What is freedom for you? Is it the ability to release all your restraints and go forward in your life without looking back? Or being surrounded by the people you love, enjoying doing things that bring you happiness? We have all been imagining from time to time being completely and utterly free. Like a herd of wild horses running in the wind.

Guess what? There is such a thing out there. A powerful and mighty herd of free horses that have stood strong for almost half a century and they are still fighting. The largest herd of free horses in all of Europe and it had all happened because of us. Humans. For another inspiring story of our world check The Power Of Jamu.

Modernization is not always a bad thing

We are looking at a small rural town in the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A small but unique country that has its own challenges that I don’t want to get into right now. Livno is the city. Cincar is the mountain. The town is most famous because of its specific and unique cheese. Surrounded by tall mountains and graced with three pure rivers. It is a gold mine for cattle with fresh mountain air all year round. There is a lot of past in this part of the world. Many wars. Thousand of broken dreams and people who are strong to survive long winters and dry hot summers. Maybe it takes a specific type of people to come and live here. Throughout both the great wars and the recent one that built the country. Freedom has always been close by. Nature and the land found a way into people’s hearts. Making them stubborn, hard to change, strong to survive, and easy to protect their ancestral homes.

As the winds of modernization swept through the community. Replacing archaic tools for engines and machinery. Landowners and farmers gave away their loyal horses as the ultimate sacrifice. Choosing between immediate death or releasing them into the wild. The strong and powerful animals were spared and sent to live under the mountain tops in the area called Kruzi. What else could the owners do? We are talking about a period after The Great War when poverty and hunger were common occurrences throughout Europe. They were struggling to feed their families and didn’t have the resources to care for such large animals.

The descendants of these once-loyal creatures that would spend their lives working in the fields and pulling supplies now found themselves exposed to the powers of nature. Some of them didn’t survive. The power of evolution, Only the strongest, the fastest, and the most intelligent have stayed alive long enough to call the land their home. And they grew into hundreds. Then 300 strong. Until now the most powerful herd had over 600 horses, old and young.

The dangers ahead

You would think that after surviving 50 years of cold winters without food. And 50 years of hot summers searching for water would be the worst of their problems. But we humans are selfish creatures that never miss an opportunity to make money. Since they are left alone without any protection. Without any regulation from the government. Without any owner, since they are born, they live free. Horse thieves and smugglers continually invade their lands and steal their young. Sometimes taking an entire part of the herd with them. Animals are mistreated, sold to meat factories, or just left for dead.

Then some would sell tour packages and then chase entire herds with their cars and jeeps just to snap a photo for their guests. All in the name of protecting the animals, raising donations, and convincing others how good they are fighting for the horses.

There is no understanding or appreciation for the beauty of these wild animals. They are holding the last bit of the ways nature was before we humans came to this world. There are a few decent people who have given their time and effort to help these majestic animals. People who are satisfied to watch them from a safe distance and admire their spirit. But why do we expect people to treat animals any better than we treat each other?

Can we all be free?

So if your heart ever takes you on that road between the towns of Livno and Bugojno. You will surely see them. They will ride with the wind. Their eyes never knew anything else but the sight of the mountains in the distance. Their ears enjoy the cold winds playing on the treetops. Their hearts beat with the flow of the pure rivers. They are going to shock you with a sense of liberty and power you have never seen before.

And you are going to wish to turn into a stone. So you can keep watching their dances. Their colors are from midnight black to the purest white. Wondering what kind of a broken heart could ever imagine hurting them? Stealing them? How can you steal pure freedom? How can you even think to capture it?