2023_end_of_year_2023_report__1_.pdf

SALT RIVER HORSE MANAGEMENT

Herd Report

End of year 2023

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1. Introduction

The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group (SRWHMG) continues to perform the scope of work under contract with the State with integrity and humanity for all horses in the Salt River Herd. With our large volunteer force and our daily presence, we exceed our mission through range stewardship, fertility control, supplemental feed, road patrol, fence maintenance, rescue when needed, and public education. We record each injury, birth, death, change and migration of the Salt River wild horses. In addition to our work in the field, we provide sanctuary to the horses we have rescued at the SRWHMG facility. We are proud to continue to safeguard this cherished and valuable recreational resource in the Tonto National Forest, at no cost to the state of Arizona, or the Tonto National Forest.

A. Herd Health:

At the current time, the Salt River herd body conditions are holding steady at 3’s and 4’s. SRWHMG always keeps an eye on body conditions. Two horses older than 20, will continue to have declining muscle tone as they age, which we consider normal. The overall herd health is good with no diseases or snotty noses observed. With the mares not being pregnant, they need fewer calories than they used to which keeps them in better shape than the stallions. Therefore, the stallions are now the first indicators of declining body scores because they usually expend more energy defending and battling.

B. Forage conditions:

The forest received precipitation the first quarter of 2023, but by the 3nd quarter, forage had dried and crumbled because of the hot temparatures exceeding 110 degrees for more than 55 days. The mesquite trees continued to provide natural nutrition, and eelgrass was good between May and November this year until the river went from 800 down to 30 CFS, after which eelgrass is laid dry and no longer available. We kept an eye on body conditions, which were slowly declining at the end of the summer and supplemental feed became necessary by September.

We started the supplemental feed program on Sept 20th and body conditions came back up to 4’s within 6 weeks.

C. Feed Program We used the Mudd Cliffs and 2.2 and SRWHMG feed stations, and the Foxtail station only temporarily for the few bands that had not reached the other locations. SRWHMG spent a total of $60.000 on the feed program this year.

It takes 4 to 6 volunteers per feed station, who drive the hay truck in, and get the bales dispersed into single flakes within 15 minutes, with the use of small carts. It takes an average of 25 volunteers per day, including the managing and scheduling volunteers. Volume wise we adjust the hay amount according to how many horses show up, so that there is not too much or too little; horses always eat every last crumb. The total amount for all feed stations per day averaged 25 bales per day.

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D. Herd Size:

At the beginning of 2023, the Salt River Herd count was 415.

However, many bands who have also been mentioned in previous reports as the missing rez bands, never came back to the TNF, not during 2022 breeding season or 2023 breeding season. These horses historically migrated back and forth but may have been stopped from coming back by the boundary fencing between the forest and the SRPMIC. At this time those bands of horses will be deducted from the herd count and will be considered reservation bands. There is a lot of forage available on the reservation and it tends to be quieter, which may have contributed to their staying off the TNF as well. 48 stallions and 52 mares were deleted from the herd count, totaling 100 horses. This makes the 2023 starting count 315 horses of which approximately half reside predominantly around the lower Salt River and the other half reside predominantly in the Northern Mountainous Quadrant. All horses go back and forth, but maintain their “home territory” as their favorite hangout. Rumors of horses not knowing where the river is are not true. Sometimes a band can be seen in the morning at the river and in the evening in the mountain quadrant. All horses know where the river is and it takes them about 45 minutes to migrate back and forth.

2023 First quarter:

On February 3rd, Mirabelle, our only 2022 foal, was missing and after a long and wide search, was unfortunately found deceased. Her body was cached and mountain lion predation was noted. Her nose had holes from teeth as well as her withers. A pregnant female mountain lion was caught on our camera’s. We estimate that there are at least 4 mountain lions but likely more. Mirabelle was widely mourned as she was a beautiful offspring of Serta and Minnie, this made the herd count 314.

On February 18th a deceased unviable foal was found who had been born breach out of 3 yr old mare Cece.

Cece became pregnant just 7 months after her booster, which is unusual. The deceased foal was named Cedric.

