The wild horse is like a mythical creature. Liminal, vanishing; in the world I grew up in – Europe – extinct. There was a species of wild horse there once, known as the Tarpan. Many native breeds trace their ancestry back to it, but the species itself was lost some time around the turn of the twentieth century.
So when I learned that for the past ten years, an organisation called Rewilding Europe has been reintroducing herds of horses to the mountains of Bulgaria, I began to dream of travelling out there to see it for myself. I decided to craft an adventure around the idea, tells Alex Mallarky.
Two years ago when I first began to plan, I had only been hiking for the past few years, and I had never planned a big trip – let alone in an area as remote and uncharted as the Bulgarian Rhodope Mountains. I would travel with Lachlan, my husband and partner in adventure, and though we often worked together to plan our trips, this was the first time I would be the expedition leader. I speculated that the odds of me pulling off this feat of organisation and seeing the thing through were low. But I went for it anyway.
Read here the full text of the story of Alex Mullarky on She Went Wild website
Follow her on Facebook: F/wildhorseseu
