Horses of Mongolia Part 2: Hustai National Park - Summer 2007 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Horses of Mongolia Part 2: Hustai National Park

by Susan Fox

"Morning Drink" – Oil, 12 x 16, by Susan Fox.
On my second visit to Hustai National Park I was anxious to see the difference in the park and the horses from my first one, which was in early May of 2005. At that time, the Przewalski horses, or takhi, were just shedding their winter coats and it was cold and windy with snow showers, typical spring weather in Mongolia. Now it was late September, warm and sunny during the day and not too cold at night. As at Khomiin Tal, my goal was to come home with photos of the horses in great light and, with luck, doing something interesting.

The story of the takhi at Hustai begins with the formation of the Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski Horse by Jan and Inge Bouman, a Dutch couple, in 1979. Their goal was the reintroduction of the horses to Mongolia. They established what they called “semi-reserves” in the Netherlands and Germany with both breeding and bachelor groups of the horses to acclimate them to a more natural environment than would be found in a zoo. By 1992, a reserve in Mongolia called “Hustai Nuruu” (place of the birch trees) had been chosen, along with Takhin Tal in the Gobi Desert, as release sites. In the following years the reserve became a national park, and a total of 84 takhi were flown in by five separate transport flights.

By the time I returned there last fall, the population had grown to 191, closer to the goal of a self-sustaining herd of 300-500. The park has a research center which is the base for on-going studies of the horses and they even have an eco-volunteer program which lets non-scientists contribute by doing field observations of the horses. (www.owc.org.mn/macne/hustai/index.htm).

Hustai has excellent visitor facilities, so it wasn’t quite the adventure that Khomiin Tal was. I had my own traditional Mongolian ger, or tent, to stay in, modern bathrooms and three delicious, nutritious meals a day in the very pleasant dining room. They even had Chinggis Khan beer on tap! There is a quite interesting gift shop with a number of items made by the local people. One can arrange for horse treks or go hiking. There is one campground in the park. The park manager, by previous arrangement, provided me with a driver and guide for a morning and an afternoon drive each day, for which I paid by the kilometer.

The main road to the valley where the horses can almost always be seen is about a twenty-minute drive from the park headquarters and visitor ger camp at the entrance. And, sure enough, shortly after entering the valley I saw a harem of seven horses not far from the road. We encountered a couple of other park vehicles with visitors, but that was it. I pretty much had the place to myself every time I was in the park.

I dragged my guide and driver out at 7:00 am the next morning in order to catch the first light, which is spectacular. Almost immediately, we saw a single stallion and mare right by the road. She was meandering around and he kept an eye on us, not taking any chances on losing his harem of one. Driving on, there was a group of four horses at the base of a large hill and then a group of six. I was alternating shooting pictures of the horses and catching the great light of the surrounding area. We came around a bend, and there by pools of surface water were two groups of takhi! One harem of seven was drinking while a second one of nine stood a little above them on a bank, watching. We’d arrived in the middle of things, I think, so I never quite sorted out exactly what the interactions were – but I know a great potential painting when I see one and this definitely fit the bill. What looked like a possible confrontation ended suddenly when both groups turned and walked off in opposite directions.

As if this wasn’t enough, a little further down the road was a harem of thirteen horses! Got some great shots of them and then we continued on toward the river, called the Tuul Gol. We came to a lovely glade of trees and immediately saw a group of domestic horses. They can breed with the takhi and produce fertile offspring even though the takhi have 66 chromosomes and the domestic horses 64. The hybrids have 65. This poses a real conservation challenge for the reintroduction of the takhi. Domestic horses are not allowed in the park and my driver was immediately on the radio reporting their presence. One didn’t need to know Mongolian to guess what he was saying.

We drove across the steppe, stopping to photograph Mongolian gazelle, and after a walk along the riverside looking for birds, went back up to two herder gers which were set up on a bank overlooking the river valley. I suspect, from the conversations that followed in Mongolian, that our driver was “mentioning” the fact that we had seen our host’s horses in the park. After a delicious midmorning snack of crusted milk and clotted cream spread on fresh bread and the ubiquitous milk tea, we started back to the ger camp. Not far along we passed a ranger on a motorbike herding the wandering horses back out of the park.

As I mentioned in the previous issue, the takhi go up into the hills at night and come down to graze during the day. The next morning we were treated to the sight on a rocky hillside of marel and takhi within a hundred yards of each other. Another great painting idea – one that I’m not sure I would have thought of otherwise. The story of the morning, however, occurred a short time later when we came upon another takhi harem walking in single file, backlit in the morning light. I quickly noticed one foal lagging behind and limping badly. Possibly it had been attacked by wolves. An older foal seemed to be staying with it. The rest of the group was starting to hurry towards its morning destination and then two adult horses stopped, looked back, saw the two foals and went to them. One nudged and seemed to fuss over the injured foal and then the three of them escorted the younger one on to join the rest of the group. It was quite an extraordinary thing to see.

The evening drive, my last, was by now usual sightings of multiple groups of horses grazing. The horses were spread out on a slope in nice light, a perfect ending to a great visit.

Back in the studio, I now have the reference that I need to show the takhi at their best. I do charcoal drawings to try out different ideas to see what works. I’d rather find that out in a quick study than on the canvas. When I do “the waterhole painting,” I’ll do all the design and composition work with drawings and also work out my value pattern. The photos were taken at a couple of different angles, so the light changed. I’ll do a color study to make the light consistent on all the horses. I also do small landscape studies to figure out what colors will give the effect I’m looking for. That’s another problem that I don’t generally want to have to solve while I’m painting, particularly if the subject is still new to me.

Part three of this series will be the takhi’s "cousins", the domestic horses who are the descendants of the ones Chinggis Khan and his horde rode when they conquered most of the known world almost 800 years ago. Bayartai!

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