ron

Ron Roubidoux

Sulphur Stallions
Survey
Western Horseman article
Wild Horses of Uah's Mountain Home Range

Ron Roubidoux Sulphur Stallions.

Every horse breed has its stories of legendary stallions, stories handed
down from generation to generation by word of mouth, stories immortalized
in print, and stories held sacred in the hearts of individuals who
possess or have lost a favorite stallion. The lovers of Spanish Mustangs
are no exception, and of all horse enthusiasts, are probably the most prone to hold and cherish such stories.

Since I started investigating Spanish Mustangs, I have come across many
such stories whether they be in a BLM herd like the Kigers that is mistakenly touted to be "the most pure herd of Spanish Mustangs existing in the wild today" or the authentic Spanish Mustangs found in the Spanish Mustang Registry. The books I have read, like The Mustangs by 2. Frank Dobie, carried fascinating, romantic stories of legendary stallions of the past. Probably the most touching stories, to me, are the ones I have read in the SMR's Annual or were told to me by SMR members I have met. Then there are the untold stories that I can only see in the gleam of a person's eye, when they are showing me their favorite stallion, a gleam that comes from pride found deep in the heart. I may not be told, but I know there is a story there. Every owner of such a horse has a story, and that is as it should be.
As for me, my heart lies with the Sulphur horses. During the past couple of years I have devoted much of my time to the horses, to a point that they have almost become an obsession, and in doing so I have collected my own personal stories of the Sulphur stallions. Though some of these stories have a good outcome and others don't, I would like to share them with you.

When I first found out about the Sulphur horses, and decided I wanted to adopt some from the BLM, I was told of a slate grullo stallion that was caught with a bay mare, dun yearling filly, and dun filly foal. At the time, the BLM in Utah made their comparisons of the Sulphur horses with the Kigers of Oregon, and they said this stallion was as good if not better than anything in the Kiger herd. They raved about him, some saying he was two horses in one. I have yet to meet a BLM man that has seen him, and who doesn't have something good to say about "the blue stallion". They branded him number 596, and later returned him to the Mountain Home Range. They felt he was much too good a horse to put up for adoption, and wanted to keep him with the wild herd. This was during the summer of 1992

In mid-July, the ba ,mare and two duns were taken to a satellite adoption held at Logan, Utah, along with forty horses from other herds. I was there with my eye on the grullo's three. No one else knew the story of the mare and her two foals, nor was there much interest, specifically in Sulphur horses, at the time. I noticed that a number of people had the dun yearling written down as their first choice, probably because of her color.At the BLM adoptions, people wanting horses must be pre-approved, and when registering for the adoption, they write their name on a ticket that is then dropped into a bucket. The tickets are later drawn from the bucket, one at a time, lottery style, and the name is called out. The first name called gets first choice of one horse and so on until all the horses are gone. Each horse has a tag tied to its neck with a number on it. The person whose name is called, calls out the number of the horse he wants, unless it has already been taken, in which case a second, standby choice can be made. All I wanted were horses number 595, 597 and 594 and there were over sixty people registered to draw for horses.

The BLM man drew the first name, which starting with Ron, and stammered on the last name starting with an R. I called out "Roubidoux, 595!" The dun yearling filly was mine. The bay mare, 594, and her foal, 597,

were being adopted as one, since the foal was too young to be separated from her mother. Eight names later and she still hadn't been taken. Then my daughter's boy friend's name was called and we got the mare and foal.
I later found out that 596, his mare, and the dun fillies were all blood typed. I telephoned Dr. Gus Cothran in Kentucky, and he confirmed that the two fillies were the daughters of 596, the grullo stallion. All four horses also had good Spanish markers.
After the adoption, my family and I went on a vacation. As soon as we returned home I telephoned~the BLM to find out if they still had 596, as I wanted to get some pictures of him, but they had taken him back to the range the day before. I was able to get copies of a few pictures that the BLM had taken, and that was all.
The following winter the BLM was capturing horses on the Mountain Home Range and almost caught 596 a second time, but he jumped one of the trap wings, taking a couple mares with him. That was the last time he was seen. I hope he is still alive and well on the mountain, and someday I may be privileged to see him there for myself. Every time I go to the Mountain Home Range I hope to see him, but it is like looking for a needle in a haystack, because of the heavy stands of pinion-juniper. Maybe that's why they call the Mountain Home and Indian Peak Ranges of the Sulphur Herd Management Ares, the Needle Range.
The same winter, the BLM captured 140 Sulphur horses. They had taken an aerial count, and there were too many horses on the range. The herd needed to be thinned out, so they decided not to be choosy as far as putting horses back, as was done'with 596. Everything caught would be put up for adoption. Of the horses, there was a little of everything including a few exceptional stallions. I went to the corrals, where they processed the horses, to get some pictures. At the time they had only caught about half of the 140 horses. While there I saw a three year old grullo stallion that had leg stripes I could hardly believe. He was the one I wanted. There was also a five-year-old dun stallion with unusual markings. On each side of his dorsal stripe was another stripe from his withers to his croup, giving him the appearance of having three stripes along his back. He also had the shadowing of shoulder bars making the cross. He was apparently captured, when young, by so called "cowboys" who ride down wild horses, rope and catch the slowest, and proclaim their conquest by cutting off half of one of the horse's ears. The tip of one of the three striped horse's ears was cut off, which greatly marred his appearance. The practice is illegal and isn't common, but does occur on the Sulphur Herd Management Area.
The adoption I attended that year was held in March, at Spanish Fork, Utah. Only half the horses were there. The other half were to be taken to an adoption site in southern Utah the following month. The three year old grullo stallion was there along with the three striped dun, which I really wasn't interested in, as his conformation was not the best. There was also another exceptional looking zebra dun stallion that had leg stripes equally as good, if not better than the grullo stallion. He was a much better looking horse than the grullo and three striped dun as far as conformation goes. His number was 705, and though he caught my eye, he was five years old, and I wanted a younger horse.

I overheard a lot of other people there talking about him, but his age must have made them leery also,

I was loaded for bear at that adoption. By then I was wise to how things worked, so I recruited friends and relatives to apply for the adoption, in order to increase my odds. I had ten people there, including myself, registered for the draw. There were close to 70 Sulphur horses and over 200 people registered. It all went to my head, and I wanted as many horses as I could haul out of there. My first choice was the three-year-old grullo stallion, second was a yearling grullo stud colt, and last was 705. There were also four nice looking mares that I liked. All my friends were telling me to go for 705 first, but I still wanted a younger stallion.

