Losing the Beautiful Wild Horses of Salt Wells Creek
Losing the Beautiful Horses of Salt Wells Creek by Carol J. Walker
A grey stallion at dawn
His family
Just after dawn we arrived at Bitter Creek Road, way down Highway 430 in Salt Wells Creek, Wyoming. I was dreading this day when the helicopters would be taking most of the wild horses in this area, within sight of Kinney Rim.
We saw a small family right by the road as we were driving in, and it was sad to see how unafraid the horses were when we got out of our cars to photograph them.
The little family I knew leading the way
On the way to the trap
We drove down the road to a gas pad with a view of the run into the trap and I set up my tripod and camera and lens and waited for the helicopters. This was the closest we had been to the trap. When we saw a line of horses in the distance, I watched as they got closer and I realized it was a huge group of horses. As they came closer, it hit me. This beautiful little family I had spent time with last week with an older Cremello mare, older grey stallion and beautiful palomino yearling were leading the way to the trap. I had hoped that they would be among the lucky ones, and I despaired because those two older horses would not have a chance of being adopted especially if the stallion was sent to Axtell, Utah and the mare possibly sent to Bruneau, Idaho. The BLM does not allow public visitation and adoption at their private facilities.
Another large group coming in
The palomino and cremello stallions rearing up to fight
Running away
In the trap
After this group came in soon afterward, an even larger group approached. Then I saw a Cremello stallion and a Palomino stallion touched noses then reared up, clearly unhappy to have their families close together. I thought that they had much bigger problems, like the helicopter chasing them.
A sorrel stallion gets away
After their group went in, with a notable exception – a fiery sorrel who got away – we had another huge group come in, and even at a distance I could tell there were many stunning pintos, especially black and white pintos running in. I was sad to see a beautiful pinto mare that I had seen hovering protectively over her foal two days before. Seeing these beauties running was amazing yet very depressing.
The stunning pintos
Notice the foal in the upper right corner, away from his mother
The horses go into the trap without him
It was not until I went through my photos that I realized that a small foal had become separated from his family well before the big group went into the trap. I saw the foal all alone after the helicopter had moved away, and heard his mother calling to him. She was in the trap, and he was all alone, and clearly confused as the helicopter stayed near him to keep him there. Soon a rider ran down the hill and chased the foal until he was able to rope him so that he could bring the foal in. After he roped the foal, he stayed with him, did not drag him but instead the Judas horse was led out to give him company so he would feel more secure going into the trap. I hoped that he would be reunited with his mother at the temporary holding facility – surely he was too young to be weaned.
The helicopter keeping the foal in place
The rider chasing the foal to catch him
The foal stops as he feels the rope
The Judas horse is led out to keep him company
The foal follows the Judas horse into the trap
All of these horses were healthy looking and very beautiful, with no good reason on earth for them to lose their freedom and their families forever.
Related Posts:
Advocates File Suit to Stop Illegal Removal of Wild Horses in Wyoming
The Checkerboard Wild Horse Roundup in Wyoming Doesn’t Look Any Better at a Distance
Rounding Up Wild Horses Will Break Your Heart if You See Them First When They Are Free
15 Comments
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Oh God, I cry every time I watch these round ups. Wish I had the money to buy them all. Why can’t they just leave them alone???
tax consuming public servants heartless turds that do this to our wild horses may you fall ill and live a short life…
Too sad for words.
Man is being SO greedy thinking this earth only belongs to only him and not sharing the space with other living things. So not true. Leave these creatures and their established families alone out on the plains to live and breathe and exist. Why is this a problem?????? Do we really need this open area for anything or anyone???? Why do they think this is necessary. These horses are hurting no one! Let them live and be and go chase a real problem in this world.
If some must go then I understand, but some should remain. The public wants them. The best quality could remain in balanced proportions ie not all males or all females. Any females with unweaned young should keep them. A healthy number should remain to keep the genes varied eg 1,000 at least. I love wild horses. I want to see them and they are a part of Anerica’s heritage.
Devastating. Take the stock numbers allowed to graze way down instead. Why are the wild horses the very bottom of the totem pole? The pecking order? They seem to have no value, yet America was built on the backs of their Ancestors, and they have done nothing to deserve this awful fate. Thete is no way in Heaven, the BLM can find enough homes for them…what is their fate? They are expensive to keep …will they vanish ? Why is long term holding a No Go for the public? Dodgy as. Will the BLM secretly send them to slaughter? They want them gone. It’s obvious. Everyone just sees them as pests. Too sad .
So if the BLM is so broke they cant “afford” to do more roundups – why the he__ are they continuing this farce? These beautiful, wild healthy animals – who obviously are getting plenty to eat – what is the point?
