As the year-old horse Yucatan relaxes in the shade of a corral, enjoys a hug from foster caretaker Dora Bensch and submits to petting by visitors, it’s hard to believe he lived the first half of his young life in the wild in the Book Cliffs that rise just across the desert from Bensch’s property in the Grand Junction area.
Yucatan may have been born a wild horse, but with his calm manner it appears he’d be an easygoing addition to the family of anyone looking to adopt an animal from the Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Range in an upcoming event in Grand Junction later this month.
“He’s so sweet. I can pretty much do anything with him,” Bensch said.
Photos by Larry Robinson/The Daily Sentinel
Dora Bensch and Yucatan pose for a photo on May 29. Yucatan is one of the wild horses that was rounded up last year from the Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Range and will be available for adoption at an event on June 28 at the Mesa County Fairgrounds.
About 70 wild horses, the majority of them removed from the Little Book Cliffs herd last September in an effort by the Bureau of Land Management to control rising horse numbers there, will be offered during an adoption event at the Mesa County Fairgrounds on June 28. The event will be part of a larger, multi-day wild horse event called Colorado Mustang West, featuring a film festival, panel discussions, horse training demonstrations, an art fair and more.
“The idea was to try to make more out of the adoption event so instead of the average probably 100 or 200 people who show up at an adoption (of wild horses), to create an experience and give more people reasons to come learn about the horses whether they’re adopting or not,” said Sloane Milstein, who is helping with the event.
Audrey Mack, 10, pets Yucatan as Dora Bensch, Mack’s grandmother and Yucatan’s foster provider, looks on. Yucatan will be one of the wild horses up for auction at an event on June 28 at the Mesa County Fairgrounds and Bensch said whoever ends up with Yucatan will be happy. “He’s so sweet. I can pretty much do anything with him,” Bensch said.
Milstein, like Bensch, is a member of the local Friends of the Mustangs group that works in support of the Little Book Cliffs herd. She’s also helping out someone, who like Bensch, is playing a foster role to help gentle some of the horses to be offered for adoption, in hopes of improving their adoptability.
“We’re just really excited to have this event and have all the education features that are going along with it,” said Katie Palubicki, a BLM spokesperson.
The event also will provide an opportunity for local residents to provide homes to horses that come from a beloved local herd.
Dora Bensch’s property in Grand Junction is a haven for wild horses with the Bensches owning two and fostering a third. Yucatan, far right, is the horse the Bensches are fostering and they have two other horses, Autumn, from the Piceance-East Douglas herd, and, Zuni, from the Little Book Cliffs herd, both removed from the range during previous roundups.
Said Palubicki, “It’s kind of an exciting opportunity for them because you don’t always have horses that are kind of local to a community, I guess you could say, available for adoption. So this is really kind of a homegrown event for the Grand Junction area, the opportunity to adopt horses right outside their door, really.”
The upcoming event follows adoption events the BLM held in Castle Rock in April and Greeley in May. Palubicki said about 38 animals, all of which had been removed from the Piceance-East Douglas herd in Rio Blanco County, were adopted at Castle Rock, and 30 were adopted in Greeley that were from that herd and elsewhere. About 40 horses were offered at each event, so there were good adoption numbers for both events, Palubicki said.
“So we’re excited to see what happens in Grand Junction,” she said.
Photos by Larry Robinson/The Daily Sentinel
Dora Bensch puts a halter on Yucatan, a wild horse from the Little Book Cliffs Horse Range that Bensch and her husband are fostering. Bensch said those fostering the horses to be adopted were tasked with working on being able put on their horse’s halter, lead it, put it in a trailer, and get it to lift all its feet so a farrier can work with it, left. With Yucatan, no problem. “I’ve got all four done,” Bensch said.
NEXT STEP FOR REMOVED HORSES
Altogether, the BLM removed 98 horses from the Little Book Cliffs herd in last year’s roundup, which the BLM calls a gather. The agency says the population needed to be thinned to protect remaining horses and their habitat on the range, as well as wildlife and other resources. The helicopter-based roundup drew some opposition, including from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, and unfortunately on its final day a mare with a young foal had to be euthanized after it broke its leg while a helicopter was driving the mare, foal and a third horse.