This kept the herd count the same.

On March 10th 2023 the first foal of 2023 was born in Lindor’s band out of mare Spring. We feared for the mountain lion to take him, however Splendor is still surviving. This brought the herd count back to 315

2023 Second quarter: Mare Ella was attacked by a mountain Lion but she healed and survived. This kept the count at 316. Old retired bacherlor Stallion Brahms was observed with colic symptoms and after this he was never seen again. He is at this time presumed deceased. This makes the herd count 314

2023 Third quarter:

Nahele a half blind stallion, was found deceased 7.29.23 in the hills, which brought the herd count to 313.

On 8.9.23 a foal was born in Cilantro’s band, out of the young mare Acacia. Acacia had been darted in time, one year after her previous booster dart, but she became pregnant 9 months after that previous dart, which is unusual. With input from the public the new colt was named Coriander. This brought the herd count to 314 again.

On 8.15.23 8 year old mare Valentina had to be humanely euthanized due to a severe fracture of her leg. This brought the herd count to 313.

2023 Fourth Quarter:

On 11.17.23 little Coriander was unfortunately taken by a mountain lion. It took a long search to find him and was have camera footage to prove it was a mountain lion. This brought the herd count to 312.

Crystal a young mare, was observed with colic symptoms after which she was never seen again, at this time she is assumed deceased, which brings the herd count to 311.

E. Growth rate At the beginning of 2023, the herd count was 415 horses, at the end of 2023, the Salt River herd size is 311. This continues the negative growth rate for the fourth year in a row.

5th year of fertility control The year 2023 was our 5th year of PZP fertility control and our 6th year under contract with the AZDA. The herd growth, as we predicted, is now and will continue to be a negative growth number. In other words, a lowering of the population will continue to occur exponentially through fertility control and the natural death rate. This years’ death rate was low, but we expect the natural deathrate to be exponential because the number of older horses is growing. Because a continued declining population can be a concern to the long term viability of the herd, we at this time, are leaving 8 mares “open” for future viability of the herd. We expect that in 2024, we may have one or two foals.

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Through humane fertility control we are creating sustainability, both financially and ecologically, all while keeping the horses healthy and the public happy.

(*) SRWHMG uses systematic and scientific recording of daily data into our database app to arrive at herd numbers. We can identify each horse in the forest within a few minutes and can send his/her file when asked. We guarantee our herd numbers with 100% accuracy. We never see a horse that we do not know, except for brand newborns.

2. Scope of Work

A. Assess, monitor and provide veterinary treatment.

Since January 1st 2023 , we have monitored and assessed 59 cases, of which 3 were colic symptoms, and 25 were leg injuries,9 were for under weight, 15 for neck, eyes and face injuries, 2 for abscesses, 1 for mountain lion attack and 5 were other types of minor scrapes.

B. Remove dead horses. Our protocol for removal of dead horses is that if they are along the road or very close to a recreation public area, and the location is accessible by truck, then we will remove the carcass. If the deceased horse is in the forest, we prefer to let nature go back to nature, which benefits predators and scavengers. This year no horses needed to be removed.

C. Implement emergency plans for drought and other situations to manage the Salt River Horse Herd

1. Feed program:. SRWHMG spent a total of $60.000 on the feed program this year of 2023. We started late, in

September of 2023.

2. SRWHMG 24-hour Emergency Response:

We continue to provide 24-hour emergency response for any situation involving a Salt River horse.

There continued to be issues with the open section around mm 33 where horses were walking past the fence line and can then access the road. There is a need to finish this boundary fence line, which will then complete the entire boundary fence. We believe this fenceline is an old allotment line as there are still old posts existing.

With our quick response team, we also helped get reservation bands off of 87, on two different occasions.

We started having problems with horses getting into the burn area because the metal fencing had fallen down because of the large flood. Horses continued to make a habit of this and we often had to walk horses back from the road back to safety. This fence will soon be fixed by the Forest Service and we are hopeful we can work together to make sure these horses end up on the riverside and do not get stuck on the restoration side, which is open to the road and has no access to water.

