New Foal Born to Palomino Mustang

Mustang Documentary Promo -Shorter and New Footage!

Judy Taylor songwriter singing background "Blackhorse"

Birth control for Wild Horses?!

The only reason man is meddling with the wild horses & burros on public lands is that someone wants those lands for something else. It is an old-fashioned range war, with this part of America's true heritage on the brink of extinction. Birth control is not the answer. It is yet another intrusion into these horses' lives.

Let's hear it for the Intl Fund for Horses on Facebook!

Save Butterflies and set the Wild Horses Free

In an article in the North County Times, San Diego Supervisor Horn comments on the butterfly

This would be an opportune time for him to "ride in on a white horse" and lead the Board to declare the Coyote Canyon Wild Horses a Heritage Species. Please call him and write to request this. You may wish to use the information below.

kat

(Kathleen Hayden)

To contact Bill Horn, San Diego County Supervisor, go to his website

From the Coyote Canyon Caballos d'Anza...

Coyote Canyon Caballos D’Anza

Wild Horses in Coyote Canyon

Colonial Spanish horses were first introduced in the coastal regions of San Diego County by settlement of missions and ranches. Further inland, Cahuillan pictographs of mounted Spaniards at the north end of Coyote Canyon (La Puerta) indicate the early expedition of Pedro Feges in 1772 or Anza in 1774.

This band of Native Americans made their home in Coyote Canyon and surrounding mountains along the NE Corner of San Diego and bordering Riverside counties. Long before western settlement a tributary of Coyote Canyon was named Horse Canyon after the residing herd. During the infamous 1851 Garra revolt and raid on Warner’ Ranch the Cahuilla’s added more cattle and horses to their Coyote Canyon herd. According to author Lester Reed, at the turn of the century, Native Wrangler Carlos Moreno referred to the canyon horses as “The Ranch Ramuda”. Bands of the herd ranged east and west as far as Beauty Mountain, into the surrounding mountain valleys. Indian ranching continued in the Canyon until the late 1970’s when California State Parks expanded the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. The Federal designated Coyote Canyon herd area was

“zeroed out” and the herd was removed by the park in 2003.

8-8-05 California Wild Horse and Burro Program Manager wrote .. when BLM began revisiting the Coyote Canyon horse situation, I also worked with the Solicitor's Office who said BLM erred in relinquishing control of the Coyote Canyon animals to State Parks) The Desert Protection Act pretty much gave control of the land and all resources to National Park Service
With the assistance of Ca. Senator Bill Morrow and BLM, Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza rescued four of the Wild Stallions with the BLM promise that the herd could be restored pending acquisition of an alternative sanctuary. In January 09 rare wild Spanish Foundation mares were acquired to re establish, maintain and preserve a unique gene pool.

As the only Heritage Herd of Spanish Horses in San Diego County, and the last wild herd in Southern California, the Coyote Canyon horses represent a vanishing element of our local pioneering landscape.

In 1971 Congress unanimously declared that wild free roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West that enrich the lives of the American People” They were to be managed on their historic and native ranges. By operation of law they are wild life. (Supreme Court seminal case, Kleppe v. New Mexico)

The Coyote Canyon herd’s vital legacy of cultural, educational, aesthetic, and inspirational benefits should be maintained as our heritage and the inheritance for future generations as supported by other Heritage Acts.

With the 1966 passage of the Nation Historic Preservation Act “Congress declared that the spirit and direction of the Nation are founded upon, and reflected in, its historic heritage.”

“Knowing and Understanding our Past, Inspiration For Future Generations, and providing a sense of roots and identity define motives for historic preservation. This includes Identification, documentation, curation, acquisition, protection, management, rehabilitation, restoration, stabilization, maintenance and reconstruction, or any combination of the foregoing activities. Grants are available to accomplish these noble endeavors

The Coyote Canyon Herd was sequestered for more than two centuries from other wild horse herds. As a result they evolved into a distinct population segment. This evolution meets the criteria of both state and federal statutes of endangered and threatened species.

“Endangered” when its survival and reproduction in the wild are in immediate jeopardy from one or more causes, including loss of habitat, change in habitat, over exploitation, predation, competition, disease, or other factors; or

“Rare” when either: Although not presently threatened with extinction, the species is existing in such small numbers throughout all or a significant portion of its range that it may become endangered if its environment worsens; or

The species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range and may be considered “threatened” as that term is used in the Federal Endangered Species Act.(ESA) This mandates emergency designation of native habitat known as ACECs,

BLM settled the native/feral argument stating "The issue of a wild horse as an invasive species is moot since the 1971 WHBA gave wild free-roaming horses "special" status based on their heritage of assisting man settle the "west”

Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza was formed as a 501 3c to acquire a permanent local herd area as sanctuary on Federal lands. This was overlooked in the 1971 inventory of their native ranges resulting in a defective land management plan.

