Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Sean Kelly, wild horse coordinator for the Carson National Forest’s Jicarilla and Jarita Mesa wild horse territories, points out plant usage to New Mexico volunteer Tyler Sharpe while Farmington BLM rangeland management specialist Jeff Tafoya talks to volunteer and advocate Barb Kiiper with the Jicarilla Mustang Heritage Alliance at one of the exclosures in Spring Creek Basin during our tour this week. There are five of these in the basin, as well as some smaller “cages.” They fence off a small section of land so range folks can determine impacts of grazing – and not.

I need about 13 more hours in the day to get to more photos from these tour swaps – which were fantastic! We met lots of people and learned some of the challenges our respective herds face. The New Mexico herds – BLM and Forest Service – apparently are way over AML. They’re seeing effects on both the horses’ condition and condition of the ranges because of it. The Jicarilla and Carracas Mesa ranges are rugged, and that’s being gentle. They need to remove hundreds of horses, but BLM’s Canon City short-term holding facility can’t take them – no room at the inn. They are removing some horses periodically; the Jicarilla Mustang Heritage Alliance recently adopted four to train and adopt to permanent homes. The biggest question they all seem to face is this: They know a roundup and removal of many, many horses is needed, but what to do with all those horses?

There’s apparently quite a bit of controversy around the removal of horses there to get to a balanced herd population, and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know or understand all the details. To start the learning process was one of the goals of this tour swap. And it was good to meet the knowledgeable, caring folks on the front lines and hear their concerns and challenges.