Wild Horses: December's Challenges for Salt Wells Creek - Part Two

On Wednesday morning last week, I was in Rock Springs, waiting to hear if the weather had improved and the snow had stopped. I learned that the release of the mares was on schedule. These mares were rounded up and removed from Salt Wells Creek. Only 40 mares will be released, all treated with the birth control drug PZP, and only 39 stallions were released. A total of 668 wild horses were rounded up, and most are at the Rock Springs Short Term Holding facility.

I followed the BLM to where the mares had been held for the past three days in pens and saw the two horse trailers pull out, heading through the Adobe Town Herd Area. I saw the snow-crusted forms of the mares in the trailers and could see their wide eyes. They had no idea what was going to happen to them.

We drove over two hours through snow-covered roads, and the high this day was zero degrees. It seemed as though we were driving through most of the Adobe Town Herd Area, and I wondered when we would reach the location to release the mares.

Finally, I saw the horse trailers stop, ironically at the trap site used in the 2010 Adobe Town Roundup at Poison Buttes, where hundreds of wild horses lost their freedom. I always get a bad feeling when I am in this area.

As I prepared to get out and set up to photograph the release of the mares, Dave Cattoor opened the first trailer door. Mares came spilling out, and I ran toward the trailer, but was told to stop. I kept going and tried to get some photographs as the second trailer door was opened. The mares ran out and headed up the hill to get a good look around in this new area. These are mares rounded up in the Salt Wells Creek Herd Area, but they are being released in Adobe Town, at least 30–50 miles from where they had been rounded up.

As the mares disappeared, I was determined to wait until the Cattoors returned with the second load of mares. We waited 3 1/2 hours. I kept my vehicle running for heat, and I was assured that this time they would wait until I was set up to let these mares go. It was getting colder and darker, and I hoped they would arrive before the end of this very short winter day.

Finally, the two trailers pulled up, and I was on top of the hill waiting this time. They opened the door of one of the trailers, and a lone red mare came quietly out, looking around this unfamiliar world. Then another mare followed. I thought that the mares were smart to look around and not rush off at a gallop, imagining that the stallions probably did just that.

The mares trotted up the hill, the group from the second trailer catching up to the first group as they paused and looked over at me on the next hill. I silently cheered them on, here in this strange new place, 1/2 hour before the sun went down, temperatures falling fast.

Still, there was no doubt in my mind that they were the lucky ones, who still had their freedom, and they had each other on this coldest night. As I drove back toward Rawlins in the twilight, the temperature was now minus 11.

The next morning, I headed back to this area, and the temperature gauge on my car read minus 16 when I first arrived. I used my binoculars to look for horses. I did not see any sign of the mares, and I was sure they had headed as far away from where they were released as possible—who could blame them?

I did see several wild families on a far ridge about 5–10 miles from where they were released, and I felt joy to see them on this frigid morning—there are still wild horses in this area. There was a palomino foal with a wooly coat, and he reminded me of my adopted mustang Mica.

As I drove, I saw black forms on a hill with Haystack Mountain in the background. As I drove closer, I saw that it was cattle grazing on public land.

The Rock Springs Grazing Association is relentless in their drive to have ALL wild horses removed not only from private land but also from public land that they have leased, which they consider their own. These four herd areas are targeted: Salt Wells Creek, Adobe Town, Great Divide Basin, and White Mountain. All four of these herd areas make up over 2 million acres, and almost half of the remaining wild horses in Wyoming live in these areas.

Only a few days after the mares were released, the Rock Springs BLM released their Scoping Document for rounding up the wild horses in Great Divide Basin. It has only been two years since this herd was last rounded up.

You can comment on this plan for the removal of the wild horses from Great Divide Basin until January 10, 2014.

Carol will be appearing on the CNN Jane Velez Mitchell Show to discuss the situation in Rock Springs at the Short Term Holding Facility on Tuesday, December 17 at 7:00 pm Eastern Time.

My heartfelt thanks for the support and sponsorship of the Wild Horse Freedom Federation on this trip. http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/

Originally posted by Wild Hoofbeats