On the plains and foothills of Cincar Mountain, which towers above the town of Livno in western Bosnia, wild horses roam free. There is said to be over two hundred of these horses roaming the area, having first appeared in this location almost half a century ago after being abandoned by owners who were increasingly using mechanized means to agriculturally exploit the valleys below.
Livno wild horses love to gather between the settlement Potocani and Zagoricani, in the eastern part of the municipality of Livno, at about 920 meters above the sea level, because there is Vrbovnik spring nearby.
There are several groups of about fifty horses at about 140 square meters large section where Livno wild horses live, on a hill called Kruzi in the area of Koricin to Borova Glava.
It is interesting that they were not wild horses before. They were ordinary, tame horses that people kept in the villages of Potocani, Zagoricani, Begovaca, or the edge villages of the Municipality of Livno. They used them for work and transport.
However, with the arrival of mechanization 40 or 50 years ago, horses became too big expense to their owners. At first, in the summer period, they used to let them go in the mountains and to take them back in the winter time. However, they were still a great expense to their owners so they left them in the mountains.
That is how we came to the current state in these 45 to 50 years. Therefore, Livno wild horses are the offspring of the original tamed horses, and there are different breeds, from Posavinians to Arabian horses and Bosnian horses.
Now there is no pure breed because of crossing, but they are quite resistant to all kinds of weather conditions and all possible illnesses.
Despite bitterly cold winter winds, attacks by wild animals, and the conflict that raged in the area in the early 1990s, these horses remain self-sufficient, able to feed themselves without direct need for human intervention. Indeed, even in the winter months, they are able to dig down into the snow to forage on the grass below.
Local legend has it that these horses very rarely cross the main road that links Livno to the neighbouring town of Kupres, and which approximately divides Bosnia from Herzegovina, because they are proudly Bosnian, just as the inhabitants of Livno regard themselves as Bosnian, not Herzegovinian.
(Source: Sarajevo Times, Via Dinarica)
