Wild Horses of Alto. Save the Herd!

WILD HORSES OF ALTO (W.H.O.A!) disclaimer: this blog is in no way associated with the group WHOA (Wild Horse Observers Association). This blog has actually become like a vertical file in the library where important past documents - like newspaper articles - are filed and kept for research when needed. It has become almost a lesson in librarianship for me.

WILD HORSES OF ALTO The herd of wild horses in Alto, N.M., are the offspring of estray horses that roamed Sierra Blanca on Mescalero and National Forest land. Today the herds roam the same territory as well as dropping in to visit some of the subdivisions, such as Enchanted Forest, Sierra Vista, Sun Valley, LaJunta, Little Creek and occasionally Alto Lakes Golf & Country Club. For the most part, the herds are loved and welcomed. But sometimes not.

At this time, it is being decided in a court of law whether the horses are wild or domesticated (and therefore estray). At present, the horses fall under the auspices of the N.M. Livestock Board. We are trying to save all members the herd and other herds that exist in the area. We do NOT want to deny the horses the freedom they have known in the past and the comradeship the herd provides them.

To institute change in the policy and protect the future of our magnificent Wild Horses of Alto herd, we have a petition at https://www.change.org/p/new-mexico-governor-save-alto-wild-horses, a fundraising site for lawyers and feed/care at https://www.gofundme.com/altohorses, an account set up at City Bank-Ruidoso for donations to the "Wild Horses of Lincoln County Trust Fund" and an ongoing facebook group "Bring Ruidoso Horse's Back". Click on the Stallion's photo to go directly there.

PLEASE SPEAK UP, sign petitions, give to the trust fund for the horses. Sign up to this blog to get continual updates and to also post your own comments.

We LOVE our horse herd.

HELP save the Wild Horses of Alto (WHOA!) herd


Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Since the wild horses will be coming home soon...

& the concerned community didn't have to BID on them, the money in the GoGund site will go to pay the lawyer, so the herd will be eventually released out into the wild again.  For now they have to stay corralled up till NMLB changes the horses status to WILD, not ESTRAY.  OR, maybe the horses can come under NM Dept of game & Fish auspices.  But it takes lawyers, courts and...legislature to accomplish this goal.

AND, the herd has to be fed until they are released. Go Fund money will help pay for their care, also. 

 All monies will go to the herd - for care, upkeep, and protecting. 

https://www.gofundme.com/altohorses

Don't trust GoFund site? - then City Bank in Ruidoso has a Trust fund set up for the horses where you can give your contribution.

Monday, August 29, 2016

Alto Wild Horses coming Home!

         

Alto wild horses coming home



Hundreds of people burst into applause and cheers Monday after learning that the Alto wild horse herd will be coming home next week.
(file photo)
And they will not have to be purchased, although they have been microchipped and must for the time being be kept confined. Herd advocates who had organized a rally, placed hundred of calls to state officials and raised more than $21,000 on the Gofundme website announced the news at the beginning of a town hall meeting where they had expected to go over details about bidding on the horses for their return.
But that wasn't necessary, they said, because officials with the New Mexico Livestock Board had agreed to return the horses to the community on the condition that they be contained until a legal process runs its course to turn them back into the wild. The horses had been penned by a private property owner and were picked up by the livestock board on Friday.
Check out the full story online Tuesday and in print in the Wednesday Ruidoso New

Trust Fund for Wild horses set up at City Bank in Ruidoso to pay for lawyers and feed/care.  See Janna.

Ruidoso News: Aug 29 article - Bad news?



