RUNNING WILD
sive Rodeo-Chediski Fire in 2002 opened up a lot of formerly dense ponderosa pine forest on the Mogollon Rim. Hutchison has photographed 230 individual horses there.
“These horses have managed themselves for 400 years,” said Robin Crawford, who helps lead a group of horse enthusiasts that is trying to ensure the Forest Service maintains the herd.
Now, the activists fear the herd will die out because the Forest Service is considering management options that could include a removal into captivity. The agency plans an environmental study of management options, possibly taking several years.
How many is too many?
Previously the foresters determined that the 19,000-acre horse territory had been abandoned and was free of horses before the 2002 fire, but advocates went to court to ensure they wouldn’t remove the alleged “trespassers” without first writing a new plan that involves the public.
Foresters don’t want to eliminate the herd, Apache-Sitgreaves spokeswoman Marta Call said, but they worry about crashes on State Route 260, and they must consider competing demands on forage and water.
“We have to decide how many that territory can support,” she said.
The answer is fewer, said Kathy Gibson, a 53-year-old vegetable seller who grew up on a Heber-Overgaard ranch. Her brother runs cattle, and her mom lives on a third-generation homestead. for horses on a dry forest, she said.
“The tradition of ranching and the food source it provides for our country are very important — no less important than a horse,” she said.
She doesn’t mind seeing a few horses, but the more the herd grows and expands outside of its designated territory, the more it will take resources from others.
Like Forest Service officials, she remembers a time before the fire when no horses roamed the area. Some then crossed over from the Fort Apache Reservation, she said, while others escaped backyards or were freed by owners who couldn’t afford to feed them during the Great Recession.
“We know for a fact that these horses are not wild horses,” she said.
Part of history?
As everywhere in mustang country, the facts surrounding these horses are hotly disputed.
The Hebers include many horses with facial features that appear to indicate Spanish bloodlines and a direct link to the explorers who first brought horses into the area on expeditions in the 1500s and 1600s, according to herd advocate Crawford.
“They’re a part of history,” she said. “They’re a part of the land. They’ve been here since day one.”
Others say there’s a link to early cattle ranchers who moved livestock into Arizona from Texas.