A Trip to Jicarilla Wild Horse Territory

A TRIP TO JICARILLA WILD HORSE TERRITORY - CARSON NATIONAL FOREST

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After my first visit to Colorado Horse Rescue in Longmont Colorado, I got a call from Stacey Couch telling me I'd filmed her horse that she boards at the facility. It so happens her beautiful chestnut bay named Cherokee was from Jicarilla Horse Territory in Carson National Forest in New Mexico. She told me she'd dreamed of seeing the area Cherokee had come from. Claude Steelman, of Wild Shots photography, had recently adopted a buckskin colt from the same area, so we all went camping. I'd been following Steelman and Poncho's story but had never met Stacey and Chris Couch, until this rendezvous over Memorial Day weekend. Both Stacey and Chris have backgrounds as wildlife biologists so came equipped with binoculars and appropriate outdoor gear. Chris and Claude strummed and sang country kind of tunes around our campfire and Stacey chimed in with her juice harp. We photographed horses peering at us like wood nymphs from behind tall sage and short pinion pines. We tracked them up rugged hillsides and verdant meadows, even though spring rains drenched us and turned the roads into mudslides and made for soggy sleeping mats.

The call of wild horses in our dreams beckoned the four of us on this journey, along with a motivation to observe and gain understanding of their life in the wild. These horses are said to be descendants of Cavalry stock left abandoned by soldiers after World War I. Most are sturdy and relatively short legged, many are bay, but we saw a black stallion, pinto mare and a buckskin colt. I wonder, which band are Cherokee's ancestors?

Helicopter chases are no longer used in this area to round horses up. The National Forest contracts to have them baited and trapped instead. It's a gentler process for the horse as it moseys into the pen to graze on the bait inside during the night. It isn't until they're loaded into the trailer the next morning they realize they've been caught.

These horses are kept and are up for adoption at a holding facility in Farmington New Mexico under the direction of the Horse Territory range manager; Anthony Madrid. Hundreds of horses have seen the last of their rightful free roaming freedom in the past year as the herd area of 76,000 acres is claimed to have too many horses on unacceptable range land Except for the scaring of oil and gas roads, rigs and traffic impact, the range was the healthiest I've seen since I started this project. Look for more about this story on future posting, meanwhile visit www.fs.fed.us/r3/carson/natural_resources/ to learn more. If you'd like to adopt a mustang from New Mexico, there are many to choose from. Contact Anthony Madrid - amadrid@fs.fed.us

Thank you to Chris Couch for providing the guitar tune at my request. I hope we hear from him to put you all in touch with his flushed out music, catchy lyrics, band gigs and CD's.