Jack – last of the breed

BOULDER» Boulder’s last horse standing is nearing the final roundup.

Meet Jack — while you still can — the lone vestige of the days when Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks department owned a modest string of horses enabling the city’s park rangers to patrol its rugged western terrain and go where wheels, or just men and women on two feet, might not so easily tread.

But now, as far as city hall is concerned, Boulder is strictly a one-horse town.

Jack, a sorrel quarter horse once nationally ranked as a team penning horse in rodeo competition, is several years into retirement.

While still cared for by the city, this nag is permanently off the clock.

“It was his old age, his service and he is a welltrained horse, so it was also having the staff available that had the skill set to ride him appropriately and safely had gone,” said Open Space and Mountain Parks spokesman Phil Yates. “We wanted to ensure that we take care him.”

Life these days for Jack is a mellow affair, quartered at OSMP property on Cherryvale Road, being fed by city rangers and receiving nearly daily doting visits from Boulder cultural resources manager Julie Johnson. She grew up around horses on Colorado’s eastern plains.

Johnson and Jack? They have an understanding.

“I brush him and feed him and love him. I’m his mommy,” Johnson said.

Moments later, she confided, “He does like women. He prefers women.”

Yates said rangers on horsebackhavealonghistory with Boulder’s Open Space program. Mart Parsons,oneofMountainParks’ first rangers — that was a separate city department until 2001 — patrolled Flagstaff and other areas along the mountain backdrop on a horse named Spider.

More recently, the city’s horses were utilized by the Open Space Board of Trustees, and even the Boulder City Council, for tours of the city system.

The city has also deployed its horses for mounted patrols of its 45,000 acres of open space to form long-range assessments of its properties and other agricultural management work. City maintenance crews have saddled up on its western trails to trim hazardous branches from its byways or inspect the land for the presence of invasive species.

Jack was purchased by the city in 2001, at that point joining a crew that included equine colleagues Yankee, Banner and Poco. They were phased out years ago, and Jack’s working career for OSMP wound down in about 2013.

Yates said Jack plows through about two tons of hay each year, along with supplemental grain, at an annual cost to the city of about $2,000. That price tag includes Jack’s veterinary bills and grooming.

While Jack enjoys his golden years, Boulder County Parks & Open Space is still putting up to six horses through their paces.

“I have two park rangers and two parks deputies who patrol on horseback,” said Bevin Carithers, ranger supervisor for the county, adding the county’s use of horses has been fairly consistent for at least the last 20 years.

“Our rangers own their own horses, and we provide a place for them to care for them, and funds for them to care for them, and time for them to care for them while they’re at work.”