Unowned horses in NM are in legal limbo



Ruidoso’s horse hullabaloo is almost identical to another situation near Albuquerque in which the New Mexico Court of Appeals held last year that unowned horses are not livestock and cannot be seized and sold by the New Mexico Livestock Board.
But the case doesn’t hold much comfort for anyone who wants special protection for herds of unclaimed horses, according to Corrales attorney David G. Reynolds, who represented Placitas area landowners in the case, Wild Horse Observers Association, Inc. (WHOA) v. New Mexico Livestock Board.
“I think the horse advocate people are shooting themselves in the foot on this thing,” Reynolds said. “Under the situation we have now, if the animals are determined not to be livestock, the landowner who captures them owns them and they can shoot them right there if they want to.”
The attorney for the wild horse association in that case, Steven K. Sanders of Albuquerque, said Monday he agreed that the Court of Appeals ruling is the controlling law now. But he said he hopes to use it on behalf of wild horse lovers in Ruidoso who hope to bring the Alto herd back.
Sanders said he was preparing to seek an injunction in 12th District Court that would bar the Livestock Board from selling or otherwise disposing of the dozen horses captured here until their status can be litigated.
The Court of Appeals held in the Placitas case that the term livestock “does not include undomesticated, unowned animals.” The court also agreed with WHOA that the Livestock Board’s only duty with respect to wild horses is to test them for Spanish mustang heritage and then relocate them.
But Reynolds said the Placitas ruling doesn’t really settle the legal status of horses like the ones his clients captured or the Alto herd now creating controversy here.
A horse is only a “wild horse” in the eyes of the law if it is on public land, Reynolds said, and the legal definition of “public land” is so narrow that there’s very little of it in New Mexico. An unowned and undomesticated horse on land that is private or otherwise not legally “public” is in a new category.
“If a horse on public land jumps over a fence onto private land, it’s not a wild horse anymore,” Reynolds said. “It is now a large packrat.”
So despite the Placitas case ruling, Reynolds added, the law on unowned horses that aren’t legally wild horses “is in total flux.”
After the Court of Appeals ruling, the 14 horses in the Placitas case were checked for brands or ID chips and then returned to the landowners who had captured them, Reynolds said. The landowners then turned them over to a nearby Indian tribe.
Since then, more horses have been captured. Whenever that happens, the Livestock Board comes to the area with a portable testing unit. If no evidence of ownership is found, the horses are turned back over to the landowners who rounded them up.
Reynolds said he wasn’t familiar with the facts of the Ruidoso situation, but he wasn’t sure why the Livestock Board would not be doing the same thing with the Alto herd.
The New Mexico Supreme Court refused to review the Court of Appeals ruling, so it is now binding. The Placitas case was sent back to the district court, which originally had agreed with the Livestock Board that the wild herd was livestock and dismissed the case. WHOA then appealed to the Court of Appeals.
Reynolds said there will be a hearing next week in which the district court will consider whether to end the case since the horses are now gone and the legal issues in the case have been resolved.
But he said the 2nd District Court might choose to keep the case alive if a fresh case with the same issues crops up in the 12th District Court.
Sanders said he hoped that might happen as early as late Monday afternoon.

ACTION: Call Governor about WIld Horses

Please call the Governors office NOW. She is getting a "tally." Of concerned citizens. They will ask you name and zipcode. Please text and share this number with your friends NOW. Time is of the essence. 505-476-2200. Thank you!

Wild Horse Rally at School House Park Aug 28, 2016

http://www.ruidosonews.com/story/news/local/2016/08/28/supporters-mobilize-save-alto-wild-horse-herd/89513272/

Rally draws attention to plight of wild herd while organizers work to consolidate efforts to bring the horses home one way or the other


Honking from nearly every vehicle traveling Sudderth Drive Sunday drowned out chants of "Bring Them Back" and "Save Our Horses" as hundreds of supporters of the Alto wild herd lined both sides of the street at School House Park to drawn attention to the plight of mares and foals gathered Friday off private land.
A town hall meeting on the situation is set for 5:30 p.m., Monday at the Sierra Blanca Boys and Girls Club, 134 Reese Drive in the old middle school Horton Complex. Melissa Babcock said she hopes to gather people from multiple groups that sprang into action after the horses were picked up by the New Mexico Livestock Board following a complaint from a landowner who claimed they were nuisances and penned them for collection.