The have roundups to make money. What we have is a range war. BLM is totally off the tracks run by local interest that have no regard for the land or the horses/burros. The roundups make money for cowboys, helicopter pilots, feedlots, killer buyers etc scum bags….I will never eat French fries from Mickey D’s again…there is horse blood on those fries…the dude that supplies the potatoes owns pens/business hooked up with horse slaughter…Lucas Oil products not in my truck! I am writing the White House and demanding BLM be stopped. If you or I trespassed on public land with our cattle and broke our pastured lease; we would be fined or jail time, not in Nevada.
Maybe all I can do is not eat at McDonald’s again because of the potato supplier. Wish I could do more. This is so heartless. These free horses are so beautiful, if lifts you up just to see them.
This is utterly inhumane and disgusting! !!!! Leave these beautiful animals of America’s heritage alone!!!! Gonna round them up like the Indians so many years ago!!!! It’s all soooooo wrong and unethical!!!
Saving America’s Wild Horses
With drumming hooves, they come running.
With tails flagged high, they come running,
With flowing manes, they come running.
With flared nostrils, they come running.
Oh, what a glorious sight!
Clouds of prairie dust mark their passing.
The scent of crushed sage comes drifting.
Glistening hides in sunlight, reflecting.
Separated mares and exhausted foals nickering.
Oh, what a careening flight!
What would cause this reckless running?
Over rocky hills, unshod hooves come crashing.
Older horses lose their footing
Lathered sweat whitely spraying.
Oh, what a panicked flight!
Exhausted, on splayed legs, with sides heaving
Too spent to nicker at their mothers’ leaving
Foals collapse, roiling dust enshrouding
From the chopper blades’ wild whirling.
Oh, what a tragic flight!
The strong ones lead, the rest conforming
As they heed the fences’ hazing
Into the catch pens’ terminating
Rails forcing a bewildered milling.
Oh, what an end to their flight!
Looking for lost foals, mares pacing
Bloated bags with warm milk dripping
A mute and painful weeping
O’er the Truth so horrifying.
Innocence, a victim of their flight.
Stallions answer Nature’s calling
Rearing, striking, biting, screaming
Close-quarter conflicts inciting
Instinctive challenges contesting
The bloody purpose of their flight.
Growing herds expanded grazing
Might harm the desert tortoise feeding
Politicians paid for by Big Oil, Big Mining
Approved detailed plans for exterminating.
Greed, the “No Exit” signage of their flight.
Some spend months in metal pens confining
Forgotten, rains ease their frantic thirsting
Thousand rib and hip bones testifying
Slow starvation caused their dying.
Human error the Reaper’s demise of their flight.
Too few selected for public adopting
Wild Horse Protection Act ignoring
Auctioned prices climbing, ever rising
The “Killer Man” nods and ends the bidding.
One final sorting changes the nature of their flight.
Steel trailers travel south to border crossings
Squeezed into plywood crates, foreboding
Bewildered captives endure hours of flying
No hay or water to ease their silent suffering.
Japan’s slaughter houses, the destination of their flight.
Electric prods keep dazed mustangs moving
On slimy steel, hooves slipping, horses falling
They’re lined up, wild eyed with nostrils snorting
At the stench of filth and hot blood flowing.
The Kill Box, the vile termination of their flight.
Spinal cords severed by Ice-pick stabbings
Strong legs collapse to the sounds of groaning
Hind legs wrapped in chains are lifting
Through cut throats, life’s blood is draining
Can glazed eyes see their souls take flight?
Wild burros, horses, mules trapped for Federal culling
Race horses, ponies, trotters too old for sports or breeding
Loyalty, trust unnoticed in the equine steaks now steaming
As patrons of foreign dining enjoy their gourmet gorging.
Ignorant of the bloody, heinous outcome of their flight.
Horses carried men in battle, no beribboned medal dying,
Pulled prairie schooners across the plains unending
Built railroads, carried mail, plowed fields for planting
In Arlington, proudly paraded veterans to their final resting.
We must preserve, forever, the freedom of their flight.
With drumming hooves, they come running.
With tails flagged high, they come running,
With flowing manes, they come running.
With flared nostrils, they come running.
Oh, what a thundering, glorious sight!
© June 2, 2016 by Janice E. Mitich
Picture Rock, AZ
All Gods work matters!
Do you have any pics of the 10/17/17 gather?
You can look through my blog posts of the 2017 roundup – here is the first one, keep going forward: https://www.wildhoofbeats.com/blog/on-the-eve-of-the-checkerboard-roundup-an-old-adobe-town-friend-is-found