The wild spirit of the North Island high country is a small, tough horse, standing about fourteen hands high, with a sturdy build and hard feet. Their colours vary widely, including bay, black, chestnut, grey, and piebald, but they all share the same wild, wary look. These horses have never been tamed. They live and die in the rough volcanic landscape, breeding and fighting and running free. These animals are the survivors of the high country. They eat tussock, scrub and whatever grass they can find. They drink from the cold, clear streams of the Kaimanawa Range. They live in small herds, led by a dominant stallion who fights off rivals and protects his mares. They are tough, resilient and perfectly adapted to their harsh home. The Kaimanawa horses have a complicated history. They are descended from domestic horses, some say from cavalry horses, others from farm horses turned loose. They have lived wild for over a century, developing into a distinct population. Every few years, the Department of Conservation rounds up hundreds of them to keep the population in check. Some are adopted, some are rehomed, some are culled. To see a Kaimanawa horse is to see a living legend. A small, tough, wild horse running free in the high country, a symbol of the untamed New Zealand spirit. The debate over their management reflects a deeper tension in New Zealand conservation. On one side are ecologists who point to the damage horses do to fragile tussock grasslands and alpine herb fields. On the other are advocates who see the Kaimanawa horse as a heritage animal, a living piece of New Zealand's pastoral history. The compromise is a managed population of about three hundred horses, kept in balance through regular musters. It is not a perfect solution, but it is a working one. The horses remain wild. The tussock remains standing. And every few years, the helicopters fly and the debate begins again.