Yesterday, February 24, 2016, I visited the valley where Protect Mustangs keeps its Wyoming 14 wild horses and was able to see them. They are in good condition and they are in a healthy natural area with an abundance of springs and grass.
They are being well cared for on a daily basis and all had full winter coats. They were not frightened of me which indicated that the people they are associating with are treating them well. The bright sheen of their coats indicates that their health is good, as does the fullness of their muscles. Their hooves are in good trim.
Quality grass hay is available to them, though most of the wild horses were eating the grass that is beginning to spring up at the end of the winter season. There is no swamp in the valley bottom, but only areas of seepage from the springs. As the grass grows higher there will be even more ample forage for them, both in the valley and in the hillside.
This area has several hundreds of acres and the horses are not over their carrying capacity here. The acreage is shared with cattle off and on.
After spring arrives much of the horse droppings will be more rapidly decomposed and reincorporated into the soils, thus reinvigorating them and reseeding many valuable plants for the various herbivores there. A rest rotation will occur to allow the valley plants to grow up to a healthy level during the spring.
The hillsides are composed of granite outcroppings and there is much decomposed granite that keeps the horses hooves in fine condition. The horses move around to a large degree and go up into the hills, which keeps their muscles as well as hooves in good shape.
The fences I saw were not hazardous and there was some profuse willow clumps, canyons and hollows where the horses could seek shelter during storms.
These are very fortunate wild horses and I was very pleased to see how they had restored their health since their initial rescue from the killer buyers by Protect Mustangs. I am attaching some pictures I took. These give a much more complete picture of the situation concerning these fortunate rescued horses.
From my knowledge of wild horses, I consider these to be the Indian Pony type (some had appaloosa traits) and well worthy of preserving as a reproducing lineage that could restore wild horses where they belong in many areas where they have been thoughtlessly eliminated.
I am alarmed by the mean-spirited and biased attacks on Anne Novak and Protect Mustangs and their laudable rescue of the Wyoming 14 wild horses. I note that these detractors seem determined to put a negative spin on this whole rescue operation. They take a few isolated snapshots and then spin their interpretation of these negatively. This is not objective science, but political dirty work and is obviously being motivated by a desire to destroy Protect Mustangs–perhaps associated with its valiant defense of the wild horses in the wild and maintaining their integrity.
You can help keep the Wyoming 14 in their pasture by making a donation on this transparent crowd-funding site: https://www.gofundme.com/MustangPasture3-16 Thank you!
Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.