As it turned out, someone else chose the three-year-old grulla stallion first. Next went the yearling stud colt. The tensi on was killing me, and then a friend's name was called. I told him to call out 705. He did, and I had the zebra dun stallion. I was lucky to get out of there with him, as I didn't get any of the mares I wanted either. During the loading, of all the horses, 705 was the only one to try and jump one of the loading gates, breaking it down. I was wondering what I had gotten myself into, but I had my stallion. I was thinking as I drove home, it was just by chance that I got him.

Months later, I was talking to Gale Bennett, from BLM, who is probably their top horseman. He told me that when they captured Chance, because he was such a good looking horse, they were thinking about putting him back on the range, but since they needed to thin out, decided to go ahead and put him up for adoption. Lucky for me they did.

As far as I'm concerned the Mountain Home Range lost one of it's best stallions, but the mountain's loss was my gain. A little over a year later inspectors from the Spanish Mustang Registry came to Utah to inspect my horses, along with a few others. All of my horses were accepted. Now 705 has a new name and number, Sulphur's Chance (SMR 2028). The ultimate compliment was Emmett Brislawn taking such a liking to Chance when he saw him, and commenting to me, a number of times, how he would be willing to load up Chance to take back to his Cayuse Ranch. Last summer when my family and I visited the Brislawns, and when given a tour of their ranch, Josie mentioned how she thought Chance would look good there. Her comment made me feel good, and I suppose if I wasn't able to keep him, that is where I would want him to be. I know he'd be safe and well taken care of.    During the inspection, I overheard the owner of a Sulphur mare asking Bill Stabler, which of the stallions would he recommend breeding the mare to, and Bill said Chance.
I'm not the owner of a huge herd of Spanish Mustangs, as I often dream of being, but I'm very happy with the horses I have. Though I'm small in numbers, I feel I'm big in quality. I think I have had more than just luck.
I've tried to keep track of the horses that caught my interest. The three year old grullo stallion was taken home by the man who adopted him. An hour later, the horse ran head-on into a chain link fence, broke his neck and died. The same man adopted a dun yearling stud colt, with beautiful leg stripes, at the adoption in southern Utah. I had gone to the BLM corrals prior to the adoption and noticed the same horse, with his markings that stood out from the rest of the horses. I wasn't able to go to the adoption, so I wanted to at least get pictures of the horses. Months later when Phil Sponenberg came to Utah from Virginia, to inspect and evaluate the Sulphur horses, I took him to see that same horse, and in just a few months he had developed into a real beauty. A year later, I found out he became very sick from a testicular infection and had to be put down.
Not too long ago, I drove to Salt Lake City to where I knew the three striped dun stallion was kept.    I wanted to get some pictures of a Sulphur horse with the tip of it's ear cut off. It saddened me because he was being kept in a very small pen with some other horses, and he was in very poor shape. He wasn't near the same horse I had seen before.
One Sulphur stallion that had a bad start on the range, and is now better off, is one adopted by Steve and Jolene Hart of Liberty, Utah. He is a pure black stallion they got at the Logan adoption, where I adopted by first three horses. He was a two year old with a bad scar on his face, a large lump on his hip and was generally poor looking. No one else wanted the little stud horse, so the Harts adopted him. A year later they took him to a veterinary clinic where a .30 caliber bullet was removed from the lump on his hip. Steve figures someone took a shot at him, aiming for his head. The bullet grazed his face leaving the scar, and lodged in his hip. leaving a gristly lump.    When Phil Sponenberg looked at the Hart's black stallion, he described his as an elegant Spanish type horse, and rated him excellent. Phil commented on how it was too bad people can't see past the scars. Unfortunately the stallion didn't meet the SMR inspectors' criteria, and wasn't accepted. I guess the poor horse still can't shake his bad luck. I've shown photos and video of him to other SMR inspectors, some like him and others don't. Gale Bennett told me, they didn't put Chance back on the Mountain Home Range because there are more like him in the Sulphur herd. Of course, I don't think there is another stallion like Chance, but I've spent quite a lot of time on the mountain looking for horses, and I have seen some mighty nice stallions, so I won't argue with Gale.
I do enjoy owning and raising my own Sulphur horses, with the anticipation of having my own little horse breeding business, but there is nothing like going to the Mountain Home Range looking for the horses in the wild. There is a spirit of freedom there that can only be found in wild horses of the open range, and I love the experience of occasionally being a part of it.

What saddens me are the many adopted Sulphur horses I have seen, neglected and not properly cared for. Some are left to a dull existence, alone in small pens, and look as if any spirit they had is altogether gone. I know some have gone to the auction where they were sold for meat. Because of this, I have decided to work toward building public awareness of the Sulphur horses and their uniqueness. This, along with educating people about the horses, will hopefully fill the adoptions with those who better understand the horses, and have a greater appreciation for them. Hopefully there will be a brighter future for many of the Sulphur stallions, and there will be stallions from which many stories will be built upon.

ADOPTED SULPHUR HORSE SURVEY

Ron Roubidoux December 1994

Because of my deep interest in the Sulphur horses, and wanting to know what was happening to the horses after being adopted out, I decided to conduct a telephone survey to satisfy my curiosity. For two years I have wanted to organize an association for individuals who have adopted the Spanish type Sulphur horses, hopefully to maintain the integrity of the breed in the private sector, and help build more interest in the horses. Since the Pryor Mountain and the Kigers each had an association,.I felt there should be one for the Sulphur horses also. I sent out over 140 letters, asking for others who might share my interest, and received very little response. Being persistent, I decided to try again, and use my survey to possibly find others who shared my interest (survey question number ten). Knowing the BLM's limited ability to follow up on the horses after adoption, I was ..also hopeful that the information I received may be of some help to them.

I requested a list of people who have adopted Sulphur horses over the past years, and received one from Larry Maxfield: With this list I phoned information to get all the phone numbers I could, but found many of the adopter's numbers unlisted. Out of a list of 274 horses, I was able to follow up on 155 ~horses, and make 110 interviews with different individuals. Some people adopted more than one horse while others had friends or relatives adopt horses for them. Knowing this helped me to limit some of the telephone
calls I had to make. I also decided not to telephone people who lived in states not adjacent to Utah.