The removed horses were taken to a BLM holding facility in Cañon City, and the BLM and Friends of the Mustangs turned their attentions toward trying to find homes for them through events like the upcoming one. Part of the effort for Friends of the Mustangs entailed finding volunteers to foster some of them in preparation for them being offered for adoption this month. Fifteen fostered animals will be auctioned off live at the June event along with six yearlings that will be offered after trainers work with them for a few days as the public gets the chance to watch. The remaining horses will be offered in a silent auction.
For Bensch, fostering a horse is just the latest step in her growing involvement with wild horse work. She’s from Ohio, and said she always loved horses while growing up, spending summers visiting her grandmother, who raised them. She and her husband Alan moved to the area from Ohio about a decade ago and more recently became active with Friends of the Mustangs. Bensch has served as its secretary for several years now, and Alan is its treasurer. Dora Bensch also is active doing work to manage and improve the Little Book Cliffs horse range.
The Bensches also have a horse, Autumn, that is from the Piceance-East Douglas herd, and another, Zuni, from the Little Book Cliffs herd, both removed from the range during previous roundups.
‘THE PERFECT ONE’
Yucatan is the first horse they have fostered.
“This is a dream. I’m so thrilled I was able to get one (to foster) and I got the perfect one,” Bensch said.
She had reason to think Yucatan would be a gem of a horse. Yucatan has the same father as Zuni. Zuni has been a friendly and generally trouble-free horse, and Bensch figured that with Yucatan’s lineage, he’d have a good disposition.
“If he was anything like Zuni, I knew he would be good,” she said.
She said the horses to be fostered were really worked up the day foster volunteers picked them up. But Yucatan immediately adapted to his new surroundings when he arrived at the Bensch property, which besides having tree-lined corrals, has room to ride and a couple of acres planted in hay that’s used to feed their horses.
“Honestly I was brushing him almost the second day (after his arrival),” she said. “He loves his butt rubbed.”
As Bensch talked about Yucatan during a recent interview, Audrey Mack, her 10-year-old granddaughter, entered Yucatan’s corral to say hello.
“I think he’s pretty. He’s like my best friend now,” said Audrey, as her grandmother mused about Audrey spending time with her grandmother’s horses just as Bensch had once done with her grandmother.
Bensch said those fostering the horses to be adopted were tasked with working on being able put on their horse’s halter, lead it, put it in a trailer, and get it to lift all its feet so a farrier can work with it.
With Yucatan, no problem.
“I’ve got all four done,” Bensch said.
NOT GOING BACK
Yucatan is a pretty small guy now but Bensch said he’s expected to keep growing in coming years. She has in mind the type of person for whom he be a good fit, perhaps in part because of how he and her granddaughter have bonded
“He will make a young gal a super horse. Very friendly, does just anything you ask him to do,” Bensch said.
She wouldn’t mind seeing someone local adopt him so she can help the adopter work with him if they would like her help, but her hope primarily is to see him go to a good home.
But Bensch said it’s hard to know how it’s going to go for even a horse like Yucatan at an adoption event, and she plans to register to bid on him and make him a permanent addition to their stable of horses if no one else makes a bid.
“I won’t let him go back to Cañon City. We’re not getting any younger, but you know, what’s one more (horse),” Bensch said with a laugh.
“I’d hate to see him go back to Cañon City,” her husband Alan agreed.
Not all of the fostered horses that will be auctioned off have been as easy to gentle as Yucatan, and most of the 70 or so horses to be offered won’t yet have been subject to efforts to gentle them. But Dora Bensch said the Little Book Cliffs herd produces some really healthy, nice-looking, nice-sized mustangs and the adoption event will provide an opportunity for people to go home with some of them.
IF YOU WANT TO ADOPT
Horses will be available for viewing at the adoption event on June 26-27, ahead of the June 28 auction. The BLM’s Palubicki said it’s important that anyone interested in adopting a horse check on the BLM website to look at adoption requirements ahead of the event.
“We want to make sure people are aware of those before they bring their trailer to the event and try to take one home,” she said.
More information may be found by visiting https://www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro/adoption-and-sales/how-to-adopt-or-purchase. Palubicki said people also can call her for more information at 720-413-2814.
