A heavily pregnant mare, belonging to the herd of wild Kaapsehoop horses in Mpumalanga, was killed, along with her unborn foal, when it was hit by a car on the Kaapsehoop Road on Sunday.

The tragic death comes amid growing concerns from Kaapsehoop residents regarding the dwindling number of wild horses in the area, which currently stands at 70.

According to Andrea Fourie, a resident of the village and member of the Wild Horse Fund, the population was between 150 and 200 in 2016. She says the decrease in the population, which is made up of various small herds stretching from Kaapsehoop down to around Ngodwana, is largely due to car accidents, as well as incidents of snares in the area and African horse sickness.

Fourie has pleaded with locals, visitors and motorists travelling the road to drive with caution in the area and to not stop and feed the horses, especially on the roadside. She says the horses start to associate food with vehicles and then stay on the roads.

Fourie says it was rainy and misty on Sunday evening when the incident occurred. A vehicle travelling about 5km down from the village in Mbombela’s direction hit the pregnant mare. The impact caused the unborn foal to burst from its mother’s womb.

Kyra Naudé and her brother Frans, who live at the Kaapsehoop Guest Farm about 20km outside Mbombela and 5km away from Kaapsehoop, first received reports of the incident at 19:00 that evening.

The siblings and Frans’s girlfriend Cenedra Kapp went out to the scene at 20:00 where they found the mare and the foal half protruding from its mother’s belly, its head almost fully submerged in a puddle of water at the roadside.

Kyra, who took photos of the scene that are too graphic for publishing, said the mare’s name was Amber and she was near the end of her third pregnancy.

“We are urging people who may hit a horse with their vehicle to report it to us immediately. There are people in Kaapsehoop who can assist and react quickly and try and help the horses. We find many accidents involving the wild horses are not reported,” says Fourie.

“Vehicles hitting the wild horses are a huge contributing factor to the decrease in their population. We lose about 10 horses every year due to them being hit by vehicles. We regularly have to remove horse carcasses from the road.

“We are all mourning the loss of the mare and her foal. The population is on the verge of being wiped out.”

Fourie says there are about 30 signboards around the area and on the road alerting motorists of the presence of the horses, but says the Kaapsehoop Wild Horse Fund team is looking at raising funds to erect two more along the stretch of road where the mare was killed.

“People can control speeding. Many people know there are wild horses in the area. We are asking that people please slow down while travelling along the Kaapsehoop Road, and remain vigilant, especially during misty and rainy conditions.”

Fourie says accidents can be reported to any person, pub, restaurant or hotel in Kaapsehoop.

For more information on the Wild Horse Fund or to report an accident involving a wild horse, contact Fourie on 076 764 7625.

She says when reporting an incident, people should send photos and the location to assist in the speedy recovery of the injured horse.