The Kaimanawa wild horse round-up has finished for 2010, and will now take place every two years.
It took three helicopters and a team of musterers two days to remove up to 150 horses from the Central North Island herds, 50 fewer than last year.
Department of Conservation programme manager Margaret Metcalf says the operation went smoothly and about 100 of the horses will go to their new homes this weekend.
The muster will now take place every two years to keep numbers in the Kaimanawa Ranges, south of Taupo, at the agreed size of about 300.
