Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

The last few days have been hellish tough.

THANK YOU to ALL who worked to make this as safe as possible for the horses and people attending. Those folks had a thankless job, and I hope I thanked you as often as I saw you, and as far as I know, they handled the event with professionalism and compassion. They certainly helped me.

We had some issues …

And we had tragedy: Cinch broke his neck in the alley while we were sorting the stallions for Canon City and adoption. I did not see it happen. The APHIS veterinarian made the decision to euthanize him almost immediately. I wish I could give you details … I wish I knew how it happened. What I’d like to know now is how to prevent that from ever happening again. I know it happened when or right after Hook crawled up and over the panel into the mare/foal pen. I won’t sugar-coat it. Cinch died, and that’s something I’ll always live with. He had at least two potential adopters waiting for him … one simply connected with him in the pen, and he reminded another of the very first mustang she had. I wish he was waiting for them right now.

It was a learning experience. (What an understatement.)

I learned that even though I thought I had prepared myself for the difficulty of it all, it was harder and more painful than I could ever have expected.

I learned to rethink some pre/misconceptions that don’t help us move forward.

I learned people and horses will surprise you in surprising ways … good and/or bad … surprising.

I kept learning that change is possible, and it probably never comes easily.

I learned that our Spring Creek Basin mustangs have touched people from Telluride, Colo., to Washington, D.C., and beyond. (WOW.)

I learned my heart wasn’t yet as shattered as I thought … and that what breaks it can also heal it – the horses.

I found solace in what brought me here in the first place.

Yesterday. Traveler. With a new family.

The horses … it’s always for the horses.

The last few days, I’ve been focused completely on the horses. Although many people had remarkable cell service, I had zero. I’ll apologize now, but all my energy was on the horses, and I couldn’t deal with the public with everything going on. My undying thanks and love to, especially, our Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners volunteers for talkingtalkingtalking. You bore the brunt of everything, and I can never repay you for your amazing fortitude.

You have questions, and I’m not sure I have all the answers. In fact, I’m sure I don’t. All the people involved did an amazing job with the circumstances we were dealt, and I will be forever grateful to all of them.

This was a hard, harsh, difficult thing, and I stand behind my belief that it was necessary for the overall health of the Spring Creek Basin mustangs and the Spring Creek Basin range. The horses look fantastic, and the range looks amazing.

Rain and rain and rain and a plane. … We never look down our noses at rain here, but the plane was absolutely an unnecessary danger to the horses.

Some numbers – because I think simple facts help in the overall understanding:

40 horses were ultimately removed.

42 horses are now on the range (this is shy just one horse of what was on the range after the roundup in 2007) – with one due any day.

22 are stallions (“males” of varying ages).

20 are mares (“females” of varying ages).

37 adults, 5 foals (this is the same number of adults and one foal shy of post-roundup 2007).

We released 5 stallions: Traveler, Bounce, Comanche, Chrome and Hayden

We released 5 mares and 2 foals: Kestrel, Juniper, Piedra, Houdini, Gaia, Alegre and Aurora

Six stallions went to Canon City: Mouse, Bruiser, Hook, Steeldust, Butch, Mesa

Five mares and one foal went to Canon City: Kiowa, Hacho, Luna, Alpha, Mahogany, Gemma

That means just 12 horses went to Canon City, and if you still wonder “why the roundup this year?” – this is why: So we didn’t put even more horses through this and send even more horses to Canon City next year or the year after.

Twenty-five horses will be offered for adoption:

Colts:

Gideon – yearling

Fierro – yearling

Rio – yearling

Wind – yearling

Sage – 2

Ze – 2

Cuatro – 2

Milagro – 2

Whisper – 2

Pinon – 3

Fillies:

Liberty – 2

Sable – 2

Hannah – 2

Spook – 2

Ember – 3

Iya – 3

Two Boots – 4

Baylee – 4

Foals also will be offered at adoption: Deniz, Eliana, Briosa, Boreas, Cougar, Varoujan, Coal

I’ll put up pix of all of them in the next few days.

Last night, I saw Traveler – with Alegre, Aurora and Gaia; Chrome with Hayden; Bounce with Houdini; Ty with Chipeta, Puzzle, Reya and Maiku, Copper following; Tenaz with Corona; Aspen; Seven’s band – Mona still pregnant.

“The foal.” Partly because of the delay caused by the unsafe actions of the plane, the roundup was delayed at least a day. The second day, the helicopter pilot found a large group of horses (15-20) bunched around a foal (Chipeta’s). He couldn’t easily separate them, so he left them alone. When he went back, the horses had separated o their own, and he saw the mare (Chipeta) but not the foal. The foal was later found and brought to the trapsite and cared for. He has been adopted by a local resident who took him to her vet (the same vet who was there as a volunteer with our Wild Bunch folks). He is doing very well.

I can’t say enough good about the helicopter pilot. He bears the brunt of people’s hostility, but he did an amazing job. Because of the rain and mud in Spring Creek Canyon, the trapsite was moved to the west side of Filly Peak. I was initially worried about that location because of the broken terrain on the “back side,” but in many ways, it turned out to be a much better location than the canyon.

If I can address the viewing location, too, for a minute … I know people were upset that they were so far away, but with safety of the horses paramount, the overall view was much better there than it would have been at the canyon – and I believe the horses were safer coming to that trap location than they would have been at the canyon. The second morning, the helicopter pilot had to bring horses in from that hill. Lots of things had to tie together to make this a successful operation, and one of those things was that we had to capture horses in order to make good decisions about who to keep and who to remove – and how many. Because of the rain and sloppy road that morning, very few people were on the hill when he brought that band in. If the crowd had been on that hill when he was trying to move the horses, the safest thing for the people would have been for him to abandon that band. Maybe you think that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing, but I was already upset about the lack of horses I was going to be able to release.

Thank you again for your patience. Please don’t ignore the positives here, which are many. I won’t ignore the negatives, either – as long as we can use them to effect change. That’s what got me into this, and it’s what keeps us going.

One last thing for now: I did not take a single photo … until yesterday with the horses when it was all over. I will post those as soon as I can. Too much else going on, and I owed my attention to the horses, not to my camera.