Unfortunately, some of the information may not be what people want to hear, Babcock said.
Based on a conversation with State Rep. Zach Cook,a Republican from Ruidoso who also is an attorney, she said, "The truth of the matter is (the livestock board) is not just going to release the horses. This bunch will never roam wild again, but I don't think people realize that."
Delivering that message is one of the main reasons the meeting Monday is needed, she said, as well as to consolidate fund-raising efforts to ensure that when bidding begins for the purchase of the horses, people with the same goals aren't competing against each other and driving up the cost.



Shelley McAlister, another organizer in support of the herd, said enough money has been raised to buy the horses and cover their veterinarian and feed bills while trying to work out a procedure to return them to the wild. She was trying to pull in several other herd advocates to meet with her at the Ruidoso New Mexico Real Estate office that afternoon, because of conflicting information of when the bidding will begin. She was told initially, the horses would be held five days to allow any owners to claim them, but since has heard bidding could be initiated as early as noon Monday. She also holds out hope that somehow the confiscated herd members could be released again, as did the hundreds at the rally.

Debbie Wilcox with the Cloud Riders said she organized the rally that grew throughout the afternoon to call attention to the confiscated horses. She pledged that this time, securing their future protection will not be dropped as a cause. In 2014, a small group rallied after Rock Star, a member of the herd, was penned and sold at auction, possibly to go to slaughter. But nothing was done to try to change the law or to develop a specific legal protection for the Alto wild herd. A second section of the herd still roams far up Ski Run Road out of heavy public scrutiny.

Babcock said she hopes with everyone under one roof Monday, they can discuss the realistic message that the movement needs to shift from "free the horses" to "save the horses," because they are going to be up for auction. Ten acres of land has been offered as a place to house the horses, she said. Advocate Bruna Campos has contacted a lawyer, who agreed to take the case. He was going to try to file an injunction to stop the auction, but didn't know if he could accomplish that by noon Monday, she said.

"What we mean by what can be done is 'O.K., guys, it is not going to happen,'" she said. "They are not going to roam free. So if you love them, who in the community wants to own one? That's what needs to happen, kind of what the article (posted online in the Ruidoso News) said Friday, but we didn't want to hear that."



However, for now, "This is the way the law is written and we can change that," Babcock said. "But that takes time. It probably won't help with this herd or happen any time soon, and it will take money. The towns people need to know protests and signs won't (cause the livestock board to) haul them back and let them loose. Sadly that is not the case."

During the Sunday rally, Wilcox and other Cloud Riders handed out sheets urging people to attend the Monday meeting and to join the Save the Wild Horses Petition, in addition to flooding Gov. Susana Martinez' inbox with messages. "Keep up to date on meetings and news and how to help on FaceBook pages, 'Cloud Riders of New Mexico'" and 'Bring Ruidoso's Horses Back,' they said. The petition calling for the return of the horses was nearing 5,000 signatures Sunday afternoon.

Besides live horses, a mock unicorn and a miniature horse adding color to the rally, a group of motorcyclists also joined the movement, traveling to one of the "Wild Horses" traffic warning signs on New Mexico Highway 48 and then adding their numbers to the protesters.

Debbie Wilcox with the Cloud Riders said she organized the rally that grew throughout the afternoon to call attention to the confiscated horses. She pledged that this time, securing their future protection will not be dropped as a cause. (Photo: Kelly Brooks/Ruidoso News)

Horns were honking and protesters shouted Sunday voicing their disapproval of the removal of the Alto wild horse herd Friday due to a complaint by an Alto resident. (Photo: Kelly Brooks/Ruidoso News)


Saturday, August 27, 2016

Save the horse herd - updates

Stallion looking for his herd.  Photo from Bring Ruidoso's Horses Back                 
Face book is alive with chatter and pictures.
Group: Bring Ruidoso's Horses Back
Sign a petition to the governor at:
https://www.change.org/p/new-mexico-governor-save-alto-wild-horses

