Advocacy | Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

U of Mizzou

30 03 2012

Students rock!

Thank you a million times for coming to Southwest Colorado for your spring break and putting your muscles to work on behalf of our Spring Creek Basin mustangs!

This week, among other projects, students from the University of Missouri rebuilt a big section of fence on one of the basin’s boundaries where places were cut before last fall’s roundup. The students hiked in and out (a mile and a half or so one way) with fence materials and equipment to complete the project. No motorized help in McKenna Peak Wilderness Study Area! And at the end of the day, they got to see some of the wild horses their work benefits!

Forget college spring break cliches. These motivated students raise money to travel here from Missouri and work hard while they’re here. In addition to Spring Creek Basin, they will work at Mud Springs at the base of Sleeping Ute Mountain and at Lowry Pueblo north of Cortez. They may go home with a tan (that may have started as a sunburn), but it’s not from lounging on the beach! Guaranteed, they’ll go home with memories of an experience they’ll be proud to share!

Alternative spring break here is a partnership between San Juan Mountains Association, BLM’s Tres Rios Field Office, the Forest Service (Dolores Public Lands Office), Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, the two local Back Country Horsemen groups (Mesa Verde and Four Corners), National Mustang Association/Colorado and other locals and local businesses to bring U of Mizzou students to the area for work projects on San Juan public lands. This was the 12th year of partnership!

Thank you to local volunteers Tif (MVBCH and NMA/CO), Joan (SJMA) and Bob (4CBCH), high school student volunteer Laura (who has been involved with this project for several years and will head to college later this year!), SJMA folks Kathe and MK, the Forest Service’s Tom and Ben – and pack horses Trapper and Zip! – and, never least, BLM’s Tom and Kiley!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the students. Your hard work is so much appreciated for the safety of our mustangs. Have fun with the rest of your visit, and come back soon! As Kathe said, there is a special place in heaven for all of you. 🙂

Comments : 5 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Apollo, Kootenai, Mysterium, Raven, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Sundance, Work projects

Piece of the pie

22 03 2012

“Nearly $US300,000 in funding has been approved by the Bureau of Land Management for 12 projects aimed at improving Western rangeland conditions where wild horses and burros roam.”

“* Tres Rios Field Office, Southwest District, Colorado, Spring Creek Basin HMA: This project is aimed at expanding the ongoing successful partnership with the Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners to include such actions as herd monitoring, fence repairs, invasive weed inventory and treatments, illegal route closures, and travel management sign installation. Funding amount from the Director’s Challenge: $25,000”

The Grand Junction Field Office also was awarded $25,000 for ongoing partnership with Friends of the Mustangs for the Little Book Cliffs herd. Congratulations!!

Aurora, Corona & Gaia

4 03 2012

Did I post this already? Thank you all for your patience while I’ve been busily engaged elsewhere. I should be back to fairly regular Internet service now … and back to regular postings of pictures and tales about our Spring Creek Basin beauties!

Aurora, left, Corona, center, and Gaia alert and/or snoozing in the snowy sunshine a coupla-few weeks ago. ‘Rora looks black as jet, but I love Gaia’s rich red against the snow, and even Corona seems less “light” against that pure whiteness.

This was taken during a hike when I also saw Sundance’s band close, and Duke and Kreacher, and Chrome’s and Aspen’s bands at a distance. I may have some news soon about whether Roja and Killian did, indeed, rejoin Aspen, Mona and Shane.

So, a bit of explanation: Part of my busy-ness these last few (several?) weeks has involved walking fence lines. Several places were cut before the roundup. Fortunately, we have been able to get those cuts fixed. All the horses are safe and sound within protected boundaries. In a few weeks, a group of students from the University of Missouri will be in the area during their annual “alternative spring break.” Students usually spend a day in the basin on a projects (cutting and spraying tamarisk the last few years) and then other projects on local public lands during the rest of their stay. This year, they will spend two days in the basin repairing and rebuilding fence. We are always happy to have their volunteer labor and cheerful help! This is a program organized through San Juan Mountains Association (part of our Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners coalition) with BLM and other volunteer groups. We have certainly put partnerships to good work here.

Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Aurora, Corona, Gaia, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Liberty

23 02 2012

Sweet Liberty is enjoying her new home and the attention that goes with having a loving adopter! Alice recently haltered Liberty for the first time – after she has had some training at Canon City and a local trainer – and, in her words, “I’m so jazzed!” 🙂

Liberty with trainer Dave Doubek.

She reminds me so much of her mama, Molly.

