TO THE EDITOR:
I have to respond to the Letter to the Editor that Jerald Pardue wrote in last Sunday’s paper.
I don’t know where he gets his information, but mine came from Caroline McCoy herself. She wrote a letter to the New Mexico Livestock Board; combine that with her own writings on Facebook and you can get a pretty good idea of what she did, in her own words. She actually called her husband to get him to lock up their dog so she could lure the horses onto her property… why not just shut the gate to keep them out? As far as danger to motor vehicles from horses, check out the statistics. There are a lot of accidents from deer and elk, I don’t know of any from the horses.
You can call these horses “wild” or feral or whatever you want; the folks in Ruidoso call them wild and want them left alone. The small acreage that they roam on was canvassed and the folks consulted, and they were all for the wild horses being turned loose again.
The most ludicrous part of this letter was the part that said our fat, wild stallion, Blaze, jumped a five-foot fence and bred a “blooded” mare. If this fat, 30-year-old stallion jumped a five-foot fence, every hunter jumper trainer in the surrounding four states would be trying to catch him and breed him to every mare they could get their hands on. Plus, we have proof in the form of that white, medicine-hat filly, born this year, that he wasn’t the daddy. The vet came by and said, “Sorry, Blaze didn’t father that one.” At age 30, who knows how long he’s been shooting blanks.
As someone who has jumped her brains out fox hunting, I can tell you it takes a helluva horse to jump five feet. I did own one once. Someone else jumped him over five feet, but it sure was a nice feeling for me knowing that no matter how I put him into a fence, he could always bail me out. This horse never refused me a fence.
We folks that want the horses turned loose realize that the cattlemen want them adopted out or euthanized. I could understand that position if we were talking about Nevada, where the wild horse problem has grown out of control because of the lack of herd management. We’re only talking about 30 horses in Ruidoso. These horses are not threatening any cattle grazing country. They are helping the tourist industry. Can’t we all get along?
Folks, if you want to argue a point about my writing, please have a copy of my article in your hand when you do it and don’t wait two months to make your point. Thanks.
Kathy Kolt
