TAOS – The wild horses that live on Wild Horse Mesa north of Costilla are still roaming free, in part due to the efforts of a woman dedicated to protecting them and making sure they don’t become extinct in New Mexico’s ongoing drought .
“They need a pond up here – to keep them off the highway,” said Judy Barnes, a horse lover and amateur photographer who started trucking water to fill a pond for the horses and other wildlife to survive. “It’s for your own protection,” she said.
In 2007, Barnes formed a nonprofit called Spirit of the Wild Horse to preserve and protect the horses. But not everyone on the mesa thinks their plan is a good one.
Wild horses
Barnes did a DNA test on horses’ bloodlines. “I get a very high percentage – in the 90s – of Spanish blood,” she said. “Many of them are descendants of the Spanish horses that got away with the conquistadors.”
The Spaniards brought their horses to the American Southwest in the 16th century. Spanish horses were later bred by the US military using quarter horses and thoroughbreds, commonly known as mustangs.
Barnes said she even saw traits on Przewalski horses that live in the steppes of Central Asia. Przewalski horses are actually the only “wild” horse breed. The others are wild, which means that they come from animals that were once domesticated.
“There are many different bloodlines in what is called a mustang,” said Barnes.
There are feral horses and ponies in France, Sweden, Iceland, and the British Isles, according to the American Museum of Natural History. There are also herds in 10 western states and on barrier islands off the mid-Atlantic. The US Bureau of Land Management counted more than 86,000 feral horses and donkeys in 2021. More than half of that was in Nevada.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which aimed to “protect and administer unbranded and unclaimed horses and donkeys on public land in the United States”.
The law sets limits on the horse population, “that is the number of wild horses and donkeys that can thrive in equilibrium with other public land resources and uses”. The limit is called the appropriate management level and is now 26,785.
To reduce populations, the Bureau of Land Management rounds up horses and auctions them to private owners. In 2020, the agency reported that more than 10,000 animals were removed from the state and more than 6,000 were placed in private care.
Wild horses live in gangs that include one or two stallions, several mares and their young offspring. Bands travel together in flocks.
Mares decide whether to stay with a particular stallion. And when male horses reach about 4 years of age, they are pushed out to form “bachelorette groups”. They wander around like this for a year or two until they are ready to raise a family of their own.
Most of the horses on the mesa are smaller than average because they have less food and water. Their coloring includes 50 shades of brown as well as black and gray. Many of them have white markings on their faces which make them easy to spot.
“These horses have been here forever. Many, many generations, ”said Barnes.
Horse Whisperer
Wild Horse Mesa is about 60 miles north of Taos near the Colorado border and includes the Sanchez Reservoir and a section of the Old Spanish Trail.
Melby Ranch, which owns a good portion of the mesa, sells land to developers and uses the wild horses as a selling point. They used to fill a pond at the south end of the mesa near Spirit Mountain to help out wild horses and other wildlife such as deer, elk, and bears.
The pond was dug to water sheep in the 1930s. It is approximately 30 feet by 20 feet and 2 feet deep.
“For the past three or four years they haven’t given water to the wildlife and horses,” Barnes said. “So I decided – I wanted to fill it up.”
Barnes has lived on 40 acres of land near the pond for 17 years. She was born in Newport Beach, California and once lived in Taos. She is about six feet tall, has short white hair, and knows how to protect herself. Your house is off-grid.
Barnes bought water from local springs and had it transported up the mesa to fill the pond. She said a 3,000 gallon truckload would cost her $ 500.
“When we left with the second load of water, there were 50 horses,” she said. “You have already found the pond. They come from all directions to fetch water. ”
She plans to replenish it all summer despite the high price.
About 125 horses live on Wild Horse Mesa, according to Barnes. “And about 75 down at Dos Hermanos Ranch that I’m trying to get back to the Table Mountains,” she said.
She gave names to her stallions; Tank, Irish, Rocky and Napoleon and their mares; Allegra, Chloe, Zucker and Stern. In addition to the water, she provides them with hay, salt and lucerne cubes. When a horse gets sick or abandoned, Barnes rescues it.
Your nonprofit runs an orphan foal project that takes in abandoned baby horses and tends them until they can return to the herd.
Last week Barnes found an orphaned foal named Leah in a alfalfa field near Table Mountains and provided it with electrolytes and life-saving equipment. She said that a day-long foal would otherwise have been a coyote meal.
Competition for resources
Barnes started drilling a well three years ago. “I have water on my property,” she said. “The thermographic surveyor comes to see the depth. I have someone who finances a good part of it. ”The well water would be stored in a tank on their property and drawn regularly to refill the pond.
Earl Valdez, the manager of the nearby Dos Hermanos Ranch, which grazes cattle and goats, said the horses lived well on the mesa for decades. He said Barnes “messed up the ecosystem by bringing in so many new horses”.
“We are being overrun by horses as they keep breeding,” said Valdez. “It’s irresponsible.”
Valdez, who has worked on the ranch since he was 7 and taken over the running from his father, said the growing number of horses is now competing with his ranching business.
Permanent protection
Barnes said what she really wants is to give permanent protection to the wild horses. She wanted to buy the land on the mesa the pond is on, but the owner doesn’t want to sell it.
“There’s no federal protection unless they’re on state,” Barnes said. “I am your only protection.”
Her nonprofit has bought feral horses and released them back into the wild, added signs warning motorists about crossing horses with the Colorado Department of Transportation, and led projects to restore native grass.
Barnes said she had also reached out to her elected officials to try to declare the area a nature reserve. She has also reached out to other wildlife conservation nonprofits like The Nature Conservancy and angel investors who advocate wildlife.
Barnes said the horses are part of our history and should be protected. “They deserve to live free and wild.”
This story first appeared in The Taos News, a sister publication of The Santa Fe New Mexican.
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