Alice said Liberty loves being brushed.

Doesn’t she have the sweetest, kindest eyes?

Alice is an artist, and she has already – of course – started painting her new muse. One of her paintings captures the kind set of Liberty’s eyes perfectly. I love how she knows her girl so well already. 🙂

Alice and Liberty – love. 🙂 (Note the little belly on the little bay girl.)

Comments : 5 Comments »

Categories : Adoption, Advocacy, Liberty, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Ze & Asher update!

22 02 2012

These ponies are doing awesomely well, and I’m happy to share some new pix and report from adopter Tif!

Asher – this view of him just makes me laugh because this IS the view of him, coming up, curious, wanting to know what you’re doing.

Ze and his lovey Pepper in the snow!

We had lovely weather in December and January – not very Colorado-like, but lovely – and now we have winter.

From Tif: “Ze and Asher are both doing great. Amazing animals they are. I haven’t done much work with them via the round pen because our weather here has been horrible! Icy conditions are pretty unsafe.

“I turn Ze out every day either by himself or with one or two of my other horses. Ze loves Pepper, most all creatures do, two and four-legged alike, so he’s with her a lot. I have to split her time between Asher and Ze, it’s like having a parenting schedule! Ze also loves my daughter’s horse Sundancer, who is about 30. He’s not so crazy about Asher at this point, some jealousy going on with Pepper stuck right in the middle.”

Asher with Quest, left, and Mimi.

“Asher gets turned out every day, too, with my gelding (Quest), alpha mare (Mimi) and whoever isn’t playing with Ze for the day! 🙂 I plan to get him gelded pretty soon. He still gets pellets morning and night and gets locked up at night, too. Bad things can happen around here at night, and we’ve had some pretty severe overnight weather. He is so big, it’s amazing. His forelock, mane and tail are coming in beautifully, and what personality he has! He is almost 5 1/2 months old and still going strong.”

“Both have had their feet trimmed, their vaccines, both are halter broke and can be handled very easily. Ze is wary, as is his nature, but my husband can go out and halter him when needed. It’s truly amazing to think where these guys were and where they are now. They’ve come so far.”

Ze with 30-plus-year-old Sundancer, sharing chow.

“BLM came to do an inspection awhile back. Asher was randomly chosen for them to check on. I suggested since BLM officials were already here to go ahead and do a checkup on Ze so he wouldn’t be left out! All in all things went well. I was very happy to know that our local BLM officials were doing the home inspections. This gave me peace of mind that our horses were being checked up on. Mine got the all clear … they won’t be confiscating them any time soon!”

“Both boys have just had their feet done again and did pretty good. Asher was a handful at first and then settled in okay. Still have lots of work to do with him and his patience! He’s big enough that his head can reach up and just about over a five foot panel. Ze did wonderfully, as I knew he would. He’s still funny about his left side with strangers, but he’s getting there. They’ve both come so far and are truly amazing.”

Yes, they are!! 🙂

“I promise to get better pics when we have better weather! A big thanks to everyone who is interested in these guys and who have helped in some way. We all appreciate it.”

And I’ll leave you with a photo from farrier day guaranteed to make your hearts melt:

“Pic of Keith (my farrier) and Ze – can you believe it?!?”

Awesome. 🙂

Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Adoption, Advocacy, Asher, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Ze

Reflections

31 12 2011

Ethereal in the light …

If I don’t write much about the horses and use more photos, chalk it up to “running out of words.” Whether the photos are hum-drum daily life or more light-and-shadow captures of the horses doing their thing caught in a moment of “ahh!” … it’s sometimes hard for me to put into words the fascination I feel for these amazing animals.

I think it’s true that pictures can convey the weight of a thousand thoughts – and then some – and the feelings one can’t begin to express. Some pix are “pretty,” and some are meant to tell a story – I hope they all do, even the pretty ones – of the horses and their lives in Spring Creek Basin.

As another year winds toward a close, it’s natural to reflect, to set resolutions and goals. We have met many of our goals and are working on others, always for the benefit of the horses, so this is more a quiet reflection of the year.

What a year it has been. I can’t even tell the whole story because not all of it is mine to tell. It hasn’t been easy, but it has brought some grand changes. I am honored to be able to give glimpses into the lives of these extraordinary horses, and I’ve been privileged to relay some information about mustangs now in new homes outside the wild boundaries of their previous lives, but I wonder what *they* would say, could they tell their own stories, their actions and motives, simple daily existence, season to season …

Simply, I am amazed and awed and in love – still – with these mustangs, wild as desert breezes, not quite free as air. Confined to a finite bit of geography that they know intimately.

