FABENS -- After being abandoned or suffering a life of abuse and hardship, horses that arrive at the M.H. Ranch don't look as if they have much life left in them.
But with time and more than 25,000 acres to roam and graze, these horses are given a second chance to become bucking horses for the rodeo or even riding horses. Those horses that are not deemed fit for either are taken for slaughter in Mexico, where several of them were originally destined before they arrived in El Paso. Horses deemed totally unfit are sent to Mexico or Canada because horse slaughter ended in the United States in 2007.
On Wednesday, the M.H. Ranch received 17 additional horses that were unwanted and abandoned -- a growing problem due to today's economy, said Hank Webb, an equine expert from New Mexico. About 70 horses are now in the care of M.H. Ranch owners Lorie and Tom Heck.
"People can't afford to take care of them anymore," Webb said. "As a result, there are many of them that are being abandoned. Some people who go riding have come back and find several horses hitched up to their trailer with a note saying, 'Please take care of them.' "
Lorie Heck said the M.H. Ranch is a for-profit enterprise whose main interest is the recovery of horses. Horses
"Some of these horses come from Wisconsin in a trailer," Lorie Heck said. "And they come in without food or water. And when they get to the border, they sit there for 10 hours with no water or food until they get rejected (for slaughter), and they come here to recover."
When a horse first arrives on the property, it is assessed and placed on a recovery plan.
"The whole aim of this is to take them off this ranch and try to rehabilitate them and do something different," Tom Heck said. "We have connections with a dude ranch out in New Mexico and rodeo contacts as well."
The average weight of a healthy horse is estimated between 1,000 pounds and 1,300 pounds, depending on the breed.
Horses that come into the M.H. Ranch are typically 400 pounds underweight, have abscesses from the saddle or have other open wounds. The recovery process can be slow.
"These horses came in from Willcox, Arizona, and lost 140 pounds during that trip," Webb said, referring to a group of three horses grazing on a bale of alfalfa. "But those 140 pounds will take several months to gain back."
Each new horse is photographed from the front, rear and both sides. Any open wounds are cleaned and treated. Then every horse is wormed, and receives a vitamin B-12 shot and equine antibiotics. Horses are then released into a 20-acre holding pasture where they have free access to grass, alfalfa hay and water. They also receive a free choice of mineral salts and molasses.
After two weeks, each horse is re-evaluated. Those horses deemed fit for turnout are released into a 13,000- to 15,000-acre pasture where they have access to grass and alfalfa.
Twice a day, the horses return to the water tank where the Heck family and their staff assess the horses' condition.
Not all horses can be saved.
Horses that die on the ranch are sent to the dead pile, at a far corner of the ranch, where other livestock that have died go, Tom Heck said.
"Horses, cattle, sheep and goats are all considered livestock," Tom Heck said. "They are not pets. So they are treated differently. Generally ranchers move them to an area that don't smell up the ranch headquarters, and their bodies are taken care of by the coyotes and nature. It all goes back to the earth."
Because of the slow recovery process, a first glance at some of the newcomers raised concerns among nearby residents who reported horses being malnourished in January. This spurred an animal-abuse investigation against the ranch.
Further evaluation by the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office, Webb and El Paso veterinarian Jose Ramos showed that the horses had sufficient food and water, and closed the case.
"There are about seven bands of horses out here, and they look pretty darn good," Ramos said. "The whole idea is to get them from a negative energy balance to a positive energy balance."
Ramos said the ranch had a good water and food supply.
"The problem now is people are coming in and leaving buckets of water for them out by the road," Ramos said. "They think they are doing good, but really they aren't. Because if a horse sees there is water there one day, they will go back the next, seeking water from that area again and ignore the watering trough, and that impedes on their recovery."
Alex Hinojosa may be reached at ahinojosa@ elpasotimes.com; 546-6137.
