Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

It’s official! Justice, a now-6-year-old buckskin mustang from Spring Creek Basin, Disappointment Valley, West Slope Colorado, USA, leaves Friday with his U.S. Border Patrol unit from Washington State headed to Washington, D.C., for the parade that celebrates the inauguration of our new president, Barack Obama.

I’m stunned. I’m thrilled. I’m ecstatic!

Fran Ackley, Wild Horse and Burro Program leader for BLM in Colorado, based in Canon City, told me this morning that Justice – originally one of two alternates – will definitely be in the parade.

Justice, named there at the prison when they thought he might make a good candidate for the Border Patrol, was a star student – “pretty mellow” is how Fran described him. The inmate who trained him thought he had so much potential, in fact, that he rode Justice with a Colorado flag to get him used to that flapping, waving thing above him should he actually go to the Border Patrol. Do you think he might have had some inkling that one day the horse he trained would end up smack dab in the middle of the festivities of a country celebrating its new president? Inmate X, my hat is off to you.

Think of all the intersecting lines of fate … The inmate – a non-violent offender – goes to Canon City and gets into the program training wild horses. A wild buckskin stallion, which Fran laughingly called a “renegade” that had to escape the herd area to “get the girls,” gets aged incorrectly and because of that and his escapist tendencies, the decision is made to remove him – but BECAUSE of his perceived age, he’s not sent to the local adoption, he’s sent to Canon City. There, Colorado Correctional Industries officials see his potential and put him into their saddle training program with the inmates, where he meets Inmate X, who sees his potential (interesting, huh? I hope you realize your own potential, guy!). The Border Patrol comes calling – just 10 months after Justice was removed from the wild! – and picks him (among a few others) from the dozen horses the facility has in training at the time. Now, Justice is headed to Washington, and Inmate X has served his time and been released from prison, where, in my heart of hearts, I wish him all the best.

Wow, huh?

I have seen some pictures of Justice via e-mail not sent directly to me, so if I get permission from the original senders, I will post them here on the blog. At least one might be sensitive because it shows the inmate on Justice, carrying a Colorado flag (but what a great photo!).

What better testament to the temperament and resiliency of mustangs!? I’ve talked to and heard from a lot of people who have adopted a mustang, and the common refrain is “I wouldn’t sell my mustang for a million bucks.” As much as we hate to see them removed from the wild, many of those that have been removed and have found homes have found forever-homes, I think.

They all have stories. Some are just a little more star-studded than others. 🙂

Justice prevails!!

P.S./This just in: According to information from Ann Bond, the horse Kootenai (“kooten-ee”) shown in the December 2007 issue of Western Horseman about “Project Noble Mustang” (Page 78 ) might be the horse from Sand Wash Basin – the one that’s also going to Washington, D.C.! On her list is a horse named Kootenai, from Sand Wash. Double dose of “wow” for our Colorado mustangs!

Thanks to Ann Bond of the San Juan National Forest (adopter of burros, lover of mustangs) for this most exciting news (to yours truly, anyway) of the new year: A Spring Creek Basin mustang will be part of the U.S. Border Patrol contingent in Washington, D.C. for the inauguration of soon-to-be President Barack Obama.

WOWOWOWOWOW!?!?!

A Sand Wash Basin mustang also will be part of the 10-mustang group, which are part of the unit based in Spokane, Wash., I think. I’m going to try to do a story for my paper, so I’ll have more information soon, but here’s a little bit of what I know (which, admittedly, isn’t much) about Justice, of Spring Creek Basin.

Buckskin Justice was spotted outside the herd area on private property at least as early as May 2007 with some domestic horses. He was gathered on that property by the contractor and aged at 10. Because of his estimated age and the fact that he had gotten out of the fenced herd area (and might do it again), the decision was made to remove him, and he was sent to Canon City.

As it turned out, the contractor had missed the mark by five years, and at Canon City, it was determined that he was actually 5 years old. The U.S. Border Patrol has started using mustangs in its program along both the Mexican and Canadian borders (did you see the great article last year in Western Horseman?). Horses have to meet certain criteria to be accepted by the Border Patrol, which I imagine have to do with conformation and attitude (I’ll find out). Our stocky little guy met those standards, and a star was in the making. Bob Ball, our BLM herd area manager, sent me a copy of a newspaper “photo page” last year that came from the Canon City newspaper.

Before the holidays, word got out that the Spokane unit was sending eight to 12 mustangs to D.C. We were all atwitter (well, I was, anyway), wondering if Justice would be one of those horses. Today, word from Ann: A horse from Spring Creek Basin and a horse from Sand Wash Basin are going to Washington.

Disclaimer: I didn’t know anything about Justice before the gather, so I can’t give much information about his background. But even though I didn’t know anything about him, it makes me incredibly emotional that one of “our” horses has been so recognized. What a story!

Here are a couple of the photos I have of him from Aug. 20, 2007, immediately after he was gathered.

Justice and Shorty

Justice is the buckskin, and the sorrel in the trailer with him is Shorty, the Judas horse used by the contractor. Even partially obscured by the trailer, you can see his great conformation.

Justice

Pretty good looking horse, isn’t he?

To end this post, I have to say how hopeful I am for the potential of the new administration to have a positive impact on the management of our country’s natural resources, including, of course, our wild horses. How appropriate to have mustangs – symbols of our history, of our freedom, of our resiliency – be present at the beginning of a new presidential term.

Watch for Justice! I have no idea what the television schedule is for the inauguration parade, but I’ll post more information as I get it. And Bob, Ann, Claude – anyone – please send me information, if you have it, about Justice, and I’ll post it here!