The Free Horses of the Danube Delta: the True Story of the Letea Horses

Herds of horses grazing freely among the sand dunes and the old oaks of Letea are one of the most beautiful sights of the Danube Delta. People call them wild horses, and they certainly look the part. Their real story is different, and just as interesting.

The true wild horse is gone

The wild horse of the Eastern European steppes, the tarpan, once roamed the plains north of the Black Sea. Its name comes from a Turkic word for wild horse. It was hunted for centuries and crossed with domestic horses; the last wild tarpans disappeared in the 19th century, and the last known one died in captivity in 1909. The horses you see in the Danube Delta today are not tarpans.

Domestic horses set free

For generations, horses were essential in the villages of the Danube Delta, for carts, fieldwork and transport across the sandy ridges. After 1990, when the collective farms were dissolved and people turned to cars and tractors, many owners no longer needed their horses and let them go free in the forest and on the grasslands around it. Today’s herds descend mostly from these domestic horses.

Living free for several generations, they have become feral: they form their own family groups, find their own food and water and keep away from people. Some of them still show the robust build and the primitive look of the old local breeds, a reminder of the horses that worked here for centuries.

Wild or feral?

If you call the American mustangs or the Australian brumbies wild horses, then the horses of the Danube Delta are wild too: they look and behave like wild animals. Scientifically, all of them are feral horses, domestic horses that returned to life in the wild.

Where to see them

The most famous place is Letea, on the sand ridge of the marine delta, where horses graze among the dunes, the meadows and the edges of the forest. Fewer horses live around Caraorman, in the same kind of landscape. You can see the Letea herds on our day trip to Letea or on our tours of several days; read more about the trip to Letea Forest.

Watch them with respect

These are large, strong animals, and the stallions protect their herds. Keep a good distance, never feed them, and never come between a mare and her foal. Watched calmly from afar, the herds stay relaxed, and the encounter is far more beautiful.