The currently vacant Beauty Mountain grazing allotment and contiguous BLM acquisitions would correct the defection. It is within the newly passed California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act.

The 1945 California Riding and Hiking Trail, California’s first legislated trail, lies within the allotment and provides the public opportunity to experience this unique part of Ca. History. Restoration of the Coyote Canyon horses and the Trail would maintain both historic icons NOW, and into the future.

Please request that your Supervisors declare the Coyote Canyon Horses our local Heritage Herd to support an emergency NEPA to expedite restoration. Their support for the Beauty Mountain Sanctuary would facilitate multiple agency participation in land planning for the Beauty Mountain Sanctuary. Please also contact Senator Feinstein and Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, Congressman Issa and Ca. State Senator Hollingsworth. Request an emergency NEPA for a permanent Coyote Canyon Wild Horse Herd Management Area.

On behalf of our wild horses, thank you.

For more information or donations for feed and vet care please contact

Robert and Kathleen Hayden

PO Box 236

Santa Ysabel, Ca 92070

CCCDA@znet.com

Phone 760 782 3340

501 5

Look at the Hunk on the Cover of horse.com!

Look who showed up on my copy of horse.com that arrived in the mail today; "Chief" a Sulphur Springs Stallion at Return to Freedom, American Wild Horse Sanctuary

horse.com is looking for a new face to plaster on their catalog cover; and you can win a $2,500 gift certificate if they choose your horse.

Could this be the dad of the two foals recently born to the Sulphur Spring Mares in Borrego Springs? Hmmmm?

Woman Walking Across Country with BLM Mustang!!

Walking with Winnie chronicles the walk across America from Massachusetts to California of a woman and her BLM Mustang!! Amazing story!! Must read!

Ad For Mustang Gentling Contest Found in Facebook Side Bar!

Mustang Gentling Contest, or, as the ad puts it, "Extreme Mustang Makeover". These contests, held all over the country, are sponsored by The Mustang Heritage Foundations whose stated mission is to increase the adoption of mustangs to good homes.

The goal of the "Extreme Mustang Makeover" event is to promote adoption through show casing Mustangs' value and trainability through competition.

I have a feeling all are out to make a fast buck on OUR Mustangs!! Why do mustangs have to have an event to show case their "value"?? and trainability through competition??!! Mustangs are supposed to be wild horses!!

As Sioux elder Lame Deer once said to the white man: "...for bringing us the horse, we could almost forgive you for bringing us whiskey. Horses make a landscape look more beautiful." Is that not enough value? It scares me to think some cowboy thinks he can make a quick buck by breaking the spirit of our mustangs!

Ok, that off my chest...you now know that I believe mustangs belong back in the wild...however, it is good to see a nonprofit organization trying to do something about the mustangs the BLM has rounded up (often illegally and out of the public's eye) and kept in holding pens for years!!!

It was also interesting to see this ad in the Facebook margin!

Mustang Documentary in the Making

Southern California's Last Wild Horses Stolen from YOU!!!

"Wild horses, they're dragging them away, the animals that blazed our trails, fought our wars, the very meaning of "don't fence me in" - still roam the west. They live on public lands, or in parks, mostly in Nevada, but some make their home in California.


Unfortunately, all of them are now under siege, victims of federal and state polices that have very possibly pushed them to the brink of extinction. These policies involved unchecked roundups of mustang populations, waged with virtually no media scrutiny. In fact, by the time you read this, all over the country thousands of will horses will have been purged from their homes on the range.


This is our heritage. I'm talking about our American birthright: as the Sioux elder Lame Deer once said to the white man: "...for bringing us the horse, we could almost forgive you for bringing us whiskey. Horses make a landscape look more beautiful."


On March 18, 2003, that landscape was diminished when the last remaining wild horse herd in Southern California was rounded up and taken from it home in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.


Here's what happened:


With the appropriate lies in place - the official government "reports" said that the horses were starving and dying of thirst and, therefore needed to be rounded up - a contractor from Utah (who makes his living by rounding up wild horse on public lands all over the West) arrived with his team, his truck, his chopper and his portable corrals and chutes to set the trap. Up went the corridor through which the horses would make their last run, funnel that would lead them to the dead end of metal fencing, forming the small pen into which thousands of mustangs had been chased before. With many more to follow.


From outside the park, the chopper hovered over the horses. The animals were in Coyote Canyon, their home - a stunning and rugged riparian region cut by a rare and sparkling desert treasure, a stream. The chopper dropped altitude and slowed and began to harry the wild horses out of the canyon, up the ancient path used by Indians, Spanish explorers, cattlemen, wildlife, hikers, drivers of jeeps and ATVs.


As the band neared the trap, the chopper peeled off and then came the dispatch of the contractor's Judas horse - a sad name for the sad gig that was this horse's lot in life - and it galloped before the oncoming band, leading them toward the trap, peeling off like the chopped just before the mustangs ran into the dead-end makeshift corral.