Questions one through five actually Pertain to the individual horse (155 horses), while six through eleven are directed to the person I am interviewing (110 interviews). A few people offered more than one answer to questions six and eleven therefore there are more than 110 comments to these questions. I split the survey into adoptions prior to 1991 and after 1991. There were no adoption& during 1991. I did this because I sensed a difference in attitude
in people that adopted horses during the different time periods. This was not done for questions six and eleven. Also, horses adopted before 1991 were adopted out of the Delta corrals, and not from the satellite adoptions that have taken place since then. I threw in question number nine because it is something that I would personally like to see happen, and I wondered how others would feel about it.

SURVEY AND RESULTS

Question #1. Do you still have your Sulphur horse?
2

A. Did you sell the horse?
B. Did the horse die?

Results - before 1991
9 - yes (24%)
25 - no, sold (68%)

3 - no, dead (8%)
- after 1991_
73 - yes (62%)
34 - no, sold (29%)
10 - no, dead (8.5%)
1 - no, turned back to BLM (.5%)

Total -

Question #2.

Results - before 1991
   19' yes (51%)
   18 .... no (49%)
- after 1991
   62~'- yes (53%)
   56 - no (47%)

Total - 81 - yes (52%)
74 - no (48%)

82 - yes (53%)
73 - no (47%)

Are you (did you) using (use) the horse?

Question #3. Is the horse halter broke?

Results - before 1991
   26 - yes (70%)
   11 - no (30%)
- after 1991
   90 - yes (76%)
    28 - no (24%)

Total -

116 - yes (75%) 39 - no (25%)

Question #4. Can the horse be handled (hooves trimmed, etc.)?

Results - before 1991
   23 - yes (62%)
   14 - no (38%)
- after 1991
   79 - yes (67%)
    39 - no (33%)
Total -

102 - yes (66%) 53 - no (34%)

Question #5. Are you (were you) satisfied with the horse?

Results - before 1991
   28 - yes (76%)
   9 - no (24%)
- after 1991    ~ -.
   106 -yes (90%)
    12 - no (10%)

Total -

134 - yes (86%) 21 - no (14%)

r
Question #6. Why did you choose to adopt a Sulphur horse?

67 (57%) Wanted a horse (mustang).
17 (14%) Liked color of horse ~ - ,
10 (8.5%) Wanted a Spanish mustang.
9 (8%) Liked looks of horse (conformation and attitude).
7 (6%) Wanted Spanish mustang, color, and liked price.
5 (4%) Good price.
3 (2.5%) Adoption location (availability).
(None of the adopters from 1991 and before chosen their horse solely
because it was a Spanish mustang)

Question #7. Did you know the Sulphur mustangs?

Results - before 1991
   8 - yes (36%)
   14 - no (64%)
- after 1991
   62 - yes (70%)
    26 - no (30%)

horses

were spanish

Total -

70 - yes (64%) 40 - no (36%)

Question #8. Did knowing the Sulphur horses were Spanish mustangs influence your wanting to adopt the horse?

Results - before 1991
3 - yes (14%)
19 - no (86%)

Total -

- after 1991
33 - yes (37.5%)
55 - no (62.5%)

36 - yes (33%) 74 - no (67%)

Question #9. Knowing that the Sulphur HMA's~Mountain Home Range is one of only three areas in the United States that is being managed for Spanish mustangs by the BLM, would you be in favor of having it made into a National Wild Horse Range?

Results - before 1991
   18 - yes (82%)
   2 - no (9%)
   2 - no comment (9%)
- after 1991-
   78 - yes (89%)
   2 - no (2%)
   8 - no comment (9%)

Total - 96- yes (87%:)
4-no (4%)

10 - no comment (9%)
(The no comments needed more information and would have to think
about it)

Question #10. Would you be interested in joining an organization that's purpose is to help protect, preserve, and promote the Spanish type Sulphur horse?

Results - before 1991
   4 - yes (18%)
   18 - no (82%)
- after 1991
   37 - yes (42%)
    51 - no (58%)

Total -

41 - yes (37%) 69 - no (63%)

Question ~11. Do you have any comments on how the BLM could improve their adoption program?

72 - No comment (satisfied with program).
12 - Inform adopters on possible difficulties in training mustangs. 6 - Make compliance checks before and after adoptions. 5 - Provide more information on training.

5 - Adopt out younger animals.
    3 - BLM too rough and aggressive on horses at adoptions, get horses worked up.
2 - Wants better notification of adoptions.
2 - Preserve Spanish type, keep blood lines pure.
    2 - Government agencies should quit messing things up, they create too many regulations.
1 - Have more horses available.
1 - Wants waiting list to adopt horses, first come first serve.
    1 - Give Spanish mustang groups prior access to horses when adopted.
    1 - BLM needs to be more interested in horses as national treasure and not a commodity.
I - Wants closer adoption sites.
    1 - Wants better corral arrangement at adoptions so horses can be viewed better.
    1 - Allow running and roping horses by public to catch them so BLM wouldn't have to.
    1 - Doesn't agree with horses over running range competing with cattle and sheep.
1 - Waste of tax payer's money to feed horses.

PERSONAL COMMENTS

Since I don't feel qualified to evaluate the results of this survey, I won't, but I do feel there is a more positive trend in the adoptions after 1991. As I mentioned before, I feel there is a difference in attitude in the adopters during the two time periods. Though the horses being Spanish mustangs didn't seem to influence the adopters wanting Sulphur horses as much as I would have expected, I feel this will be a greater influence in the future. The fact that the horses are unique as a rare breed, have a unique coloring, and are just good looking horses will probably make a big difference. I was actually surprised at how little people know about Spanish mustangs. This is where educating the public would help make people more aware of the horses, and help themto more appreciate the horses for what they are.

I was very pleased with the positive response to making the Mountain Home Range into a National Wild Horse Range. Those against it were of the type that offered, what I felt, were the negative comments in question number 11.

Overall, the majority of people were satisfied with the horses and the adoption program, which speaks well for what the BLM is doing.

