Debate rages about how to manage New Mexico’s wild horses

Sebedeo Chacon loves horses. He’s got a pair of racing horses in the stalls out back for sport. He’s got a saddle horse in the corral for shepherding his cattle in the Carson National Forest, and he has at least a dozen framed photographs of horses inside his doublewide homestead just outside the town of Ojo Caliente in Northern New Mexico. It’s safe to say that Chacon, whose family has been in the ranching business for centuries, has a soft spot for horses, provided they’re properly managed and maintained. They’re an integral part of his life, important assets whose upkeep can cost dearly but are well worth the price. Then there are those other horses, the wild ones up on the Jarita Mesa, about 150 of them at last count. Some of them are sleek Spanish mustangs, others the descendants of domesticated stock let loose on US Forest Service land during the last half of the 20th century. Mention them, and Chacon’s blood begins to boil. They reduce the shrubs to nubs, devour the flowers in hours and graze the grasses until they are no more, leave their calling cards underfoot. They feed off the very forage his cattle need during the summer, indirectly affecting the health of the calves and lowering their price at auction. “A man’s got to make a living. I’m getting too old for this,” Chacon, 74, says in a recent SFR interview inside his home, wearing cowboy hat, blue jeans and prerequisite boots. “I don’t mind the horses, but when they’re not managed, they can hurt my business. There aren’t any fences up there on the mesa, so they drift from one allotment to the next, then to the next, and they eat till their heart’s content.”...more