On the blog website, I just added the Ruidoso News link to the Top
Ten Stories of 2014. Our fight for the herd last summer made it in the
Top Ten!
The top story was another horse story -- the search
for the lost horse,
Pasha, a 15-year-old Arabian horse in the Fort Stanton BLM lands.
Here's the story on the herd from the article:
Wild Horses
In July, admirers of a wild horse herd that roams the mountains
around Alto were horrified to learn that one of the horses, Rock Star, a
particularly tame and social animal, was corralled and eventually sold
for slaughter.
The subsequent outrage prompted a meeting between residents and
officials with the New Mexico Livestock Board that is responsible for
the welfare of the unclaimed horses. The result was a better
understanding of the conflict created when people try to tame a wild
horse, but then do not follow through the proper state channels to adopt
it and ensure it does not become a nuisance. New lines of
communications were establish with the brand inspector, who handled the
incident.
In August, herd supporters also handed out flyers to discourage
visitors from trying to interact with the horses, who probably descended
from equines turned loose on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. Some
residents still help out with hay and other feed during the winter, but
they are dropping it farther up the mountain and away from the public.
One of the first "sanctioned" adoptions of a herd member occurred in September.
 |
| Members of the Alto herd show a bit of their "wild" side. (Courtesy photo in the paper) |
The herd seems to like this area of Alto and have hung out there most of the winter. Here are some photos of the herd "hanging out".
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