Monday, April 08, 2013

PALOMINO VALLEY WILD HORSE & BURRO CENTER : Big Skies and Small Rescues

PV corrals: stallions on the right, mares on the left.

Dear Readers,
It snowed last night, so I was eager to drive out to Palomino Valley, BLM's largest & most populous (over 1800 equines) holding corrals and adoption center
Bad news, as always, is that there are so many wild horses in captivity. 
Good news is that I only glimpsed 2 distressed horses.One was a wrangler's horse and he was walking it for possible colic. The second was a new foal.
 The foal stood alone at the feed station for about a minute. Though you can't tell much from this photo, all of the mares in the pen were watching him & me & the other visitors. 

Then, the foal came to the fence and checked out visitors to see if they smelled like Mama. 


We didn't and the baby made a tiny nicker. At that, many of the mares became even more alert.  

According to the timer on my phone, 8  minutes later a truck came back for the baby. 
Mama mare had been moved to the mare&foal corral first. That corral is in a more sheltered part of the facility.   
Northern Nevada hasn't had much moisture in the last few weeks, so the horses' footing looked ok. There have been some improvement made to drainage over the years,

I didn't photograph volunteers working with wild horses, but I have a truth to share:

BLM at the highest levels does a disservice to volunteers who gentle equines to make them more adoptable. BLM hauls truckload after truckload of mustangs and burros into this barren confinement. 

But the volunteers I saw don't lose heart.  

Anyone who's loved an animal knows that sigh (eyes closed or wiiiide open) that tells exactly how you feel. I saw it with a burro buddy and a horse gentler and the affection was returned.

Will their efforts make a difference to all of the homesick horses? No, but it makes a difference for these few and I admire the volunteers for their guts. 
 

Labels: BLM, burros, Palomino Valley, wild horse volunteers, wild horses

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Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:03 PM

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