Where the Wild Things Are....

Yeah, I feel properly chastised .... I just can't seem to put together enough time every week to write regularly. So, all you "fans" of Tail Tales will have to settle for my occasional musings.

A good friend kinda lambasted me the other day for only posting stories about my fuzzy friends and not reaching out to the wilderness. "Where are the lions, tigers and bears (oh my!!)?" questioned my friend. "Where are the stories about the lost fawn, the rabid fox, the coyote in the grass?"

OK, OK - all right already. Here is a story about some wild things. Not what you might expect, but it will at least be informative.

You know I am a horse lover of the first order, right? So, I thought... "Self, why not expound on your experiences with wild horses?" and my self answered "SURE!!"


Oh - you noticed this gorgeous animal here.......

Yeah, right, he isn't exactly wild - but I had to include another photo of my beloved Faffner, the Morgan gelding I used to own. He died a long time ago in a very sad accident, but I just like to remind myself of all the good times we had back in the 80's (for those of you old enough to remember the 80's) :>)


Anyhow, back to wild horses. Now, before you get your shorts ruffled - NO, I havent been to Idaho or Wyoming, or wherever all those bands of wild equines hang out. The ones romanticized in old westerns and which are causing the public outcries today from horse lovers who dont want to see them mistreated and the ranchers who want them out of their fields. (another day).

But, I HAVE had some rather personal encounters with the bands of wild horses that inhabit an eastern part of our country. Yup - there are hundreds of them on the islands of Assateague and Chincoteague off the coast of Maryland and Virginia. Some of you may have read, or at least be familiar with the old Marguerite Henry book "Misty of Chincoteague," which is a story of one of these horses.

These two boys, and dozens like them are a common sight on the beaches of Assateague. The bands of small, brown and pinto horses mingle freely with the bathers and beach walkers. But, be forwarned!! They are definitely WILD, and will not tolerate being touched or patted or any other normal horse/human interactions.
The equines kind of sneer at all the humans and go about their business of blocking the roads and leaving "deposits" where unobservant folks might happen to step in them. They travel regular paths that lead from watering holes with fresh water to the picnic tables that might hold goodies.

They wander the campgrounds of the state and national parks, looking for handouts. And I dont mean hay. The first time I closely encountered them, my husband and I had left things on our picnic table and walked the few yards to the beach. It wasnt horse food - I KNEW that horses eat hay and grain, right?
WRONG! They east just about anything they can get their hooves (er, uh - teeth) on! We came back to our camp site to find ripped boxes of crackers and cereal, stomped and eaten grapes and raisins, and even some cheese wrappers. Yeah, I know - a first rule of camping is to keep all foodstuffs PUT AWAY. But we were novices. But that was the last time. After that, everything went in the van or at least a cooler.

See all these unsuspecting campers/campsites?
Who knew that at any moment you could be invaded by six or eight 800-pound raccoons? Well, they might not LOOK like raccoons, but they sure knew the drill - help yourself to any thing that even LOOKS like food. And I dare anyone to be able to chase away these big boys. As scavengers, they are number one! When they wander into your camp, you sorta just have to back off and let them look around. Mostly they want water, but food is fair game.

Once when we were parked at the park office lot, several of these boys collected around our van - one in front, one in back, and one with his nose poked in the window. Hard to get away when you are surrounded!! hee hee - they didnt stay long when it was obvious that we had nothing for them.

The problem is that they seem so tame that people sometimes get too close, and then there is the kicking incident, or the biting incident, and vacationers do not take well to this treatment. As I said above, these horses are WILD, no matter how calmly they approach campers and beach areas. When one of them becomes too much of a nuisance (bites and/or kicks people more than once), then that animal has to be moved. The horses on the island of Chincoteague, in Virginia, are isolated from people. Visitors can drive around and see them through fences, but they cannot mingle. So, problem animals from Assateague are taken south. Now, you might wonder how this is accomplished. No, no - they dont use tranquilizer darts or anything so drastic. The park rangers/horse biologists simply lure the vandal horse into a trailer with food.

The "horse movers" come equiped with fence panels that they quickly form into a small pen around the offending animal, who is distracted with some of his favorite treats. Then, they slowly move the pen (and the horse) to the trailer and continue to hoax him (or her) with the goodies. See? Once they get the animal into the trailer, they quickly close up the gate and haul him off to greener pastures - or at any rate, a place where he will no longer annow innocent campers. :>)

Here's a picture I did a couple of years ago that depicts a "sort-of" horse....... I have to include at least one of my drawings in every post, right?






Here's lookin' atcha, as someone famous once said.

CYL