Saturday Special: A Case for Wild Horses
This is the first guest column shared on Ring Around the Basin. It concerns an issue that I hold very close to my heart. To me, wild horses are a natural part of the western American landscape. They are the descendants of ancient fauna as well as the spiritual embodiment of the American Spirit of Freedom. To many, they are as sacred as the Bald Eagle.
I follow a Facebook page called Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates, that chronicles the group's activities to protect wild horses east of Carson Valley. People follow this page from all over the world, contributing generously to support their efforts to dart mares with PZP, a birth control drug. Mary Cioffi, president of the group, posts articles such as the one here to inform followers of the challenges to their work.
Here, then, is what Mary Cioffi posted Dec. 7, 2024 on Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates:
When Mark Gardner, then Chairman of our Douglas County Commissioners, met with the BLM, he stated that other counties seemed to have concerns with wild horses. But he stated when addressing the BLM "in Douglas County we love our wild horses. Use your resources on other counties and leave the wild horses our community loves alone." As the conversation went on, he made it clear that the horses were important to our residents. We have very few problems and they bring in tourism from all over the world. This is important to our local businesses as the tourists visit Lake Tahoe and come down the hill to see our beautiful valley and the wild horses. The visitors eat in our restaurants, fill up their gas tanks in their rented vehicle, stay in our motels and hotels, do a little gambling and shop at Smiths, Raleys, Walgreens and buy the items they forgot to pack at Walmart. He was clear that the wild horses were important to our community, and we want them to stay.
In Douglas County, where the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains cradle the Carson Valley on the west and the Pine Nut Mountains embrace it on the east, the wild horses roam free in the hills of the Pine Nut Mountains as they have for as long as anyone in the valley can recall. The community thrives in the deeply rooted passion and emotion for the wild landscape, outdoor life, wildlife and the wild horses that stir their emotions. It wasn't just the breathtaking views that captured the hearts of the locals; it was also the wild horses. Few people really care if they are considered feral or wild. If feral, they were feral from generations and decades ago, the offspring of our local historic ranch horses turned out when they were retired or lame or perhaps got loose from local ranchers and miners. They bred with the true wild Mustangs from long ago.
Those local ranchers and miners were all part of the story of the Carson Valley and our original inhabitants. Most of the horses in Fish Springs today greatly resemble the Morgan-pony crosses of the miners from decades ago, who bred them for their size and ability to pull ore from the mines. You can see that history in our beautiful Blue and many others who would pass as a Morgan in any horse show today. Old Socks is clearly from some reining horse lineage once used by our ranchers and Rogue resembles the quarter horse type used to move the cattle from the valley to the top of High Meadows at Lake Tahoe, decades ago before Kingsbury Grade was paved and it became more practical to truck the cattle up the hill.
Every March something magical happens as the town comes alive with anticipation as the wild horses all return from their winter in the hills to the main range in an area known as Fish Springs Flat. They all gather, like clockwork, on the side of a hill known as Rendezvous Hill. The activity is so interesting to observe and even better as members of the Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates take their time to explain the behavior and what to look for.
Bachelors strive to show how much they have matured and let the band stallions know they are there, as competition to steal their mares or earn their daughters. Band stallions introduce any filly over the age of two to the other band stallions and sometimes give their daughters to a favored stallion as a gift. They also accompany their young stud colts to play with the other colts if they are around the age of two. They may not be ready to leave their home band yet, but when they have friends their own sex and age, it will make the transition easier when they are forced to leave their Mom and move out. It is interesting as wild horse parents are very much like human parents. Some parents just want the kids gone and others are over-protective and let their sons play for a bit but then rush them back to the band worried that they might get hurt.
The locals in the towns of Gardnerville and Minden regard the cherished wild horses, not as mere animals, but as kin - guardians of the land they love. The wild horses remind them of a time when freedom was everything and ranching and mining was life.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has consistently been a subject of community discussion. The high turnover rate of BLM representatives has been a source of noticeable frustration among community members as it was difficult to establish a relationship with the local office. When a new representative would at last seem to understand the desire of the townspeople and make an effort to work together to reach their common goals, that person would make promises and set up programs and the community would start to feel a sense of hope, only to be disappointed when that BLM representative would be transferred, and the effort would start all over once again. Every new guy giving our volunteers that same, canned speech they learned from headquarters about wild horse overpopulations, AML and emotional advocates who lacked logic.
