Forest staff hopes families will take in wild mustangs

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The Carson National Forest staff hopes parents will consider adopting wild mustangs as presents for their children this year. Thirty-two of the iconic horses recently were gathered from the oversized herd with territory inside Carson National Forest near Bloomfield. The forest service needs to reduce the pressure the herd's grazing puts on forest land. Livestock grazing also is reduced on allotments ranchers have within the wild horses' territory. An 2004 assessment determined the territory can support between 50 to 150 horses, depending on environmental conditions. The most recent equine population estimate puts the herd's size at 428 horses. Efforts to gather the horses are going slow. The forest service planned to gather 93 horses during the fall. Only one-third of that amount, 32 horses, were gathered to date by Mount Taylor Mustangs, the company contracted by the forest service. Eleven of the horses remain available for adoption, including a bay mare whose filly colt is also bay-colored....