Western Horseman Article
December 1995

From 1830 to 1855, historic events left a treasure hidden in the remote Mountain Home Range of southwestern Utah. These events occurred along the Old Spanish Trail, an early trade route linking Los Angeles, California, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Annual caravans packing woolen blankets from New Mexico and fur from Utah traveled to southern California to trade for Spanish horses and mules. When the fur trade era ended, the Old Spanish Trail also became the most notorious route for horse thievery in the history of the Southwest.
    In the year 1840, California witnessed the most spectacular and daring horse stealing raid ever to take place. This was led by Ute Indian Chief Walkara and mountain man Peg-leg Smith. Rancheros and missions from San Luis Obispo south to San Juan Capistrano and east to San Bernardino were plundered of their best horses. The thieves drove more than 3,000 Spanish horses over Cajon Pass into the Mojave Desert.
• The angry Spanish, in pursuit of the stolen horses, stopped at a desert spring for water and rest. Walkara and some of his men, who were hiding in the willows, slipped from cover, secured the Spaniards' horses, and rode off into the desert. Left on foot, the Californians were picked up the following day by more of their men in pursuit. Advancing onward they succeeded in recapturing about 1,200 of the slower horses. The rest weresafely driven into Utah.
    In 1847, Miles Goodyear, after selling his trading post where Ogden, Utah, now stands, went into southern California to legally purchase 230 of the best Spanish horses he could find. Following the Old Spanish Trail along the route of the huge herd of horses stolen 7 years earlier, he drove his herd into southwestern Utah through Mountain Meadows, across the Escalante Desert, north to the Sevier River, and beyond to the Salt Lake Valley.
    Virtually thousands of Spanish horses were driven across the Old Spanish Trail into Utah, legally purchased or stolen during numerous raids by Chief Walkara. There is no doubt that many of these horses escaped into the mountains of southwestern Utah to become what we now know as Spanish Mustangs.
    Over the years the wild horses multiplied, and after settlement of the southwestern Utah area, ranchers released larger domestic stallions to try to increase the size of the smaller Spanish Mustangs. These and their crosses remained in the valleys where the ground was easier on their softer hoofs, Then came the mustanging years from the early 1900s through the 1950s, when most of the horses were captured out of the valleys or shot and sold for meat. But a herd of small Spanish horses survived on the Mountain Home Range, where capture by mustangers was next to impossible because of the dense stands of pinon-juniper and the rough terrain. These horses retained many characteristics of the Spanish Sorraia, primitive ancestor of the Iberian Saddle Horse (Jenneo from the Golden Age of Spain.
    Authorities believe it was the Sor-raia or a Sorraia-Iberian cross that Christopher Columbus first brought to the Caribbean Islands, and that were later crossed with Andalusian chargers on the first colonial stud farms of the West Indies. A special characteristic of the Sorraia breed is its extreme har-diness-the horses are able to survive on very poor vegetation while withstanding extreme climatic conditions. Their primitive coloring is also unique; they are all line-backed duns and mouse-gray grullas, with horizontally striped legs, dark-tipped ears, and two-color manes and tails.
    After 1971, when Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, the Mountain Home Range became part of the 142,800-acre Sulphur Herd Management Area, under jurisdiction of the Bureau of

Land Management's Beaver River Resource Area of the Richfield District. It was not until the mid-1980s that the BLM recognized the special characteristics of the wild horses on the Mountain Home Range.
    Well over half of the Sulphur homes are line-backed duns and grullas; the rest are a mixture of bays, blacks, chestnuts, sorrels, and browns, typical color variations in a Spanish mustang herd. As a whole, the Sulphur horses of the Mountain Home Range possess a good history of possible isolation and probable Spanish descent, a definite Spanish appearance, and though a complete blood-typing evaluation of the herd has yet to be done, many of the horses carry markers that strongly signify Spanish ancestry. These are all qualifications necessary in determining whether horses are Spanish mustangs.
    Although the BLM also manages the Pryor Mountain herd of Montana and Wyoming, and the Kiger herd of Oregon as Spanish-type horses, only the very small Cerbat herd of Arizona and some Sulphur horses of Utah's Mountain Home Range have been recognized by the Spanish Mustang Registry as true Spanish Mustangs. The Pryor Mountain horses do show a strong Spanish influence, but they show some physical traits of the draft horse. Not only do the Kigers show traits of other breeds, but the area where they originated does not have a good history of Spanish horse introduction.
    What makes the Sulphur horses unique is that they are probably the only horses in existence representing the Spanish horse of colonial southern California. They are descended from the most recent, in historical time, introduction of pure Spanish horses into the wild.
    Since the discovery of the Sulphur homes by the BLM, the National Mustang Association of Newcastle, Utah,has been a generous contributor to the BLM for habitat improvements, water developments, and grazing allotment purchases on the Sulphur Herd Management Area to benefit the wild horses and wildlife.
    Now the National Mustang Association is spearheading a project to have the Mountain Home Range made into a National Wild Horse Range, and public support is needed. At present, there are only three such ranges in the United States Such action would help secure the protection, preservation, and perpetuation of the Mountain Home Range Spanish Mustangs.
    The Mountain Home Range is located 50 miles west of Milford, Utah, the first mountain range southeast of Great Basin National Park. The north end of the range almost reaches Uta~ 21, about 15 miles south of Garrison, Utah. It then runs south along the Utah-Nevada border.
    For more information about the Sulphur horses, contact:
    National Mustang Association, 1st and Main St., Newcastle, UT 84756; 801-439-5440.
    For more information about Spanish Mustangs, contact:
    Spanish Mustang Registry, Route 3, Box 7670, Wilcox, AZ 85643; 602 384-2886.
    To support the creation of a National Wild Horse Range for the Mountain Home Range Spanish Mustangs, write to: Bureau of Land Management, Beaver River Resource Area, 365 S. Main St., Cedar City, UT 84720.

