03-05-2025
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.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Heber wild horses rescued from drowning in mud pit
