top of page
Search
Writer's pictureJeanette Mahoney

Wild horses and where have we been?


I'm sorry you haven't heard from me in awhile. We had been staying with our son and his family in Moriarty, New Mexico. Then our daughter, who lives in Federal Way, Washington had surgery and needed some help. So we left the trailer in our son's yard and flew up to Seattle, WA to help her out. I thought I would be gone just for a few day so I didn't take my computer but it turned out to be almost four weeks. But she is doing good now and we are back in New Mexico. We will pick up our travels where we have reservations. Monday we leave for Las Cruces, New Mexico for two weeks.


I wanted to tell you about the wild horses we found just north of Albuquerque.


Wild Horses - ever since I spent time photographing wild horses in Utah 3 years ago, I have been on the outlook for wild horses as we travel around. We drove up to Placitas, NM which is just about 30 minutes north of Albuquerque. I had read there used to be wild horses in this area but now it has become a "burb" of Albuquerque and there aren't many horses left up there. I did a little more research and it looked like there might still be about 25 of the horses left. So we drove around the area and finally found three horses walking down the road.


They turned into some trees that was someone's driveway with a gate. On the outside of the gate near the road was a big water basin and also it looked like they had feed bowls for them. I hopped out of the truck and was taking photos. They didn't seem to mind I was there. When they were done eating they started walking toward me and I quickly moved behind the truck. One horse went to Bill's window, that he had shut in time, and wanted treats. The horse was still watching me for treats too. After I got back in the truck the horse was just standing in the street so we left hoping it would get out of the road.


It was so fun to see them. But they were in danger. It seems that people were feeding the horses so they came to where there was easy food. There are fences around many of the properties so the horses had to walk in the road. This didn't seem like a good situation to me.

I also found some wild horses in Arizona about 6 weeks ago, up by Scottsdale. These horses were on an Native American Reservation. They also were walking around yards and on roads. But the Natives fed them out in the open spaces in the winter and looked after them. If you look at my photos carefully you will see one has a rope on her neck. I was told the natives would be taking care of it. So it wasn't as dangerous for these horses but still not ideal.

Several years ago I went out on BLM land near Salt Lake City Utah and saw wild horses. They were away from homes and had lots of room to roam. I think the BLM people help feed them in the winter but not in a personal way. The horses were not interested in the photographers for food and just kept eating grass. But I got wonderful photos and a love for seeking out wild horses. If you would like to see a slide show of the horses in Utah check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_SUnoz9h3U&t=4s






Comments


bottom of page