SAND WASH BASIN - MUSTANG ECO TOURS - ON LOCATION

Range Watch - Herd Watch - Reserve Design... Gabriele and Aragon

On May 4th I hauled Aragon to the Sand Wash Basin to combine a ride on the WIILD HORSE RANGE with the event of the Sombrero Roundup and a dream, that Nancy Roberts and I had formulated some time ago. She wanted to take her now 4 year old Sand Wash Mustang Odakota back to HIS range and hoped for Aragon and me to accompany her. So it goes, we met at the Maybell Fairgrounds to set up and familiarize the horses with each other. We were joined by Craig Downer and Karen McLain.

We went for a ride that evening overlooking the Yampa valley in wonderful sunshine. In the night Odakota remembered his wild beings and hollered all along to see whether he could raise them in the West. The next morning a bit croggy, we saddled up and got to the range to ride 7 mile ridge, whinning and looking at mustangs in the basin greeting the crisp morning.

Odakota, (roundup 2009) now 4 with Nancy Roberts, riding his home range.

We took all day and rode to the river and then back to the Sand Wash Entry where we met Melody Perez and the Mustang Trailer and several other wild horse lovers who had come "Bird-Watching" on the range

We rode till the late afternoon....What an epic experience!!!! The next day we went to join the painters, speakers and advocates at the MALL (not my favorite place) and speak to the Jerome Fox (BLM)

The Public during this event was both local and tourists, since the Sombrero roundup was occuring in Maybell. Still we took advantage of receiving and gaining more public exposure for the WILD HORSE Range.

Day 4 was get up at 5:30. Several other advocates camped on the range and we met and took one vehicle to search out the individual bands and locations. The weather was wonderful and as our eyes searched the horizons cameras clicked and binoculars identified Picasso and his newborn foal "Schatzi". There is always a good amount of walking and hiking involved which makes for so much fresh air and good lungs. And the melancholia gets her chance too.

Nancy Roberts, Karen McLain, Rachel Ann Reeves

We walked in silence hoping that the roundup of the Sand Wash Basin Wild Horses will be cancelled. Bait trapping is considered and fertility studies are in the works. We plan on work days in August for clean up and hope for some funds from the BLM Director's challenge to afford advocates to come out and help. For now it felt like the range was alive and even though the sheep had completely depleted the forage the horses looked healthy and safe.

There is a shadow on the range collecting Barbed WIRE....