Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Bandit

What a weekend! I had the great fortune of visiting some of the wild horses of the Little Book Cliffs range near Grand Junction with two women who know them best: Billie Hutchings (see her blog, listed under the blog roll) and Marty Felix, both with Friends of the Mustangs. Part of my inspiration for documenting our Spring Creek Basin herd has come from the meticulous documentation of members of this group (Marty has been doing it in LBC for 30-some years!). At their roundup last September, less than a month after ours, I got to see firsthand how that documentation has played a role in them being able to conduct gathers that are less stressful on the horses but still get the job done of removing excess horses so the ones that remain have better access to forage – the BLM’s goal.

The Little Book Cliffs range is about 36,000 acres (Spring Creek Basin’s is about 22,000), their appropriate management level is 90 to 150 horses, and they have 119 currently on the range. Their horses are fat and shiny and uber-healthy (like ours!). One of the biggest things that struck me was the sheer challenge of finding horses because of the geography of their range. Lots of tree, lots of canyons, lots of rocky country. There’s no place where you can stand and scan a 180-degree arc looking for horses – and in our basin, there are several such places. But if anyone can find horses, it’s these two eagle-eyed women. And even with 119 horses in their charge, they know every single one … but sometimes it takes awhile to find the newborns!

Billie and Marty also get paid a little by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Biological Research Division for their work on the fertility control study in the Little Book Cliffs. The study is in place there, on Pryor Mountain and at the McCullough Peaks Herd Management Area just outside Cody, Wyo. In fact, the main reason I went north and got to see their horses was a talk Marty gave about the immunocontraception drug PZP. She and three other people (including their wild horse specialist) are certified to dart their mares with the PZP each year. I think the study has been going on since 2002. The biggest thing I learned from her talk is that the PZP-22 drug our mares (Alpha, Kiowa, Chipeta, Molly and now-dead Slate) were given – the 22 means 22 months – is basically effective only one year, I think because they were all pregnant when they got the drug. So it will keep them out of the foaling business for just one year, not two.

Interestingly, we were supposed to get three mares from the Little Book Cliffs herd last year after their gather to boost the genetics of our herd (with an AML of just 35-65 horses, it is not a naturally genetically viable herd). But we didn’t get those mares, and the reason I heard was because they got the PZP for just one year – as opposed to our two. Now that I find out our “two-year” drug is good for only one year, I’m a little frustrated. The compromise is that we’d get mares from one of the other herd areas instead. We were told Sand Wash had planned a gather, but it wasn’t funded. This weekend, all news seems to point to Sand Wash’s gather going on as planned.

I had a fantastic time on the Little Book Cliffs range, and it was awesome to “meet” some of their horses and listen to Billie’s and Marty’s stories about them. We were able to get out of Billie’s truck several times and approach quite a few bands. We saw about three others from a distance. Thank you, Billie and Marty, for such a wonderful day! I hope you’ll let me return the favor in the future by going out with me to Spring Creek Basin!

Buttermilk

His band was the first we saw. He was out in a little meadow on a hillside, and his mares and 2-year-old colt were napping already under a tree.

Diamond Rio

Sorry, sir!

Choca

Gunsmoke, Kiva and Spook

Spook

Chrome and Phantom

Phantom

Phantom

Skylark

Chablis and Illusion

Cabin Boy

I’m out of time, but I went to the basin after all my other travelings, so I’ll post some pix from Sunday soon.