Donate to a Go Fund:  https://www.gofundme.com/altohorses

Attention: Bring The Horses Back- meeting
A town meeting will be held at the Boys and Girls club at Horton Complex, 134 Reese Drive, Monday at 5.30 PM.
Please pass the word and plan to attend.
On the agenda:
1) We will recap exactly what happened, so incorrect rumors are put to rest.
2) We will discuss a plan of action based by helpful insight from Zack Cook, our State Representative.
3) Raise Awareness of the go fund me account.
4) Stress the importance of our mission- bringing back the horses. Let's use our energy for good. Protesting Ms.McCoy in no way accomplishes this. She is irrelevant to us at this point..
**- The "Save the Wild Horses" ride will meet on Sunday at Quarters at one, meet and greet and leave at 2. Cars are also welcome. This is not a public meeting/rally simply a way to gather together and meet those in the community that share the love of our horses.Update: RALLY tomorrow at 1 at Quarters & RALLY from 1-3 by the Public Pool! Please bring a sign to hold up that says "save our horses,"or one that says "honk for our horses". There will be extra signs there but please try and bring one.
This website is the official site to check for accurate information: "Facebook Bring Ruidoso's Horses Back"
Now go share, share!!
Thanks.
Melissa Babcock

Following the trail of the Alto wild horse herd

Reprinted Aug 31, 2016http://www.ruidosonews.com/story/news/local/2016/08/26/alto-horse-herd-rounded-up/89432320/


Alto horse herd rounded up


Complaint leads to a dozen members of the Alto wild horse herd being removed to be auctioned

