Latest news with #BettyNixon
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Heber wild horses rescued from dangerous mud pit. What to know
Several Heber wild horses were rescued from drowning in a mud pit formed by a poorly maintained stock tank. Stock tanks serve as small drinking ponds for grazing animals in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests during the dry season between May and September. Betty Nixon from Friends of the Heber Wild Horses received an April 26 text that read "Need help. Horse drowning in mud." A team of seven rescuers worked together to get a mare and her foal out of the mud. They first got the foal out, then attempted to rescue the mare while her foal waited. Nixon said that the mare was exhausted from struggling, but the team worked patiently to remove her without hurting her. Her Facebook post said "it was truly a cooperative effort to pull off an amazing rescue." It took the team over an hour to get the mare out of the mud, and they were able to do so without injuries. Video posted to Facebook shows the team of rescuers using a log and ropes to try and remove the mare from the mud. Another video shows the same mare walking away from the pit with her foal after the rescue. Nixon said she was waiting for the U.S. Forest Service to address this incident. Two days later, on April 28, another foal fell into the same mud pit. Nixon said she was keeping an eye on the pit when another horse got stuck. Nixon was again able to rescue both the mare and the foal without injury. In a Facebook post, Nixon said, "Arizona Game and Fish volunteers are hauling water to wildlife here because of the drought conditions, but they deliver water to areas not accessible to the horses." She added "elk, deer, bear, etc. get water, but federally protected wild horses do not!" The day after the second incident, on April 29, a mare fell into the mud pit. A team of four rescuers were able to get the mare out using a lasso and teamwork. Nixon said, "You could have all the training in the world, but it's not going to make a difference if you don't have the manpower and the equipment. We had a cowboy with a lasso, and that's all we had. And it was the best doggone thing we could've had at the time." Nixon said that this is not the first time this has happened. Last year, a similar mud pit formed from a stock tank. The thick clay-like mud makes it easy for animals to get trapped. Nixon recalled finding a dead coyote in a mud pit last year. She had a difficult time moving through the mud with the foal during a rescue. Nixon wants to return to an arrangement from 2021. Wild horse advocates received permits to haul water to the areas where the horses congregate so they do not have the need to approach the mud pits. This year, advocates couldn't get those permits. The Forest Service did let the wild horse advocates put troughs near the edge of the pit, making water available to the horses without them needing to get close to the pit. The Arizona Republic's attempts to seek comment from the Forest Service were not successful. Iconic animal: Where did Salt River wild horses come from, and why have they spurred debate? This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Heber wild horses rescued from drowning in mud pit
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Mud Pit in Arizona Traps and Nearly Drowns a Mother Horse in Front of Her Baby
Wild horse advocates have rescued several wild horses, including a mother horse and her foal, from the same mud pit in just a few days. Early on April 26, Betty Nixon of Friends of the Heber Wild Horses in Arizona received a concerning message from friends: "Need help. Mare drowning in mud," she recalled in a Facebook post. Nixon grabbed some tow ropes and a helpful neighbor, then hopped in her car and sped to the area, near Sitgreaves National Forest in Herber-Overgaard. When she arrived, her friends and another couple had already managed to haul a young foal out of the mud, though the mother horse remained trapped. Related: Horses Trapped in 'Waist-Deep' Connecticut Mud Saved by Nearly 40 First Responders After 5-Hour Rescue Mission Nixon stated that the mud pit was once a water hole frequented by wild horses in the area, but due to an ongoing drought, the "extremely dangerous" conditions of the now muddy pit continue to worsen. However, the horses are not "livestock covered under permit," the U.S. Forest Service tells PEOPLE. Thus, the U.S. Forest Service is not responsible for rescuing the animals or replenishing the water hole. "Seven of us worked together for over an hour to get the mare out of the mud while her foal called to her from the bank," Nixon wrote in the post. "She was exhausted from struggling, but we worked slowly and patiently with her to get her out without injuring her, allowing her time to rest between efforts." The rescue was exhausting and didn't give the volunteers many options. According to Nixon's post, it was difficult to get a rope through the mud and under the horse, let alone secure it around the mare's body. The group had no choice but to wrap the rope around her neck and carefully pull the horse out without choking her. Nixon said the mare certainly did her part. The mom horse "struggled on her own to get up," so the group pulled her out together to give her momentum. The rescuer added that the whole effort took over an hour. Shortly afterwards, the mare could stand "on unsteady legs," allowing her and her foal to return to the forest together. "I can't begin to tell you how impressed I was with how well everyone worked together as a team. It truly was a cooperative effort to pull off an amazing rescue," Nixon wrote. Related: Unknown 'Highly Contagious' Disease Kills 85 Wild Horses at Federal Facility in Colorado Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The U.S. Forest Service tells PEOPLE that the mud pit is "a very adverse situation for all animals living in the drought-stricken landscape." The droughts have decreased the number of areas that have both food and water, the USFS added, exhibiting the "natural strain" on the landscape to continue supporting its animal population. Yet, regarding the mud pit itself, the USFS predicts that the "continued drought will likely dry out the mud within a few days, reducing the immediate threat of horses getting stuck." Since the incident on April 26, Nixon witnessed two more horses get stuck in the mud, both requiring her assistance to escape the mud pit. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Mother horse, baby rescued from mud pit in Arizona
April 28 (UPI) -- A group of animal lovers came together in Arizona to rescue a mother horse and a foal stuck in a deep mud pit. Betty Nixon, of Friends of the Heber Wild Horses, said she was alerted Saturday morning to the plight of the mare and foal stuck in a pit near Heber-Overgaard. Nixon responded with a neighbor and discovered five people already working to rescue the horses. "When I got there, they had already pulled the foal out of the mud," Nixon told KSAZ-TV. "There was one gentleman named Andy, and he ended up being a major hero of the day because he went into that mud with no hesitation, which is kind of dangerous because you've got a wild horse that is thrashing in the mud trying to get out." She said it took over an hour to extract the mother horse from the mud. "We wanted to get the towrope under the torso behind the front legs, but there was no way to get the towrope underneath her under the mud and around her body," she said. The rescuers ended up tying a rope around the mare's neck and used a rescuer's lunch bag to keep the horse's head above water while they hauled her to safety. Nixon said the mud at U.S. Forest Service-managed watering holes has been a major problem for the wild horses lately. "When they get low, and they get muddy, I just go out several times a day, at least three times a day, let's just say, and check them to make sure nothing's stuck in there," Nixon said. Two horses in Herber-Overgaard couldn't make it out of a mud pit alone, and it took an entire team to save the day. It took seven people more than an hour to pull the helpless animals free.
