Mountain Valley Horse Rescue

Just received a newsletter from Mountain Valley Horse Rescue in Eagle, Colorado. I'm not sure how they got my name, but I'm happy to get the newsletter and learn about the group that seems to be doing good things for abused or abandoned horses. I plan to send a contribution.

Check them out at www.mvhr.org.

Madeline Pickens to the rescue

From a Washington Post story that appeared in the Denver Post today:

"Madeleine Pickens, wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, made known her intentions to adopt not just the doomed wild horses but most or all of the 30,000 horses and burros kept in federal holding pens."

"Madeleine Pickens is working with the BLM staff to adopt the horses, said Henri Bisson, the bureau's deputy director, while the agency persuades Congress to shift $20 million in funding to feed and protect the horses now in captivity for another year."


She apparently plans to create a ranch sanctuary for the animals which will be open to the public.

Here's the URL of the original story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/18/AR2008111803659.html

I'm not sure of the details or how it will all work, but Mrs. Pickens deserves immense credit for using her own resources to come up with a non-taxpayer funded solution to this problem-- and avoid massive euthanizing thousands of horses.

Horesing around at the Colorado Capitol

Here's a bit of better news on the equine front.

From a press release sent to Colorado newspapers Monday, Nov. 17

"Colorado Horsemen’s Day at the Capitol Horsemen throughout Colorado are invited to spend an exciting day at the State Capitol in Denver on January 19th, 2009. The Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Association, The Colorado Thoroughbred Breeders Association and the Colorado Horse Racing Association are sponsoring the big event. Top officials from both the American Quarter Horse Association and the Jockey Club are scheduled to attend and discuss the horse industry’s future with the Colorado horsemen in attendance. Top on the list of issues the horsemen will be discussing will be the proposed Colorado Horse Breeders Incentive Fund. The proposal is an economic growth plan for the Colorado horse industry that will be funded by the Colorado Racing Industry. All horsemen are invited and there is no charge for attending. More information will be available at www.ColoradoHorseCoalition.com or by emailing coloradohorse@yahoo.com ."

I don't know how successful this will be, but I would love to see the horse racing industry be more viable in Colorado than it has been.

However, I recognize there are problems that go beyond fiscal soundness. First, there are the injuries too many racehorses suffer. The synthetic tracks are one idea that appears to help in that regard.

Additionally, there is the question of what to do with all the well-bred horses that turn out to be not very good runners. There is a market for many of those horses. I owned a horse for 10 years that had come off the track (see the post below about Dash's horse chestnut tree). He was wonderfully athletic, kind and sensible. But I've seen other former race horses that were truly whacko. There's little market for them.

Finally, I think horse racing needs to do a better job of policing itself for drugs used on horses. Like all human professional sports, the incentive to win in racing is so high that too many trainers have turned to drugs -- either to mask injuries or to enhance performance.

More abandoned horse problems

This is from Monday, Nov. 17

"Wyoming BLM to Impound Trespass Horses

The Pinedale Field Office is going to collect several horses (7-13) which appear to have been abandoned on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

Any unauthorized livestock grazing on public land or other lands under BLM’s control are in violation of Code of Federal Regulations and may be impounded five days after the posting of this information."

Source: www.blm.gov/wy"

It's unfortunate, but it appears to be more and more the case that, as the economy worsens, a growing number of domestic horses will be left to fend for themselves on public land.

More wild problems

A reader posted to following comment to my earlier post about not-so-wild horses:

"As of November, just in SW Idaho, we've had 44 abandoned horses that have required the brand inspector to come out. That's those caught/identified. Post slaughter-ban and with the depressed horse market, abandonment is rapidly becoming the norm for far too many people. The BLM is basically out of money and space, with better than 30,000 wild horses and burros being held at this point. What's going to happen? Odds are no one will be happy with what does, but the crisis will probably reach an initial head this winter. Several range professionals I've talked to are fearful of a spring thaw down here revealing a scattering of carcasses."

