TO THE EDITOR:
Many of Kathy Kolt’s, articles I enjoy, and agree with, however the articles about the stray, and, or abandoned horses, is a different matter.
I would like to address a few of her points. First Kolt, repeatedly in her articles refers to them as wild horses. They are not wild horses, in any sense of the word, they are stray, or feral horses, from the Mescalero Apache Reservation. Kolt, makes it sound as though Caroline McCoy, called the NMLB, asked how could she get rid of the wild horses, they told her they would have to be on private property, and that she then got on her four wheeler, penned them, and called the NMLB to come get them. The truth actually was a little different.
When she first called the NMLB, she saw them in the Hwy 48 right of way and right on the highway. She called and asked if something could be done about what was a dangerous situation. They told her they would have to be on private property, for them to come get them.
It was two months later, that she penned them. When she penned them, they were on her private property. She simply led them from one part of her private property to a fenced area on her property, using her four wheeler, and hay, which was absolutely legal!
These horses had been repeatedly, causing her misery. She could not safely ride on her own property amongst them. She had a mare at the time. This stallion, on the bunch would be hanging around wanting to breed her mare. The stallion jumped a 5’ fence, on one property in the area, and bred a blooded mare, the guy was furious, and I don’t blame him.
Kolt, says in one of her articles, “Shouldn’t McCoy be arrested for what she did?” For what, a legal, responsible act! Perhaps Kolt is OK with the accidents between the horses and a vehicles on Hwy 48? Judge Bryant based his decision, as they had “come from” public property, a public road in the area. They were not on the road, when she penned them, they were on private property, sure they had crossed a public road to get there, but they were not on it.
When McCoy, called the NMLB, she insisted, that the horses not be sold at auction, but adopted out. She also insisted that, they record her call. She also repeated this wish at a later date. For her legal, responsible act, Caroline McCoy, has been threatened, harassed, called every ugly name in the book, on social media. Caroline McCoy, is solid citizen, educated, a life time horse lover, that only wanted the best for the horses, she certainly has done nothing to deserve the ugly, treatment, and libelous statements that have been made about her. I have seen the area where the horses, were running, I find it unbelievable, that there is anyone that thinks that loose horses, in this area, of small, private property acreages, and an unfenced Hwy thinks this is a good idea.
One of the arguments, that the so called wild horse advocates use is that, DNA testing, shows that they go back to the horses of the Iberian peninsula, that were brought here, by the Spanish. What a joke that is. There are three million, Quarter Horses, in the United States, everyone of them goes back to the Iberian horses. If I understand it right, if the case is settled the way, the advocates would like it to be, if you are a property owner, and have feral horses on it, there will be nothing you can do. So much for private property rights.
Kolt writes about the government trying to micro manage the lives of We the People. That’s a true statement. Government is trying to micro manage us. If this case goes the wrong way isn’t this the ultimate in micro management?
Jerald Pardue
