January 9th

Goodmorning supporters and visitors. We are doing some diversionary feeding today and we want to ask for your cooperation. Diversionary feeding is a management tool when horses are making a habit out of being in a dangerous area. The word diversionary says it all, we are trying to divert them in order to keep them safe.

It will work, because the horses are hungry right now, because resources are scarce again and our full feed program has not started up yet. We were hoping that grasses might come up after the recent rains and rain is predicted for this week as well. 🤞

We need your help however. There is a lot of public today because it is a beautiful day to be out and about in the forests. You are welcome to watch volunteers do their work, they may be dropping hay, walking bands from the danger zone to the feed spot, or they may be fencing. Please slow down and drive safe.

Please do not go into a feed spot if you find one. Please stay on the perimeters of where horses are eating and 50 ft away from any horse. Otherwise we will get very confused horses of who’s dropping hay and who’s not.

We want to explain that feeding wild horses is NOT allowed by the public. It is only done by our SRWHMG in coordination with AZDA and USFS, when resources are too scarce, or in this case, when we want to divert them away from a dangerous area.

This temporary measure is nesesary because the snowfencing alone was not a big enough obstacle for them. One horse jumped the guardrail and crossed the road. We are currently looking for that horse. He is a beautiful grey (white) stallion named Poppy. Please call our hotline if you see him in the Butcher Jones or the rolls area. (480) 868 9301

We are worried about him, because this area is not wild horse friendly. It is very busy with ATV offroading everywhere and the only access to water is on a small crowded beach. He may also jump the fence to get back to his family and then he will be on the road. We need to find him and get him back safely to his family. Any help finding Poppy is appreciated.

Please be kind to our volunteers, they are giving up their Sunday to work their butt off to keep horses safe. (There are a few unfriendly people around who yelled the b word at our volunteers)

Thank you so much. SRWHMG.

January 10th 8:41 PM

It’s been a long day, but Poppy is back on the safe side! Will post some video’s….