta mountain horse stallion. He is truly wild as wild gets. The last few months I have spent getting to know him, I have come to the realization that he is full of turmoil and chaos. To start Cavas was born in 2023 to April and ….well….who knows really. See this is where it gets confusing… Right from day 1. See the Dam/mare/momma, (whatever you want to call her) I will call her April. She travels with 3 stallions, and she is the only mare. It is kind of an odd situation, now we sometimes see bands with 2 or 3 stallions, however there is usually more than one mare in those bands. April has 3 stallions fighting for her every year. Phillip, Ernie, and Ayashe. Phillip is a liver bay, with a beautiful star and socks, he is a pretty quiet boy, he spends most of his day loving and grooming Ajax, Cavas and April, he’s a very sweet stallion and very family bound. Ayashe..i could talk about Ayashe all day, he is a sorrel, with a beautiful big blaze, however he has a little spot on the side of his nose that looks like a piece of his blaze broke off, very distinct and very recongizable. He is a good hearted boy, he keeps to himself, he sticks to the outskirts of the band, he always lags behind, and always has the sweetest shyest demeanor. (He is my favorite of the 3 stallions) Last but definitely not least is Ernie, the lead stallion of the band. To say the least.. Ernie confuses me in every way. Sometimes I feel like he’s a chestnut, and sometimes I feel like he is a really light bay. it depends on the lighting really. I guess he’s so on the fence with color, you might get away with calling him either one…he’s got a beautiful blaze that looks smudged on the top left of his face. Now this boy is the one to truly observe in this group. As a lover of equine psychology Ernie has the most complex personality in this band. Now back to April for one more second. April travels with her two foals, 2023 foal Cavas, and her 2024 foal Ajax. Ayashe is believed to be the dad of Cavas, however he looks so much like Phillip to me, however Phillip was not with the group back then, but i believe phillip is the father of Ajax and ajax and Cavas are identical. It’s a confusing little band.now you have the background information, lets get into the real story!

It starts in January 2025, when i first met this band. This is when i first noticed the chaos that Cavas causes. Cavas is 2, he is a mix between a liver bay and grullo as he has the black accents (primitive markings) that grullos have. I can’t figure out if he will mature to look like his mom April or one of the 3 stallions. He has a cute little star that looks like a 6. He is a fair size for 2 years old and is comparable with most 3 year olds in size. On this day in January it was a snow storm, i wasn’t sure if i would even find any horses. They usually hide deep in the forest from bad weather. To my surprise as i was coming around a corner, there they were. I noticed right away some problems going on, but I didn’t know this band, or who they were, so at this point I was just observing and spectating. Ayashe (as i now know him to be) was hanging back snaking everyone, I assumed he was the lead stallion at first because of this. Then i noticed two horses fighting, it was Cavas and Ernie. Cavas was arguing with his lead stallion. Ernie was trying his best to correct him, going for his legs and neck, during all this chaos we had another band close by watching, cavas and ernie continued fighting all the way over to this other band, when the other stallion ( I still don’t know who this was) pinned his ears signaling to Ernie and cavas that they were too close to him. Ernie within a split second understood this and took off running, self preservation. he chose not to fight another stallion for no reason. However Cavas did not understand this and continued running towards this observing stallion. This is where the real trouble began for Cavas. This other stallion started chasing him, for 200-300 metres, before turning around and running back to his band. Now in the process of cavas being chased away, Ernie and Ayashe continued pushing April and Ajax further down the road, luckily Cavas ran, catching up, however Ernie was not finished with him and continued nipping at him all the way down the road out of sight. In this moment my first thought was wow, this little foal has some manners to learn. My second thought was he is probably going to on his own soon, so when we were done taking pictures of the “other” stallion to get identification photos, we went to try and catch up to Ernies band, and we did, they settled down cavas was back beside momma April and brother Ajax, however Cavas was keeping his mom between him and Ernie now. This was my last encounter with them until march, i took this time studying their band and names and history, believing now for sure that Cavas is being pushed out by the lead stallion Ernie, and I was wrong, Ayashe is not the lead stallion, he just likes to hang back. That’s just him. Now I looked and looked for these guys all through the rest of January, Febuary and half of march. Until last week when they finally all reappeared. Together! I was so thrilled! Cavas was still sticking really close to April and Ajax and Ernie was still being really mean to him, nothing had changed but I was happy to see them all safe as a family, and to see that Cavas wasn’t hurt or injured. Now i spent this encounter studying Cavas and Ernie. Their behavior and body language. Cavas was submissive, for the most part, however every now and then he would protest Ernie. leading to minor squabbles between them. However I was curious as to where they had been, but i have come to a conclusion they went far in the back