Wild Horse Sanctuary, Hot Springs, SD

On Monday, June 11 we drove to the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary south of Hot Springs, SD.  In 1988, Dayton Hyde purchased 11,000 acres of land to give captured horses a place to live and run free.  The visitor's center was once the homestead of the original owners of this ranch.

To provide a good home to every horse requires good grass management and means they have to limit the population to the forage available.  In order to do that they set a goal of zero population increase.  The stallions were separated from the mares and PZP was used on the others.  Locating all the stallions on the rough terrain was a challenge.  Either there were virgin births this season or there is a mystery stallion somewhere!  They ended up with a dozen foals this spring.                       

The mare in the middle has a rare "medicine hat" coat pattern.  Note the brown on the top of her head  and the brown on her chest. She would have been highly desired by Indian chiefs.                            

This is the beautiful "Don Juan" a Sulphur Mustang Stallion, one of almost 60 rare Spanish Sulphur, Kiger, and Sorraia mustangs which were thought to be descendants of horses brought by the early explorers of the Americas.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it you will be able to see the "zebra stripes" on his legs.                                                                                                             

The Cheyenne River runs through the ranch and provides precious water for the horses.  This area was used in the movie Hidalgo as were other areas of the ranch.  Also visible on the prairies sod are scars left by stage coaches and wagons from the Sidney or Cheyenne to the Deadwood Trail.                                                   

 All too quickly our tour was over and it was time to head back towards Custer.  We stopped at a small state park picnic area and shared our lunch with John, a new friend we met at our campground.

 

To learn more please visit www.spanishmustangspirit.com