The author has been superintendent of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources' Mantua Fish Hatchery for 24 years. He is a student of western history, especially the fur trade era, and has adopted and breeds sulphur horses

WILD HORSES OF UTAH'S MOUNTAIN HOME RANGE
Ron Roubidoux March 1994

INTRODUCTION

The Mountain Home Range lies at the north end of the Bureau of Land Management's Sulphur Herd Management Area, which is located in southwestern Utah. Craig Egerton, Supervisory Range Conservationist for the BI~'s Beaver River Resource Area, says that most maps show the entire north and south running range as the Needle Range, but local people break it up into the Mountain Home Range on the north and the Indian Peak Range on the south. The highest elevation in the Mountain Home Range is 9,480 feet whereas Indian Peak has an elevation of 9,790 feet. The forty mile long Needle Range is covered with heavy stands of pinion and juniper, and is located east of the Nevada-Utah border. Hamblin Valley is on the west, Pine Valley is on the east, and the Escalante Desert is on the south. Antelope Valley, the Burbank Hills, and Great Basin National Park are on the north.
Elevations of the surrounding valley floors are between 5,000 and 6,000 feet. From the dry, lifeless hardpan of the valley floors the land gently rises over native grass covered flats to sagebrush covered benches, and finally to the pinion-juniper covered mountains. Benches and mountains are broken up with many rugged canyons and draws. Low areas are generally sandy while the mountain slopes are very rocky. The Sulphur Herd Management Area is approximately 142,800 acres, and covers the entire Needle Range. Most of the area is unfenced.

Gus Warr, Range Conservationist for the BLM's Beaver River Resource Area, says there is an imaginary line between Vance Spring and Sulphur Spring which divides and separates the horses in the Sulphur Herd Management Area. The area between these springs also divides the Mountain Home Range from the Indian Peak Range. Both Craig and Gus have said that most of the Spanish type horses are found north of this line on the Mountain Home Range. The BLM is therefore managing this area specifically for the Spanish type horse. The herd management area gets its name from the Sulphur Springs. There are three springs in all, North Sulphur Spring, South Sulphur Spring, and Sulphur Spring. Many other springs are found throughout the Needle Range.

According to D. Phillip Sponenberg, DVM, PhD, of Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine and Technical Coordinator, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy: "The three main tools for evaluating horses (for Spanish descent) are the history behind the individual horse, the appearance of the horse, and the blood-type of the horse." During August 1993, Dr.Sponenberg came to Utah and inspected thirty-four Sulphur horses that the BLM had adopted out to various individuals. His subsequent evaluation states: "The Sulphur Herd Management area horses that are present as adopted horses in the Salt Lake City area appear to be of Spanish phenotype. The horses were reasonably uniform in phenotype, and most of the variation encountered could be explained by a Spanish origin of the population. That, coupled with the remoteness of the range and blood-typing studies, suggests that these horses are indeed Spanish. As such they are a unique genetic resource, and should be managed to perpetuate this uniqueness. A variety of colors occurs in the herds, which needs to be maintained. Initial culling in favor of Spanish phenotyp~ should be accemp!ished, and a long term plan for population numbers and culling strategies should be formulated. This is one population that should be kept free of introductions from other herd management areas, as it is Spanish in type and therefore more unique than horses of most other BLM management areas." He later states: "The horses removed during the last few years from the Sulphur Herd Management Area are Spanish in type. The fact that the horses were so consistently Spanish type is evidence that these horses have a Spanish origin," This evaluation therefore establishes the Sulphur horses as Spanish in appearance.

Concerning blood-typing, Dr. Sponenberg's evaluation states:
"Gus Cothran has blood-typed a small number of these horses, and is struck by the frequency of antigens known to be of Spanish origin. While further sampling would be useful, he is confident that this population will ultimately prove to be one of the more consistently Spanish of feral populations so far studied." E. Gus Cotbran, PhD, Director, Equine Blood-Typing Research Laboratory, University of Kentucky, sent me a letter where he writes: "The Sulphur herd in general appears to have strong Spanish links. However, I have not done an intensive analysis of these horses yet. The southwestern Utah horses look to be a very interesting group and I hope I have an opportunity to do more work with these horses." He also told me, during a telephone conversation, that he needed more blood samples to do a proper evaluation of the Sulphur horses.

Glenn Foreman, Public Affairs Officer for the BLM's Salt Lake District, planned on a voluntary gathering of adopted Sulphur horses in April 1994, where blood would be taken from horses and sent to Kentucky for more blood-typing. This would have fulfilled the number of samples required for Dr. Cotbran to make a final evaluation of the horses. Unfortunately, due to a glitch in the BLM's budget, higher powers in the BLM canceled the funding for Glenn's project. Glenn told me that this set back was temporary, and he eventually wants to have the work done. Although the evaluation for blood-typing still needs to be completed, the work that has been done thus far looks goodThis leaves the history of the horses to be established. Again, Dr. Sponenberg writes in his evaluation: .Detailed historical background of the Sulphur Herd Management Are? horses is not available. The limited amount of history available points to
population being an old one, with limited or no introduction
this . The
of outside horses since establishment of the population.
foundation of the herd is logically assumed to be Spanish, since
this the only resource available at the time of foundation."
My purpose in writing this paper is to try to establish a background history for the wild horses of the Mountain Home Range, and logically reinforce their case for purity of Spanish descent.