What I wish for them is continuation of life – hum-drum and extraordinary. A collection of moments of beauty and simplicity about which we humans could certainly learn a thing or three hundred.

Selfishly, I wish for many years of sharing all of that with all of them.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Comments : 7 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Merry Christmas!

25 12 2011

Mysterium wishes everyone a very enthusiastic merry Christmas, with some help from big brother Apollo!

From our herd to yours, we wish you all all the joys and blessings of the season and the hope of peace and protection for all our wild ones in the new year.

Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Apollo, Mysterium, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Wild and precious life

17 12 2011

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?

~ Mary Oliver, “The summer day,” New and Selected Poems, 1992

At work yesterday, my secret Santa gave me a copy of Mary Oliver’s book of poems titled American Primitive. I’ve been seeing Mary Oliver’s name lately … I can’t remember where, and it’s not anything anyone would know – would they? My secret Santa remains just that. S/he wrapped the book with a typed note. We’re copy editors – our writing is distinctive. I used the Google machine to seek more info about Mary and found the above. It reminds me of those we’ve lost … all wild and precious lives … some went out fighting, and some laid down at the end. All our lives are wildly precious.

What is it I plan to do?

Just this, and I thank God every day that I can do it.

Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Apollo, Mysterium, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Shining

15 12 2011

Had a big day on this, the 40th anniversary of the Wild Free-Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act. What better way to recognize the people who recognized the need to protect our wild horses and burros?

Love seeing stallions with foals – nurturing the next generation. Sundance and curious Mysterium.

Lots of snow, but this time, lots of mud, too. Mostly under the snow still, but it has been warm. On the drive out, I dropped from much-missed sunshine illuminating blue skies into the Dolores River canyons and Disappointment Valley, almost entirely shrouded in fog. Would you believe the basin, across to the east, was glowing under a break in the clouds? On this blog, of course you would, and you’d be correct. 🙂

During the day, the sky over the basin cleared completely, though the fog line stayed over the western hills, then floated back and came up from the south, obscuring Brumley Point, McKenna Peak, the unnamed promontory and the far southern ridges and hills before sunset.

What I would have given to have horses in front of that delicious light! But the original horses I went in looking for were the ones I didn’t see hide nor hair of – nor even hoofprints! The pinto ponies proved elusive.

Saw most of the horses from a distance but had a wonderful visit with Sundance’s band.

The big news is what I didn’t see.

Explanation?

Who stole Roja and Killian?!

Aspen doesn’t have them! Not Grey/Traveler. Not Sundance. Not Comanche. Not Hollywood. Not Bounce, Tenaz or Seven. Probably not Storm or David (distance … trees …). Those are the ones I saw. 🙂 Maybe next week will provide an answer!

Comments : 8 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Mysterium, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Sundance

40th anniversary

15 12 2011

In honor of a woman, Velma Johnston – aka Wild Horse Annie – and the wild horses and burros she ought to protect …

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

The Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 is an Act of Congress (Pub.L. 92-195) signed into law President Richard M. Nixon on Dec. 15, 1971. The Act made it a crime for anyone to harass or kill feral horses or feral burros on federal land, required the departments of the Interior and Agriculture to protect the animals, required studies of the animals’ habits and habitats, and permitted public land to be set aside for their use. In addition, the act required that mustangs be protected as “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West,” and that management plans must “maintain a thriving natural ecological balance among wild horse populations, wildlife, livestock, and vegetation and to protect the range from the deterioration associated with overpopulation.” Although feral horse ranges were principally for the protection of the horses, the land was required to be maintained for multiple use. The BLM was also permitted to close public land to livestock grazing to protect feral horse and burro habitat. – Wikipedia

Although in many places – and for Spring Creek Basin until the last year – it seems like not a lot has changed, I am thankful that we have good people in the Tres Rios Field Office who recognize the horses as important to the ecological fabric of the land and are willing to make them the priority on that range. NMA/CO and Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners are working through partnership and education to accomplish our goals for this herd.

To the outside world, it may seem like not much has changed here, with the helicopter-driven roundup this year. But an annual fertility control program has been implemented, and we’re on track to move to bait trapping. Our goal – and that of our BLM partners – is sustainable management with as little disruption to the wild horses of Spring Creek Basin as possible.

Everything we do is built on everything that came before – nationally and specifically. Their light is shining.

Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Kootenai, Mysterium, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Sundance, Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act

Spring Creek Basin Mustangs