He's right about the crisis the BLM faces. I don't know how many folks saw news stories on the GAO report released this month, but it says the BLM needs to euthanize or sell (with no strings attached) many of the 30,000 wild horses and burros it now has in captivity. The reason -- its costing the agency 74 percent of its wild-horse program budget to care for these animals, which are basically unadoptable.

As I wrote in a newspaper editorial about this last week, nobody wants to see wild horses euthanized. But holding once-wild animals in crowded corrals, where they may be more prone to disease and have little opportunity to run, is hardly compassionate. And it uses up the bulk of the BLM budget that should be going to range improvements and other wild-horse needs, such as sterilization programs to reduce overpopulation on the range.

As the commenter noted, a lot of people won't like the possibility of euthanizing the wild horses, but the crisis is coming to a head, soon.

The barn in winter

We had another great autumn ride Saturday, Turk and I, my friend Alan and his mare Rita. We headed into the canyons north of here, in the Little Bookcliffs Wild Horse Area, and encountered a band of about eight horses. One yearling filly approached to check us out -- or at least to check our ponies out. These horses are pretty accustomed to human visitors on foot and horseback.

But that was Saturday. Today is Tuesday morning and a front is moving through. There is rain here in the valley and snow not too far up on the surrounding cliffs and mountains. It's winter in Colorado.

Is there any place more welcoming than a horse barn on a winter morning? The smell of sawdust and horses? The nickering of our impatient buddies, ready for their breakfast.

We don't have anything too fancy. I built the barn myself -- with help from my wife and daughter and a few friends -- about 10 years ago. There are two 12x12 stalls, a tack room (which doubles as a dog room during the day, and has a doggie door opening to a fenced dog run). There's and an open area where the horses can go in and out during the day. I rarely keep my horses in the stalls unless I'm treating an injury or preparing for a show or the like. But I feed grain to the two mares in the stalls and to Turk in the open area. They're out there now, staying out of the rain, and waiting for me to come feed.

I'm not sure if people who have never had horses, never had a barn of their own, can really appreciate how much we enjoy going out to the barn, being with our animals, feeding, talking to them -- yes, even cleaning the barns.

I grew up in the dairy country of Wisconsin when most of the farms had relatively small herds of 50 to 100 head. And the dairy barns on winter mornings then had much the same feel as my horse barn now -- the steam from the breathing of the cows, the heat generated by their bodies, the stone and wood walls keeping out the cold, the smell of hay and silage.

There's a connection there with the animals -- and with our history -- that fewer and fewer people get to experience.

I'm going out to experience it right now.

A glorious gallop

What a gorgeous autumn day Sunday was. Clouds were building up in the morning, and rain and wind arrived late in the afternoon. But as we pulled the horse trailers off U.S. Highway 50 on the bluffs above the Gunnison River, the sun broke through and the extra layers of clothing I'd brought, including a rain jacket, were unnecessary.

I took my little gelding Turk (by little, I mean 15.2 hands -- not tiny but not like the big jumpers and eventers). My friend Cricket brought her big mare, Aspen, and another friend, Jody, brought an Arabian-Paint cross called Joker. And my seven-month old Lab pup, Lila, came along to burn off some of that puppy energy.

Everyone was feeling good in the cool fall weather, and as soon as we got far enough away from the horse trailers and pavement, we broke into an eager trot.

I should note that I just started using my old jumping saddle on Turk. I've always used a western saddle on him until a few weeks ago, but I find that saddle hurts my back and my knees. The jumping saddle allows my legs to hang in a better position and move more freely when I need them to. Plus, it gives me better contact with my horse for using leg commands.

We warmed up, then had a nice easy gallop along the old Jeep roads in the area. This is all Bureau of Land Management property and open to the public. We had a little bit of difficult up and down through some rocky arroyos, but mostly it was easy and open trails, great for cantering and extended trotting.

We rode about two hours, and everyone was worn out and happy by the end.

It was a wonderful reminder of why we have horses.