LITERATURE

The earliest reference to horses being in the southwestern Utah
area is from the journal made by Father Silvestre Velez de
Escalante during the 1776 Dominguez-Escalante expedition. Horses
ere referred to were those taken on the expedition. Herbert E.
h the
Bolton has an article entitled ,,Pageant in the Wilderness" in Utah Historical Ouarterl~ in which he mentions that: "How many mules and horses the wayzarers had is notstated, but there must have been numerous extra mounts." Escalante also refers to "the horse herd" in his journal, which would also suggest many animals. On October 2, while in an area south of Delta, Utah, the horseherd wandered off due to thirst, but was recovered. On October 8, in an area north of Milford, Utah, Escalante writes: "We traveled only three leagues and a half with great difficulty, because it was so soft and miry ever~zwhere that many pack animals and mounts, and even those that were loose, either fell down or became stuck altogether." These were the only remarks concerning their horses during this time, but they were in areas fairly close to the MountainHome Range. At this time they also encountered a very bad snow storm with accompanying strong winds and cold temperatures. Some horses possibly escaped, but there is no record of it.
Gale Bennett, Wild Horse Specialist for the BLM's Richfield District, also has an interest in the Mountain Home Range's Spanish type horses. He has been looking for books about their history. Three months ago he introduced me to a book that I feel holds the key to where these horses came from. The book, Old Spanish Trail, by Leroy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen was first published in 1954, and is again in print from Bison Book Company. The Hafens extensively researched the history of the Old Spanish Trail, which was the main trade route linking Santa Fe, New Mexico to Los Angeles, California from 1830 to 1848.According to the Hafens: "The Old Spanish Trail was the longest, crookedest, most arduous pack mule route in the history of America. Envisioned and launched in the late 1700s to serve as a connecting link between two of spain's colonial outposts, the Trail reached its short- lived heyday in the 1830s and '40s, when annual caravans packed woolen blankets from New Mexico to trade for California horses and mules." Literally thousands of horses were driven over this trail from southern California to New Mexico. Part of the route led across the Escalante Desert, south of the Needle Range.
Many horses were obtained by men such as Antonio Armijo who was actually the first to start legal trade over the trail in 1830. Other accounts mentioned in the book were of John Rowland leaving Cajon Pass with 300 horses on April 7, 1842, followed by 194 New Mexicans, on April 16, with 4,150 animals legally acquired;
James P. Beckwourth with 1,800 horses in 1844; and Joe Walker with four or five hundred horses and mules in the spring of 1846.
Much is discovered in 01d Spanish Trail's chapter on "Horse Thieves" where the Hafens write: ,,Although the value placed on wild horses was generally low, the tame stock in use at missions and ranchos and the mules, produced by careful breeding, were more highly prized. Loss of tame animals by theft was always a matter of concern. Soon the more irresponsible traders and certain adventurers found it easier to obtain livestock by raid than by trade. By 1832 raids on the herds of missions and ranches had become so frequent and devastating that Californians were alarmed." The Hafens give examples of many illegal raids, but the most spectacular one was that of Pegleg Smith and Ute Indian chief, Walkara, in 1840. Apparently, raids on California horse herds were many during this time, and Ute Indian raids did not cease until Walkara's death in 1855.
In the 1954 book Wa!kara, Haw~ of the Mou~ by Paul Bailey, more detail is writteninto before, during, and after the 1840 raid in southern California. The book mentions Walkara's part in the Indian slave trade and how he was feared by lesser tribes without horses.
Robert M. Denhardt tells of the 1840 horse raid in his book, The Horse of the Americas. His rendition of the story is quite good. He states that though the thieves initially got away with 3,000 horses, the Californians recaptured 1,200. He also writes: "As a rule, stolen horses were sold in Utah or taken directly to Santa Fe." He writes of Miles Goodyear, in the spring of 1848, driving 230 legally acquired horses from southern California into Utah. Goodyear travelled across the Escalante Desert north to the Sevier River. Of significance in Denhardt's story is a statement that can probably be applied to all the herds of horses driven across the Old Spanish Trail: "When first leaving

California, they (the horses) must have taken every opportunity to bolt for the thickets and any other likely-looking chance which might mean freedom."
These books document well how Spanish horses could have populated the southwestern Utah area. I have found no references of any other breeds of horses coming into or establishing a population in the area before settlement.

INTERVIEWS

I first interviewed Gale Bennett because of his familiarity with the Mountain Home Range through his work for the BLM since 1973. Gale was the first to tell me of the Pegleg Smith-Walkara story. He had read about the story in the book Claw of the Hawk. He later came upon the book 01d Spanish Trail, which confirmed his theory of where the horses came from. Gale believes that the horses were brought into the area by the Ute Indians. Not only from Walkara's exploits, but also from the Ute's hunting and
gathering pine nuts in the area. During helicopter flights,.Gale
has seen circular rock pits, 35 to 50 feet in diameter, and in a
a row of He says these were use by indians to cook the
pinion pine cones from which the pinion nuts were used for food.
He has also seen many arrow head chlppings in the area.

I asked Gale if there was a difference in the Sulphur horses compared to those horses from other herd management areas. He said that they are a little bit smaller and more intelligent; they are afraid of people when first caught, but gentle down quick and accept people quicker than horses in other areas; and they are built stronger than other horses and have nicer heads. I asked if there were many dun factor horses in the other herds in Utah. He said, "No, that's one definite difference, at least in that bunch, is the coloring, of the buckskin (line backed), the dun, and the grulla, and that, we do not have in any other areas."
Glenn Foreman had told me that the Sulphur horses were wiser than horses in other herd management areas and were therefore harder to catch. I asked Gale about this and he said, "I think they are in an area that's harder to trap more than they are hard to trap. They're in an area where there's juniper- pinion.trees just so thick. The terrain, the timber, the country there is just definitely harder to trap horses in."
Craig Egerton told me, he noticed that when the horses are first caught, branded, and worked on, they sulk, lay down, and actually make a whimpering sound. This, to me, seems to be a typical reaction to captivity of an animal that exhibits a truly wild

behavior. He also said that he heard that mustangers and local people left the horses alone because of their color and uniqueness. He told me of four Pryor Mountain horses that were put in with the Sulphur horses years ago. The Sulphur horses wouldn't accept them and the Pryor Mountain horses ran alone, at least for the years that the BLM could keep track of them.

Kent Gregersen, from Marysvale, Utah, first went into the Mountain Home Range in 1944, when he was fourteen years old.
Kent became a mustanger in later years and caught many horses out of the area. He did a lot of mustanglng in Nevada and Utah, where he caught and sold many horses. Kent recognized there was something unique about the Mountain Home horses, and after catching some, had them inspected by Bob Brislawn, founder of the Spanish Mustang Registry. These horses were confirmed as Spanish and were registered in the registry. Kent said that Bob Brislawn traded three horses for a buckskin-colored, line-backed Mountain Home stallion he had caught. This stallion was named Doby. Dr. William Stabler, president of the SMR, wrote to me and said he was the one that inspected Doby for registration. Marye Ann Thompson, registrar for the SMR, sent me some photos of Doby, and he looks typical of the Mountain Home horses. Kent told me that the only horses that he ever kept during his mustanglng years were those from the Mountain Home Range: "They were a more intelligent horse, hadmore speed, and more cow savvy."

Kent says that from the late 1930s to the early 1950s there were from 3,000 to 4,000 wild horses in the area, and most were caught by mustangers for the meat market. He said that many ranchers put domestic horses in with the wild ones to try to increase the size of the horses through cross breeding, but: "The little mustang studs would kill the domestic' stallions, and those that survived didn't adapt. They got sore footed, got down in condition, and winter killed. So, there has been a retention of the old original blood lines." I asked Kemt if the domestic horses could have been those that were caught out in the early days, and the Spanish type horses, which were isolated in the mountains, were left undisturbed. He said, "Definitely." He also said the domestic horses would not mix with the Spanish type horses.

