Imagine a town that calls itself a Certified Wild Horse Sanctuary City and where a statue of a wild horse is proudly displayed. Welcome to DeBeque, Colorado in the USA. DeBeque is not very big but it is the main thoroughfare to the Little Bookcliffs Horse Management Area and every August it hosts Wild Horse Days to raise money to help Mustangs.
Little Bookcliffs (LBC) is about 30,000 acres of high mesa and canyon country. It is a facility of the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program and, through regular “gatherings”, adoptions and fertility control with PZP vaccine, the herd of 100-120 horses is managed for numbers and genetics.
You can drive, ride or hike yourself in LBC but my guide for the day was Marty Felix, a retired teacher who has been a volunteer with Friends of the Mustangs for 30 years. Marty is also a photographer, helps dart mares with PZP and knows all the horses by name!
While many breeds are represented in the North American wild horse, many are descendents of the Iberian Horse breeds that were brought to the America’s by the Spanish in the 1500’s. Later, the Native Americans adopted the horse for hunting, transport and fighting, initially stealing trained horses from the Spanish until they learned how to capture, train and manage horses themselves. An excellent history of the Wild American Mustang is presented in Hope Ryden’s book “America’s Last Wild Horses“.
Mustangs originally inhabited the plains country, co-habiting with vast herds of buffalo, elk and mule deer. With the settlement of the west and the invention of barb wire, the buffalo herds were decimated and the wild horses pushed to less hospitable and higher terrain. Mustangs in Little Bookcliffs endure harsh winters. Although they move from the high country to the lower canyon areas, they must survive snow and sub-freezing temperatures.
And yet, whether Brumby or Mustang, these hardy, resourceful and beautiful creatures survive and continue to enchant many who are privileged to see them in their natural environment.
And now there is a “Brumby” in America! Since leaving Little Bookcliffs, Marty advised me that The Friends of the Mustangs have named a little Mustang colt “Brumby” in honor of their Australian “Cousins”. And if that is not a reason to keep in touch with our American wild horse friends, I don’t know what is!