3. Road patrol: Our road patrol program provides for checkups of the most high-risk areas on Bush Hwy, for example: places where people leave gates open, the horse crossing on Goldfield Road, the cattle guards, as well as areas where people cut the fence frequently. Our road patrol team has been very active and busy this year with monitoring the horse crossing on Goldfield road and responding to several broken fence and cut fence incidents. In addition, the Bulldog/Bush gates have been a challenge and are left open by the public and closed by our team every single day. Were it not for our team, this area would be a frequent spot for horses to get on the road. Our road patrol team is in the Tonto National Forest every single day, as well as our PIO team that concentrates on giving people friendly advice and information, as well as our field team that concentrates on monitoring injuries and darting the mares in time.

D. Turn branded and/or gelded/spayed horses over to the owner or applicable government agency.

E. Receive written authorization from the AZDA prior to interacting with a Salt River horse.

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SRWHMG discusses all management situations and receives authorization from AZDA before taking any actions. No stray horses were found this year.

F. Create and administer an equine birth control program.

PZP stands for Porcine Zona Pellucida, it is an immuno-contraception. Since the start of our program in October of 2018, our certified darters have been darting with the goal to get to zero population growth and from there on to a negative population growth number, which we have achieved.

As of the of 31th of December 2023, we have darted 1235 PZP applications on 232 mares, consisting of 247 primers, 242 boosters, 230 second boosters and 210 third boosters. According to the mares’ yearly schedules, we have started 4th boosters, and have done 187 so far. We have started 5th boosters and have done 95 so far. (Note that these numbers include 2019 fillies, 2020 fillies, as well as some deceased horses and bounced darts that are redone.) Please note that 4th boosters are only the 3rd yearly boosters because the first primer and booster dose count as one. After 5 boosters (4 annual boosters), mares may take a long time to come back to fertility. We are starting to give selected mares a break from PZP to assure a few foals each year, to maintain genetic viability. So far we have left 8 mares open, meaning we will not dart them until they have a foal.

PZP does not harm nor influence the horses’ hormones and therefore does not harm or influence their behaviors or social structures. With our intimate knowledge of each band and their behavior, we have not observed any changes from previous non-PZP years.

All mothers of 2019 and 2020 foals were darted before giving birth; all of those foals are healthy and show no sign of being affected by PZP. Each mare is followed through her cycles, pregnancy, and efficacy of PZP.

Out of the 1234 shots taken, we have never missed a horse, never hit a horse in a wrong spot and we have recovered every dart, except for 2. We still keep each fired dart in boxes for our records and we also film each darting. We have never received a complaint.

We logged our projections between 1 and 2 foals for 2023. We had 2 foals born, and one is surviving at this time. Our projection for 2024 is also just one or two foals. Our program is seeing a higher efficacy than similar programs around the country.

We pride ourselves greatly on these ground

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HABITAT

IMPROVEMENT

EMERGENCY

MANAGEMENT

SAFETY

IMPROVEMENT

RESCUE

PROGRAM

VOLUNTEER

EDUCATION

FERTILITY

CONTROL

HERD

RECORDS

breaking results, which we believe are due to our attention to detail and the dedication of our volunteers and directors.

We perform what is required in the scope of work, but also do much more;

SRWHMG repairs and maintains miles of fencing and has installed horse proof people gates, bungee cords on people gates as well as new fencing when requested or needed.

SRWHMG performs nightly road patrol to check on all fences and gates left open by the public SRWHMG increases public awareness with friendly education.

SRWHMG spends 2000 volunteer hours per month on cleanup of the forest and riverbanks.

SRWHMG rescues any stray pets and abandoned animals from the forest.

SRWHMG removes nails, cleans fire pits and douses smoldering fires.

SRWHMG removes old downed barbed wire.

SRWHMG organizes and participates in large Cleanups.

SRWHMG adopts Phon D Sutton and Coon Bluff Roads from MCDOT.

All of us at SRWHMG want to express our gratitude for the ability to manage the Salt River wild horses humanely through our important programs. We are going into our 6th year of humane management under the AZDA and in cooperation with the Forest Service, and we greatly appreciate the partnership.