   About a dozen “wild” mares and their foals were hauled away from the Alto area Friday in response to a complaint lodged by a resident of Enchanted Forest, who contended they were a nuisance, posed a danger to traffic and were damaging property.
   Upset neighbors and advocates for the herd gathered outside the area where Caroline McCoy and her adjoining property owner had corralled the horses. They wanted to work out a solution to her problem and halt the removal of the herd, but the process continued.
   New Mexico Livestock Board Executive Director Ray Baca was on hand, as was District 20 supervisor Troy Patterson and inspector George Mendoza. The neighbors and many others in the Ruidoso area called the livestock board and the governor’s office to lodge complaints. Several neighbors who said they enjoyed having the horses visit, questioned why the “wild” herd is not protected by federal law as are the mustangs and burros on Bureau of Land Management property. In New Mexico, these types of horses are treated as stray animals that probably came off the Mescalero Apache Reservation 20 to 30 years ago, state officials said. When reported as a nuisance, they become the responsibility of the livestock board.
   However, a local attorney said he was contacted by a neighbor and is looking into the possibility of filing for an injunction based on whether the board has authority over “wild” animals, questioning the definitions of wild and estray.
   The stallion of the herd, who apparently was a major part of the problem for McCoy, was not among the horses corralled and removed, because McCoy said she was unable to secure him on her property, a requirement of the process. Those watching the removal said he was “going crazy” nearby as his mares and foals were loaded and hauled away.
   The horses taken will never run wild again, Baca agreed. Once they are “in the system,” they will be confined for at least five days for examination by a veterinarian, checked for brands, microchips and other signs of ownership, then put up for auction on the livestock board’s webpage dealing with lost, found and estray horses.
   “I think the biggest thing I am looking at right now is that we examine these horses for tattoos or brands, or microchips or such to make sure they don’t belong to a rightful owner,” Baca said. “And if an owner comes forward, they have a right to them, of course, by providing proof of ownership.
   “We’re going to take them to a facility where we can work with them closely and have our veterinarian look at them, as well as our inspectors.”
   He estimated about a dozen horses were involved.
   “We will publicize them for five days and people can come forward and bid on them at that point,” Baca said. “The public bid is held on our website.”
   The exact location where the horses will be confined until they are bought had not been designated when they left, but later in the day, the destination was pinpointed as Santa Fe. A herd advocate said Mendoza said photographs of the horses will be posted on the board’s website Monday.
   “Have them contact me and I will let them know where they are,” Baca said for people who want to inspect the horses before placing a bid. “We have our state veterinarian check them for health and whoever the winning bidder is can retrieve the animal, claim their property. We will microchip them and we will keep a record of that.” The horses once purchased must be treated like any other domesticated equine and cannot be released back into the wild, he emphasized.
   “The major concern and problem now is that we find a safe place for the horses that has adequate care and facility for them,” he said.
McCoy said she and her husband have been dealing with the horses since they moved to Enchanted Forest from Nogal a year ago. When they arrived, fences had been broken down and she repaired and improved the arrangement.
   “(An adjoining property owner), who helped the livestock board, wanted them penned because they were destroying his property and making substantial inroads into ours,” she said. “I’m an older person (77) riding my mare and she becomes so upset with all of these horses. When I’m riding and come across them or my mare is in heat and there is a stud out there, it’s dangerous for me.”
The horses also eliminate in the driveway, eat her flowers and put hoof prints in damp ground, she  said.
   “But more than that, these are not wild horses, not the romantic mustang,” McCoy said. “These are abandoned horses just turned loose in the mountains and now the herd has separated and the one herd is up over on the mountain – a great place for them to be. Unfortunately, many residents treat (the removed herd) like deer, which is really illegal to feed, and put out grain. They say they will eat out of their hands, which they will. But when we were working with them this morning, these are not horses that are gentle by any means. If someone didn’t know what they were doing, they could get hurt.”
   More than that, however, is the danger to drivers when the horses cross New Mexico Highway 48, she said. “I’ve seen people hit one of the mares once. I know of people, not with this herd, killed by horses on the highway. It’s a very dangerous situation,” she said.
McCoy also contends that in-breeding isn’t healthy for the stock.
   “That stallion has his stamp on every one of the mares and again on their colts,” she said. “My horses are racing around crashing against the fences and hurting themselves. My mare has banged up her face because she’s so excited. It just doesn’t work.”
McCoy emphasized that the complaint also came from her adjoining property owner who helped load the horses, but he could not be reached for confirmation by press time.
   By being rounded up, the horses will have a chance for a good home, McCoy said. “We talked about that immediately, and they will be advertised and they are legally bound to do that,” she said of the livestock board. “I know people ready to bid on them.”
   But based on an incident in 2014, involving Rock Star, a horse from the herd that was penned as a nuisance by a new resident in the area and was sold at auction for $42.59 by a business already charged with several counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty, a positive ending isn’t guaranteed.   Paperwork indicated he probably was sent to slaughter, although McCoy said she was told by livestock board officials that he was not destroyed.
   Lynda Blaney, who now lives in Colorado, went through an adoption of a filly from the herd after the Rock Star incident in 2014. The horse turned out to be a great addition to the family and has since given birth to her own daughter, she said. During the uproar over Rock Star’s fate, Blaney and other advocates met with livestock board officials including Baca and Patterson about being able to receive automatic notifications on horses and the procedures to adopt. They complained that the procedure in place when Rock Star was picked up failed to allow them the chance to bid on the horse and save him.
   Alto resident Russell Perrin said his family enjoyed having the herd in the area and watching horses that he didn’t have to feed. They didn’t eat the flowers like the elk and deer, he said. They just trimmed the grass.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Herd in Trouble. Call to Action!

Large wild horse herd in trouble. One woman in Enchanted Forest has about 15 horses penned and waiting for Brand inspector to come them pick up and take away-FOREVER. Herd is at ? Linda Vista. CALL governor 505.476.2200 and NM Livestock Board -  District #20 Area Supervisor: Troy Patterson 505.250.5956,  Brand Inspector: George Mendoza (575) 642-3993

Raise a ruckus! Say horses are a tourist attraction. Say they are a part of our heritage here in Lincoln County (they have been around a long time) Whatever to stop this. Dianne Stalling knows and will write up a story for Ruidoso News, but it is too late for today's paper. Know any radio personalities? - get them in our camp and the news out on the radio.

OH no - 8/26/16 noon: just heard they already picked up 12 horses.  Only Stallion left.  

Stop them from being moved away from our area. Watch New Mexico Livestock Board website - Estray notices. For 5 days horses will be listed - then gone to auction.
https://www.nmlbonline.com/estray