If the problem, as BLM saw it was the reproduction rate of wild horses, the volunteers put a strong birth control program in place. At no cost to taxpayers the community raised the funds to purchase the equipment and training needed and reduced the reproduction rate by over 90%. The BLM stated there was not enough water in the hills to maintain so many horses. So the organization made a conscious effort and found donors to purchase hundreds of acres of land, spread out across the miles of land, and holding the majority of the water sources in the hills of the Pine Nut Mountains. A guarantee that there would always be water available, as over 3400 acres were put into conservation easements, with the united effort of the American Wild Horse Campaign, and a written agreement that the water sources would always be left open for all wildlife and wild horses.
The community's love of the wild horses roaming their hills resonates in their hearts, a powerful force that unites them in their shared mission. The Board of Directors and volunteers of the Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates meet frequently, maintaining a close-knit family bond as they welcome new members to the group and they all reaffirm their dedication to these magnificent wild horses they have grown to know as individuals and strive to protect. The Carson Valley has made a pledge to a few historic bands of wild horses that deliver something so many need ... joy.
One tourist said it clearly as he stood on the hillside of one of the hills on the Fish Springs range. He had traveled from across the globe to see these horses. "Look at them," he whispered, his voice full of emotion, "this is what America is all about, they are the spirit of America. You need to fight to protect them for the rest of the world."
We will.
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PHOTO CREDITS: I have purloined these photos from the PNWHA Facebook page and am unsure of who took some of them. There are many photographers among the PNWHA members, including Mary Cioffi, Karen Martell, Cheryl Broumley and J.T. Humphrey, who is the primary chronicler for PNWHA on Facebook and range manager over the protected lands under conservatorship.
John T. Humphrey Photography Facebook
Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates official website
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All my books, Paradise Ridge, When the Horses Come and Go, and Ghost in the Forest are currently available on Kindle.
Ghost in the Forest, is also available in paperback for ten bucks. Paradise Ridge is out-of-print, but the Kindle version is re-edited and better quality. Hard copies of When the Horses Come and Go are gone unless that dusty box in the corner still has some.
Book Review of Ghost in the Forest:
"Ghost in The Forest' is a great read! Take note People. If you love stories about environmentalism and nature, its clash with urban mindsets, as well as personal transformation, this is the book for you!
"Ghost in The Forest" is a quick 126-page read. It's the story of Dori, a woman trapped in a mix of grief over parental loss and refusing to accept how her hometown and her friends have changed over the years. Because of this, Dori has become a recluse and a self-imposed misanthrope who finds more comfort amongst the hiking trails around her hometown of Morristown than in her dealings with the raw reality of other humans.
The book, in some ways, resembled Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire” in that the story follows a protagonist's love of nature and angst about humans encroaching on it. In this case, it’s how Morristown is transforming into a mountain biking destination where cyclists run rampant on trails and nature.
However, a tragedy involving said mountain biking becomes a major pivot point for Dori, leading to a series of events that eventually bring about personal evolution and discovery.
If you're a nature lover, this book is a must-read. It beautifully portrays the clash between environmentalism and urban mindsets and the journey of personal transformation. The book's vivid descriptions of nature and the protagonist's love for it will surely intrigue you.
Paradise Ridge Review by western author D. B. Jackson:
If you draw circle roughly around an area that includes northern Nevada, southern Oregon, and southern Idaho, within that circle exists a culture and people who live a lifestyle largely untouched by modern values. These are the "buckaroos" and Basque characters author Sue Cauhape brings to life in her literary novel, "Paradise Ridge".
Leandro, the illegitimate seventh son of patriarch Xavier Arriaga and his mistress, Gisela, is at the center of this intriguing story that travels exceedingly successfully at both the personal level of the characters, as well as the compelling level where the story is told.
Cauhape writes in a literary style that reminds me of Annie Poulx. Paradise Ridge, on the surface, appears to be an upscale Western novel...once inside the pages, you will soon discover a potential classic waiting to be discovered.
I rated this book a 5...because that's all the stars there were.
How my mother would have loved this post! She grew up on the Colorado frontier. i've written about how the family was homeless and lived in a wagon.