August 4th

We are often asked, how do we keep track of all the Salt River wild horses? How do we know at all times where they are and what they are doing? Well, the truth is we don’t know all the time where they are. They are still wild horses who have almost 20,000 acres to roam on, and we do not panic when we don’t see them for a while, because they have a way of suddenly showing up again. They take pretty good care of themselves.

But we do know in general know where each band likes to hang out (their home territories) and we keep close track of band changes and we keep an eye out if we have not seen a band or a horse for a while.

We have volunteers in the field who update our database app on each Salt River wild horse, each time they are seen. We then mark the horse’s location, make a notation on their health and we take a picture. The next volunteer does the same etc etc. In addition we have a lot of supporters who also update us when they see something concerning.

Our database app, including some of Sarge’s details.

Having done this for so many years, every time we see a horse, you can imagine how chock-full of data our app is. We have thousands of notations with each horse on exactly where they have been, with who, plus any injuries they have had.
So when a horse disappears from their band, we do not panic, but we do put in some effort to find the horse, so that we can note the band change. When a horse disappears during colic season, we put in even more effort to find the horse.

So this mare, Tiffany, went missing from the huge Hardy/Cisco band during colic season. What welcome news it was to find her with the old boy Sarge! Good for you, Sarge!! Some of you may remember that Sarge lost his entire band when he had severe hoof damage from VSV last year. He has fully recovered.

Picture by Rick Blandford

We also do believe that colic season is over for this year. Hooray!