In Minersville, Utah, I interviewed 81 year old Cheryl Carter, 74 year old Daisel Davis, and 63 year old Nole Wood. Cheryl Carter said that the horses have been there all his life, and knew of no other outside horses being brought in. Daisel Davis started going into the Mountain Home Range when he was 19 years old. As far as he knows they are all Spanish mustangs, and there have never been any other horses mixed in with them. He said there have always been the buckskins and other colored horses, and a few pintos were there but they aren't there anymore. He said, "The horses have been, more or less, where nobody else is." Nole

Wood also said that the horses have been there all his life, and specifically mentioned them as being buckskin with a black line down the back and having a black mane. He knew of no ranchers turning horses in with the Mountain Home horses, and felt they were pure. He said, often, that they are smarter than other horses. Nole also said his father told him that they have always been the same color, and in Pine Valley there was a thousand head of horses at one time, but the Spanish type horses were up in the hills all by themselves.

What few people I was able to talk to in Milford, Utah, who knew anything about the horses, thought they came from the Dominguez- Escalante expedition. There is a park in Milford with a display telling about the expedition, so I'm sure that is how these people got the notion of where the horses came from.

Lad Davies is a rancher whose land is south of Garrison, Utah, in Hamblin Valley on the northwest side of the Mountain Home
Range. He has been there for 63 years. He tells of draft horses being turned out with the wild horses before 1950, but none being turned out after 1950. This, he says, was an attempt by ranchers to increase the size of the wild horses. He believes that at most five percent of thewild horses bred with the domestic horses, but any cross breeding has never shown in the horses. He said, "I'd say these horses are ninety-five percent straight mustang, and I think you can go there and eyeball them, and someone that was knowledgeable could pick every one of them out, and that's my opinion." He went on to say, "These tame horses here all ran in the valley and all the wild horses ran in the mountains because the tame horses feet wouldn't stand up in the mountains, but they did mix a little, not a lot."

When I interviewed Gale Bennett, I asked for his opinion of the horses in the Sulphur unit as far as the Spanish ancestry goes? He answered, "I think these horses are the closest thing to the Spanish horses there are in the United States or in this continent, in my opinion." On the other hand, I interviewed Carl Mahon, a retired BLM employee from Montecello, Utah, over the telephone, and he didn't think there were any full-blooded Spanish horses left.

I have found, during interviews and discussing Spanish type horses with various people, that much is based on both assumption and personal opinion. Some people think a group of horses are of Spanish descent while others think not. Everyone has their own opinion, which varies as much as there are different colors in Spanish horses. It is therefore understandable that besides a history, the appearance and blood-type of the horses in question are important. Also, "in my opinion," one needs to weigh the evidence and put logic to work.

OBSERVATIONS

Gus Warr invited me to go with him on a horse trapping project in the southern part of the Sulphur Herd Management Area. The trap consisted of metal corral panels with long wings of burlap material extending out from the corral in a V shape. A helicopter was used to push the horses into the trap. Five attempts were made to drive groups of three to five horses into the trap. Only one attempt was successful, and five horses were caught during the entire day. I gained a greater appreciation for the difficulty in catching the Sulphur horses. The weather was very cold and windy with frequent snow f~urries. I al~o gained an appreciation for the work that the BLM men have to go through to catch horses, and their frustrations when projects are not successful. They tried to trap horses at a different location the following week and came out completely empty handed. Seeing the difficulties in trying to catch horses nowadays confirmed, to me, how the wild horses of the Mountain Home Range could have been impossible for the mustangers of years past to completely catch or kill out.

Craig Egerton told me that there are probably horses in the Sulphur herd that men have never seen before. During my few travels through the area I have found it difficult to find or see many horses, due to the dense stand of pinion and juniper trees. Craig also said that during the last time he was out to the Sulphur Herd Management Area, he saw a herd of horses on the hills to the west of the Mountain Home Range across Hamblin Valley. He thought these were probably the horses they had been wanting to catch, and the commotion the BLM was making in the area, had driven the horses completely out. Craig said the horses would probably return after things quieted down. Elk will do the same thing, when there is any human impact on an area they are in, they will move completely out. ThJ. s again shows the wild nature of the Sulphurhorses.

Another unique characteristic of the Sulphur horses, as pointed out before, is the color, and especially the prominence of dun factor horses in the population. Of the horses that were adopted out during 1992 and 1993, I could account for 148, though there were a few more. I was told that this was a good representation of what is in the total population on the Mountain Home Range. Out of the 148 horses, there were 22% buckskin, 18% dun, 16% grulla, 14% bay, 11% black, 9% chestnut, 8% sorrel, and 2% brown. (The colors are BLM terminology. The buckskins were actually line backed horses with black points, and the duns were various forms of red dun.) Over half were dun factor horses, 56%, which shows the strong influence of this color in the population.

At one time I thought the dun factor Spanish mustangs in the

United States were actually Spanish Sorraias. I wrote to Dr.
Phil Sponenberg about this, and he wrote back, concerning the Sorraias: "They are a remnant of a primitive type of Iberian horse. It was not Sorraias that were brought over to the New World, but rather it was related Iberian types. As a result, any
horses in the New World with these line backed colors are not
descendants of Sorraias, but are probably cousins of some sort or another.,, The dun factor coloring with the right conformation is very characteristic of Spanish type through descent from the
Iberian horse. I have seen pictures of Sorraias invarious horse
books, and many of the Sulphur horses I have seen look just like
them, both in color and conformation. In describing the Sorraia,
Encyclopedia of the HorsA states: "It is a true 'primitive' having characteristicsof both the Tarpan and Przewalski and being extremely hardy it is able to survive on the very poor vegetation available, whilst withstanding theextreme climatic
conditions." Exactly the same description can also be said for
the wild horses of the Mountain Home Range.

