Santana the Alpine Colt's Story:
It was 5 minutes before the auction's end.... We got a call that a home from a fellow Alpine Wild Horse Army member that a home had fallen through. We decided to take in what was listed as a grulla filly! in less than 5 invites, our bid was placed and she was coming home to Nirvana.
The filly arrived, and as we sat with her we realizes that she.... is not a she! The filly was in fact a colt! Santana is a very laid back, cool kind of guy. He is exotically colored which hints to his Spanish bloodlines!
The beloved Alpine Wild Horses of the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona are under attack. Last year they numbered around 400, wild and free on 400,000 acres! These horses are historic, and descendants of horses brought along by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado during Spanish expeditions through the area in the 1540's! After the Forest Service announced a complete removal of the horses from the forest there have been multiple shooters running rampant around the forest and shooting any horse they can find. In the latest shooting, 38 horses have been found dead and an additional 15 horses are missing and presumed dead. There were also multiple injured with gunshots and left alive, wondering why they fell victim to such a madman. Two foals were also orphaned, and luckily have been doing well on their own.
So far over 80 Alpine Wild Horses have been rounded up. We are working hard to reunite some families from the Alpine Forest in our dedicated "Alpine Pasture"! With your sponsorship, we will be able to save more Alpine Wild Horses than originally intended, so thank you so very much for helping these beautiful souls.
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The Alpine Wild Horses of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest have one of the most harrowing stories of all time.
Historians confirm that accounts of the presence of horses have been made in the Alpine Herd’s homeland since Francisco Vasquez de Coronado’s expedition through the area in search of the Seven Cities of Gold in the 1540’s! These horses are remnants of the Spanish horses brought along on the expedition. Many of them carry heavy primitive markings, characteristic of old Spanish breeds!
In 2022 the US Forest Service, who manage wild horses living in National Parks, deemed that the Alpine Wild Horse Herd was further endangering an endangered ground mouse, and declared their complete removal.
Shortly after the removal announcement, there was a mass shooting where over 50 Alpines were shot dead in the forest. Several horses that now call Nirvana home watched in terror as they lost their families, including brave Guardian, who took in two orphaned babies after the shooting- one of which had been shot in the jaw and survived for many months afterwards. Several other hoses survived with injuries, wondering why they fell prey to such a madman. The people responsible were never caught, but it is easy to see that it was likely local ranchers who graze their cattle on the very same public lands where the Alpine Wild Horses lived wild and free. It was interesting that the cattle were still allowed to graze the area regardless of the endangered mouse….
The round ups officially began in late 2022 and the horrors the Alpines experienced only continued. Though we are grateful these removals were conducted via bait and trap instead of treacherous helicopter round ups, there was lots of suspicious activity and volunteers would often find horses dead with broken legs and bullet holes dumped not far from the trapsite. It was apparent that lots was going horribly wrong as the horses were pushed in the corral or into the trailers that came periodically to empty the traps and take the horses to the Rail Lazy H facility, resulting in broken legs and lots of suffering, with the gunshots that were meant to provide a faster end, often missing vital organs and resulting in more suffering.
By 2025, nearly all of the Alpines had been removed. Visitors to the forest have had a hard time finding any horses, and the last one seen was wondering alone, calling out trying to find any other horses he could join up with.
We are so grateful to be home to so many of these special, historic horses- providing them a future that otherwise would have been stolen from them!