Panicked, the horses shifted this way and that, running into the fence, the stallions occasionally leaping above the pack and, trying to break out, battering the smaller horses in their frenzy. After a while, the mustangs tired and lowered their heads. Sorted by gender and numbered with chalk (there were 10 stallions and 19 mares), the wild horses of Coyote Canyon, the last herd of wild horses in Southern California, were then funneled into trucks and hauled out of the desert....." (Deanne Stillman, 111Magazine, March 2006)


The public was not allowed to witness this stealing of our wild horses by a government charged with their protection! Robert Hayden, (President of the Coyote Canyon Caballos d'Anza) author of the above slide show, was allowed in to photograph (NO VIDEOS ALLOWED!!) after he protested vehemently with the government guards, and questioned their motives for hiding from the public their supposedly righteous motives.


This slide show has never been seen by the broad public audience, whose horses were stolen by their government that March day in 2003. Did you know Southern California had a beautiful band of colonial Spanish Mustangs living in the Anza-Borrego Desert? Did you know they were removed on a lie by our government? Look at those horses...do they look starving?? Did you know all the mares were pregnant and that they were removed from this California desert and shipped to South Dakota, gave birth and all of the foals died in the cold!! All of them!!


Four of the stallions are still here in Southern California, in the care of Robert and Kathleen Hayden under the auspices of the nonprofit Coyote Canyon Caballos d'Anza. It is their hope to be able to return these stallions and the Sulphur Springs mares, recently rounded-up in Utah and brought here by the Coyote Canyon Caballos d'Anza, to a natural habitat in Beauty Mountain.

Help Needed for Coyote Canyon Stallions

This just in from the caretaker, Kathleen Hayden, of the four Coyote Canyon stallions. Apparently, there is one more stallion from the 2003 round-up that escaped "the knife"...

"Is someone out there who will sponsor feed for the old Coyote Canyon stallion up at Carl's in Anza? Carl is old, out of money, out of feed, and has the old stallion and ten old mares that deserve to live out their life with full bellies. One young gelding would make a nice riding horse once he gets meat on his bones. I encourage all of you to write to your supervisors, Dianne Feinstein, and Mary Bono Mack to request the formal recognition of the the Coyote Canyon Horses as So. Ca.'s HERITAGE HERD for restoration . The Beauty Mountain range area is between Chihuahua Valley and Anza. It is Federal land, previously, the Coyote Canyon Herd native range that was overlooked in the 1971 herd area inventory.
Please let me know if you will participate, either by contacting the electeds or donations. Thanks to those that have."
kat

Coyote Canyon Mustang Stallions

Today we went to photograph the last remaining four stallions of the Coyote Canyon wild Mustang herd, now living in Warner Springs.

In 2003, the Anza Borrego Desert State Park (California) rounded up its herd of 29 wild mustangs, all considered to be descendants from the horses brought over by the Spanish in the 1500 and 1600s. These four beauties are the last remaining stallions from this Coyote Canyon herd. The have been in the care of Kathleen Hayden of the Coyote Canyon Caballos d'Anza, a nonprofit group whose goal is to return these horses to a free-roaming lifestyle in the BLM land near Beauty Mountain.

This group recently brought in 12 Sulphur Springs Mares from a BLM round-up in Utah. These Sulphur Springs Mare and Coyote Canyon Stallions will form the foundation herd of wild Spanish descendant Mustangs to be return to a natural habitat in Southern California!

The Fallbrook Film Factory is sponsoring a documentary that is being produced about these and other Mustangs of the United States, and we were there today to film these magnificent stallions! As you can see, they were not shy about strutting their stuff! Breathtakingly beautiful!

National Wild Horse Adoption Day

Wild horse and humane animal advocacy groups from across the nation are joining forces to encourage the American public to consider and act on the adoption of a wild horse or burro. A goal of 1,000 adoptions has been set for the first National Wild Horse Adoption Day to be held September 26, 2009.

The current system of relying on a flat adoption market to sustain BLM mustang removal programs is an increasing drain on federal resources, (what, is it taking too much money away from bailing out mismanaged, failing insurance companies!?) according to BLM spokesperson Jerry Reynoldson, who appears to be a pretty good wild horse advocate

The goal of 1,000 horses adopted through a National Adoption Day program could create a savings of more than $1,500,000 for the BLM (and probably mean a hefty bonus for some top BLM executives!)

This seems like an admirable idea, but I don't think adopting and then domesticating a wild horse or burro is the same as going down to the local pound and adopting a stray dog or cat, which many people also tend to mess-up and under estimate the time and commitment involved. Both noble endeavors, but Joe Public needs to educate himself first to what he's getting in for, or the horse/burro (dog/cat) will just end up neglected, abused, back at the shelter/slaughter house and worse....

Wild Horse Documentary Proposed