I looked at several Nevada mustangs that were being held in the BLM's Delta corrals. These horses looked to have some Spanish blood in them. They were small, had low set tails, and a sloping croup. There were many bays and blacks and a few dun factor horses. They had common heads, thouqh, and were generally course looking. The wild horsesfrom the Mountain Home Range, on the other hand, have stronger Spanish type features and appear to be a higher grade horse. I have read references of Chief Walkara and his Utes stealing the finest Spanish horses out of Southern California. If there is any truth to this, and these horses escaped from the Utes to eventually populate the Mountain Home Range, that could explain the better features of the Sulphur horses.
9

I wondered what would attract horses to the Mountain Home Range if they did escape from Spanish horse herds being driven across the Old Spanish Trail~ Gus Warr told me that the Needle Range probably had more water than any range west of Cedar City. Gale Bennett also told me that of the routes going north to the Sevier River, Pine Valley also had the most water. This could have been a possible route for horse traders such as Miles Goodyear to have driven their horses on their way to Northern Utah and Fort Bridger. Undoubtedly, Ute Indians drove horses through Pine Valley also.

Most people I interviewed said the Mountain Home Range horses won't mix with domestic or other types of horses. Last summer I put a friend's mare, which was daughter of an adopted Rock Springs, Wyoming mustang, with my Sulphur stallion and mare with her foal. My three horses would not have a thing to do with my friend's mare and actually avoided her.

Present day description of Spanish mustang conformation is very specific. I have seen that the Sulphur horses may sway from this slightly. In some horses I see a wider chest, larger chestnuts, and longer ears. I wonder if the Spanish horse of southern California, later to be captured by Ute Indians and eventually escaping to the wilds of the Needle Mountain range, may have developed certain characteristics of their own. On the other hand, they may still carry the same characteristics of the old southern California, Spanish horse, or be tainted with the blood of domestic horses. In Dr. Sponenberg's North American Colonial spanish Horse UPdate. Auaust 1992, he writes: "The original Spanish type was more variable, including some horses with higher set tails, broaUer cl~ests, and rounder confo~lation generally." In Cunninghame Graham's Horses of the Con0uest he writes:
"Forced to rely upon themselves for their protection, all the descendants of the Spanish horses throughout America developed characteristics that in the course of centuries rendered them very different from the Spanish type. Possibly by reason of being obliged to think and to rely upon themselves, their heads grew larger and their ears, always strained to catch the slightest sound, grew longer and more mobile than those of horses stable-fed and cared for from earliest years."

If behavior is any indication of difference in breeds of horses I certainly see this in my Sulphur horses• In the seven-acre area that I kept my three horses and my friend's mare, I also have a five year old buck mule deer. My horses had closer contact with and acted more like the deer than they did my friends horse. At any noise or movement, they erect their heads with ears extended just like the deer. Of course, this is probably due to their former existence in the wilds of the Mountain Home Range where predators like coyotes and mountain lions are prevalent. The foal I have, though, which was born in captivity, acts just like the other horses.

There are no confirmed southern California, Spanish horses le~t to make comparison, so determination of Spanish lineage is subjective. Positive proof is impossible, and again the horses are at the mercy of personal opinion.

CONCLUSION

Historical evidence points to the wild horses of the Mountain Home Range as being descended from southern California Spanish horses. These horses probably escaped from Ute Indians who made frequent horse stealing raids on Spanish missions and ranches, or were hunting, gathering pine nuts, or after Paiute Indians, for slave trade, while in the Needle Range area. They may have also escaped from traders herding the horses along the Old Spanish

Trail enroute to Santa Fe or trading posts in and around northern Utah.

The Spanish horses, which established themselves in the Needle Range evidently had an influence of the ancient Iberian horse in their genetic make up as is shown by the prominence of the primitive dun factor coloration, their ability to survive in a very harsh environment, and their willingness to inhabit such a rocky, mountainous area as the Mountain Home Range.

Afterthe white man settled southwestern Utah, ranchers turned out larger domestic horses with the smaller, wild mustangs to try to increase the size of the mustanqs through cross breeding. This, to a large extent, was successful for those horses that inhabited the valleys. The wild horses of the Mountain Home Range, dueto their behavior, apparently did not mix with the domestic horses in the valleys and stayed isolated in the mountain areas. Mustangers were unable to capture the Spanish type mustangs of the mountains due to the rough, rocky terrain, and the heavy stands of pinion-juniper.

Eventually, the large herds of wild horses in the valleys and lower foot hills were caught out or killed off, leaving the wild horses of the Mountain Home Range. This small population of horses, the last remnant group of southern California Spanish horses, came under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management's Warm Springs and Beaver River Resource Areas in 1977.

This, I feel, is the most logical explanation of how this unique population of horses was established, and where they came from. The question still remains of how pure Spanish the horses really are. Hopefully, an eventual blood-typing evaluation of the horses will take place. This may help to answer that question. There probably are some mixed blood horses in the population, but I believe the ~ajcrity are pure, or at least as pure as can bs found in these times and on this continent.

Dr. Phil Sponenberg's recommendation to the BLM was to manage the Sulphur herd to enhance the Spanish type. He suggested that a population level be set so no outside horse introductions would be needed, any horses that are removed from the population should be the least typically Spanish especially those horses with the broad chest, and color variation besides dun factor should be maintained. One statement of importance that he made was:
"Since the Spanish Feral horses are the only feral horses of truly unique and irreplaceable genotypes, they should be managed a genetic resource in addition to other BLM requirements.',

With this type of management, the wild horses of the Mountain Home Range, which is probably the only living historical

representatives of the southern California Spanish horse of colonial times, will be strengthened genetically, and the population will be protected from contamination or extinction.

Last August, Dr. Sponenberg gave a lecture on Spanish mustangs at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area's Horseshoe Bend. He was discussing management of the Pryor Mountain horses for Spanish characteristics and made a statement that, I feel, also applies to the Sulphur Herd Management Area horses. He said, "Say that my philosophy somehow is wrong, which of course it's not, but say that it was. Well, if you do it my way (manage the wild horse herd) you don't lose anything. You still end up with horses that have eye appeal, carl still be"!~.Pu'~, ~£ ~o~? i:ake ~k~ horses and you cross breed them, and I happen to be right, then you've lost something that's irreplaceable."

I hope this paper at least instills an awareness of the wild horses of the Mountain Home Range. To ignore them or to not appreciate them for what they are is a shame. If there ever was a wild horse herd that truly epitomized the spirit of this nation's heritage of the old west, this one does.

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