country, traveling around and through valleys and mountains, appearing back on the other side of this mountain range. Now the question was why. Is this a yearly migration? Did another stallion push him out of his old area? or does he have an extraordinarily large territory? Most Alberta mountain horses stay within 20km of where they were born, however some have been known to go as far as 60km. It was getting late, we finished up our day and headed home. However i could not help but wonder what i would find on my next trip out. Leading me into yesterday. I made my journey back out, I was greeted by many wildies on this particular morning, so i spent the majority of the day preoccupied in a different area with different horses, now finishing up my day i decided to head back the way I last seen Ernies band, coming around the corner I was greeted by a fair sized band, far out in the meadow, half a km or so. At first I did not know who any horse here were, and assumed it was a band that i haven’t seen in person before. I sat to watch them for a while, most of the horses were grazing or resting amongst the meadows, until a scruffle broke out. i could see 4 horses all some what joining and participating in this argument. |So I pulled out my 600-1300mm lense to try and get a better view of who I was looking at. I could see a bay horse and another young horse arguing, nipping each other and chasing each other, until a final nip on the legs fell down and stayed laying down with his head curled in, now a second horse has joined in , nipping the fallen horse. At this point i still had no clue who i was looking at. This horse stayed laying down until the two aggressors stopped and retreated from him. This horse stood up appearing to be fine, walking away unhurt by the other two. Now this is where my point of view changed on the situation as a whole. As this horse stood up and turned around I knew instantly. It was little Cavas. Now it all made sense. Now this other group I recognized, they were with another group I photographed further down the road a few hours prior to this, now I believe as I was with henrys band these guys snuck away without me realizing. Now Cavas was in the same spot I seen them last week. Which leads me to believe he has probably been here since my encounter with them last week. Now the pieces are falling into place. April the mare of the group is pregnant, due to foal within the next couple months, I believe that Ernie, the lead stallion, chose to travel this far to find a good place to drop off his eldest son… Kind of like driving your son to their first day of University. From Ernies perspective, in will be an extra mouth to find forage for, and another herd member that he has to protect. I think his solution was to go drop off his son is a pasture full of grass, far enough away that Cavas would know he is now on his own, but close enough that i feel like they will run into each other more down the road, and maybe one day we will see Cavas and his mares and foals grazing in the same pastures ass Ernie and his band. However this is the way life goes for these young colts. Ernie allowed Cavas to stay , say till he is 3, or 4, then Ernie risks the chance of being over powered by his son, leading to the loss of his status as the lead stallion. It happens every year right before foaling season, young fillies and colts are kicked out of their family bands, left to figure out the big world on their own, hopefully retaining the knowledge the dam and sire passed down in the first 2-3 years, this is how they keep pure bloodlines as well. They need to out and find their own bands to one day breed and carry bloodlines on through, however it cannot be their fsmily bands, or they risks tainting and damaging their bloodline and dna through inbreeding. Wild horses under stand this concept to the core. how they survive is dependent on who they pick to procreate with. So Cavas was here all alone, probably not quite sure what to do yet. However his family band is gone, i imagine they’re journeying back across the mountain. However when I think of little Cavas and what he is going through, i think this band coud very well adopt him in, now that depends on the lead stallion, who actually didnt seem to mind cavas at all, however the two younger boys of the group werre trying to show Cavas that they are above him, As a young 2 year old what Cavas did here was 100% correct, her got down, submitted, and didn’t get back up to retaliate, he stayed down till they stopped. this was his way of showing submission. now honestly if he keeps it up, he should be welcome in this band if he takes his place at the bottom of the pecking order, however if he continues to challenge the other two young stallions its doubtful they will allow him to stay in the band because it disrupts the peace and order the lead stallion has secured in the band. I have high hopes for Cavas. He is a strong boy, he will find his way. I think if he can find some good bachelor stallions or a young filly, he will be okay. Until he finishes growing , he will need to keep his head down and just focus on growing and learning. Cavas is a fierce boy, i believe this is why Ernie kicked him out as a 2 year old, while some young colts get to stay till with their families till they’re 3.Cavas at 2 was already fighting back, and causing chaos in his family band, it was time for him to go. Now his journey won’t end here. It is just the beginning. I will continue to watch him in the future years and document his growth as a stallion. This is a story of the chaos that can erupt, through family bands and young colts. Living in the untamed Alberta wilderness is a never ending trial and struggle for these wild horses.