Our First Horse

Bill was kind enough not to mention it, but I abandoned him and the livestock again - for 28 days this time! I was in Arizona with my older son and his family for the birth of their second child. Our granddaughter, Bailey Brooke, was born May 11. She’s beautiful - of course! I really enjoyed spending time with my son, daughter-in-law, grandson and granddaughter, but it was hard being away from my family back in Tennessee (2-legged and 4-legged) for that long. I even missed Valentine’s birthday, on May 18.

I’m back now, and although some people may scoff, I know my babies missed me. Okay, the dogs were more open about welcoming me back, but Moonshine and Valentine were happy to see me too, I could tell. It was something about the look in their eyes, and the way Moonshine tucked her head into my shoulder and just left it there.

That, and probably that Bill instituted a no-spoiling policy while I was gone, without my approval. Our friend took care of them while he joined me in AZ for 10 days, and she does NOT spoil her horses - so she didn’t spoil ours either. No sleeping inside all night with hay and water, they just stayed out in the pasture all day and all night, with about 10 short minutes in the stalls in the morning for oats. I think her no-frills way of caring for our horses (perfectly safe, by the way) appealed to the lazy side of my dear husband. I have to admit, it’s sort of appealing to me too - I haven’t had to shovel poo since I got back - but I still don’t like the idea of them being outside all night long. It still makes me nervous. But we’ll see. Paranoia may win out in the end.

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A horse owner in Arizona regularly fields calls from concerned drivers over what appear to be dead horses in his pasture. Although this wasn’t always the case, a population boom now locates his pasture smack in the middle of the city and all these city folk aren’t familiar with seeing resting horses. If you’ve ever seen a colt resting/sleeping, you know it looks a lot like a dead horse, all sprawled out and still. Bob Eggers rescues, raises and sells horses so there is a sign on his fence with his phone number on it. Apparently he also gets complaints about abused or malnourished horses, too. Since he rescues abused horses, they often look poor when he first gets them, causing concerned drivers to call the Arizona Department of Agriculture. The State responds to every complaint but has never found abuse or neglect.

Although we once lived two miles from this particular pasture, we know live in rural Tennessee. Many of our friends and neighbors have horses here but that isn’t the case in suburban Arizona. As the city expands its reach into rural areas, the impact goes far beyond inconvenient complaint calls from well-meaning city folk. People complain about the dust horses kick up, the smell of manure, the flies, etc. Kinda like moving next to an airport and then complaining about airplane noise. And then all the land is developed so horse owners need to trailer their horses to the horse trails. It’s sad to see.

A friend of mine sent me a link to the Arizona Republic article for this story (click the link for the original article).

Photo above by hayleyho.

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We’ve been visiting our newborn grand-daughter in Maricopa, Arizona these past few weeks and one day while driving near town Mikki saw a small band of wild horses. Over the course of the past few weeks, she saw these wild horses a few times. Finally, today, Mikki’s dad was able to snap a photo.

The term “wild horses” is used frequently here in the Phoenix area to name developments, a casino, gas stations, etc. but now it makes more sense to me. There really are wild horses still in Arizona and throughout the west.

Wild horses are believed to be descendants of horses brought here by Spanish conquistadors between the 1400’s and 1600’s. Today, there are thought to be less than 25,000 wild mustangs in the U.S. The horses we saw in Maricopa are managed by the Gila River Indian Community. Approximately 2,000 horses exist across their 370,000 acre reservation near Maricopa.

I like to think the west still has some wild in it and for us these horses prove it.

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