Article and Photos by Sandra Michaud
End of the Road Ranch and Dusty Rose
End of the Road Ranch and Dusty Rose
At the end of Mountain View Road lies a sanctuary for starved, abused horses.
End of the Road Ranch and Dusty Rose
Dusty Rose, at three days old, experiments with sticking her nose through the bars.
End of the Road Ranch and Dusty Rose
Dusty Rose catches a nap
End of the Road Ranch and Dusty Rose
I'm so cute and who are you? Dusty Rose seems to say.
End of the Road Ranch and Dusty Rose
Sedona nuzzles her baby.
End of the Road Ranch and Dusty Rose
Other residents at the ranch
End of the Road Ranch and Dusty Rose
Dallas is beginning to trust humans again.
At the end of Mountain View Road lies a very special place, the End of the Road Ranch. It's a place where starved, abandoned or abused horses get a new chance at life.
And the ranch has a tiny new resident, Dusty Rose, born Saturday, May 30.
Dru Gray, a volunteer at the ranch, said that Dusty Rose was the newest member of "The Family" a small herd of wild horses that was saved from meat buyers last December.
"We had a very caring donor for the Ranch who bought them from the killer buyer and brought them here," Gray said.
Heather Willson, ranch manager and a member of the board of directors, said that The Family was adapting well to their new home. "One of the foals was an orphan, and The Family took care of it."
Gray said that The Family, the only wild or feral horses residing at the ranch, consists of a stallion, two yearlings and a mare, and now, of course, Dusty Rose. The majority of the 37 horses at the ranch are livestock seizures. The New Mexico Livestock Board removes them because of malnourishment, starvation or both.
Willson said that the ranch has a foster program and a sponsor program and is working on an adoption program, but that a lot of the horses can't qualify for those. "A lot of them are elderly or unsound and it takes a special person to care for them. And others that are younger may have issues from abuse."
Another of the rescued horses, Dallas, who was abandoned, was probably the most extremely starved horse that Wilson had seen. "The volunteers who brought him here said he fell over twice when they were loading him. He was so weak."
Yet Dallas is learning to trust again.
Volunteers at the ranch work with the horses daily to restore their health and trust in humanity. It costs about $350 a month to rehabilitate a starved horse and provide it with medical care.
Volunteers run the ranch. "100% of the money donated goes to the care of the horses," Willson said. "Everything is for the horses, they come first."
And for Dusty Rose, mom Sedona and the rest of The Family, the End of the Road may be the beginning of a road to a new life.
To find out more about End of the Road Ranch go to www.endoftheroadranchnm.com.