The Dülmen wild horses have felt at home in the Münsterland region for a long time. They were mentioned in documents as early as 1316 - making them the only originally preserved wild horse population on the European continent. To this day, the robust animals are largely left to their own devices. Only sometimes do humans have to intervene: In winter, for example, there is sometimes a feeding station, because despite its size, the area in the Hohe Mark Nature Park does not always provide enough food for the herd and it is no longer possible to move on.
70 to 80 foals are born in the Merfelder Bruch every year and to regulate the size of the herd, the wild stallions are driven into an arena in early summer and removed from the herd. The wild horse catch on the last Saturday in May is a big crowd puller every year: catchers then grab the herd's one-year-old stallions with their bare hands. Once caught, the animals are auctioned off or raffled off and tamed so that they can later be ridden through the vast parkland of the Münsterland or used to pull carriages.
