Any experts in Horse Flesh here?

Brent Dowell

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
16,540
Location
Reno NV
We've got quite the herd of horses roaming the neighborhood right now.

Some of the mares are looking pretty 'double wide' right now and just about ready to pop.

There are also some pretty darn new little younguns roaming around.

Any idea how new some of these little guys are?

20150421-IMG_1495.jpg
 
its hard to believe there are still places in this country where horses roam free.

its easy to understand once you see the wide open space out in the southwest, but it still fascinates me wild horses roam around like that.

do you put water out for them to drink?

when we were there driving around the desert, I kept stopping the car because the cactus plants were incredibly beautiful, some with flowers, some the sheer size of them, and all just growing wild.
Last time I priced a cactus plant here at a local nursery, they wanted something like 80 dollars for a tiny ugly plant.
 
Last edited:
It's against the law to feed or water them. The neighbors do have a watering tank out for them. Several years ago they got in some pretty big trouble for feeding them.

This herd is getting a bit bigger than last time, so we'll have to see what happens.

One year we had a mare go into labor right next to our place and the next morning there was a brand new little one running around. I think there's going to be several more little ones coming out of this herd in real soon.

The laws and politics out here concerning what are and aren't considered wild horses are pretty complicated and contentious. These aren't technically 'wild', they are considered 'estray'. The big difference is that if they were wild, they would be on blm land, and they would belong to the government. These aren't, so what happens to them is kind of up in the air. Last time the Nearby Indian reservation rounded them up. Not sure what happened to them after that.
 
without looking up on google any laws pertaining to the horses, my guess is the govt doesn't want wild horses to be domesticated, they want them to be able to fend for themselves with no help from humans.
for whatever reason the govt has, it seems a bit harsh to me not to offer water to animals that aren't a threat or danger to humans, then again, maybe the coyotes will drink and eat the food and they are dangerous.
(someone got bit in New Jersey yesterday by a coyote, not an everyday occurrence around here)
 
Now you just trying to remind us of how great that area is that you live in. :)

What a sight to see. I could sit on your porch and watch them for hours. Pure freedom.

Brent would you be permited to have horses of your own for riding purposes on your own land out there?

Those that were corralled over yonder when I was out there for Bw were they ever up for purchasing a few?
If you did/were able to do that would your land be able to sustain them ? Is your land fenced to keep them in if it were all possible.

Sorry for all the questions just curious as to options in the area.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Now you just trying to remind us of how great that area is that you live in. :)

What a sight to see. I could sit on your porch and watch them for hours. Pure freedom.

Brent would you be permited to have horses of your own for riding purposes on your own land out there?

Those that were corralled over yonder when I was out there for Bw were they ever up for purchasing a few?
If you did/were able to do that would your land be able to sustain them ? Is your land fenced to keep them in if it were all possible.

Sorry for all the questions just curious as to options in the area.

If I wanted to, I could have some hay burning poop machines my own. The land would not be able to sustain them for long. If you look at any of the places that have horses, all vegetation inside the fence is gone in pretty short order. No fences on my land, and it's actually classified as open range. With the hills and rocks, Fencing it it would be a pretty big challenge.

The largest BLM adoption facility is just on the other side of the valley. That is where they offer up the adoptable wild horses they take off the range. The rest of the horses that get rounded up get shipped off to ranches in the midwest somwhere where they are stockpiled and live out the rest of their days eating hay.

Sorry I can't talk about that right now...I'm a little horse :rofl:

:rofl:

without looking up on google any laws pertaining to the horses, my guess is the govt doesn't want wild horses to be domesticated, they want them to be able to fend for themselves with no help from humans.

Exactly. The land out here is not all that hospitable and the horses compete with other wildlife. There are watering holes hidden away here and there and giving the horses water encourages them to expand their range. There is controversy over whether the horses are natural or an introduced species and they out compete with the antelope/deer and other animals. In fact, the wild horses on government land are managed and occaisonally rounded up to keep the numbers manageabl.
 
By the thread title, I thought this post slipped over here from the cook shack :D I teased my wife once about some steak she tried grilling........once :eek: :crutches:

Some years back, I was the lead agent on an export team for the Paris Air Show... I had an LD3 (747 aircraft loaded container) full of Hamburger meat and buns .... they were better than cash in getting things done there.... one day I was approached by another fellow who wanted to ship another LD3 of horse meat.... seems the Europeans think it's a delicacy ... very long process of getting all the phyto certificates, permits to export and permits to import, etc..... we wound up shipping two containers.... each LD3 will hold around 2-3000 lbs.
 
As a kid in N.Mex. we chased and caught these wild critters and had a blast riding at them. My old bones sure couldn't
handle that now. Also caught a herd of wild burros for donkey basketball. What a hoot that was.
David
 
Top