Sulphur HMA History 1971-1998

Author is unknown and information should not be taken as solid facts. If you have more information than I have below or corrections, please email me.

1971-80: Horses were inventoried and monitored with no removals ever taken place during this period.

1980: The first authorized removal of any horses took place from the Sulphur HMA, 19 horses were captured and adopted out locally.

1985-86: 78 horses were removed from the HMA, and BLM managers began to take notice of the unique characteristics of the Sulphur HMA. Many of those were returned to the HMA because BLM realized that they were something very special. I (Gus) remember seeing a photo of the returned animals, and they were all a bunch heavily marked-up line back duns with strong Spanish characteristics.

1987: The Sulphur Herd Management Area Plan was signed February 1987. Specific objectives were put into place including the objective to: "Increase the occurrence of animals with good conformation and those displaying the characteristics of the wild Tarpan type of horse and those with colors that occur less frequently to increase the adoptability of horses removed for management purposes."

1988-89: 78 horses were captured and adopted to individuals across the state of Utah. This seemed to spark an interest by a number of private individuals regarding the uniqueness of these horses. Here's the information I have so far on the horses gathered from 1990 until present. Much of it comes from oral relation by Gale Bennett and from notes compiled by him and Ron Roubidoux, who were trying to determine where all the bloodtyped horses had been captured. Some of this information requires further confirmation. The rest of the information came from BLM records, all of which have not yet been examined, and various other sources.

July 1990-25 (740300, Delta, had previously been captured and released in 1985. She was recaptured at this time, making 25 horses total) horses gathered at various sites on the Mountain Home Range. Three of these (two dun stallions and a dun mare) were released to the Conger HMA, two were sent to a sanctuary, and the rest were adopted out. Three of those, including Delta, were taken to Oregon, where they were inspected for registration in the Kiger Mesteno Association (KMA). One of these, 740501 or Cortez Amigo, was accepted into the registry and is now known as a "found horse", which is a term used by the KMA to describe outside horses that it registered in order to broaden the captive Kiger gene pool. (Just to clarify: the Sulphur Horse Registry doesn't recognize the term "found horse" in reference to any horses it has registered other than Cortez Amigo, since it only registers horses of known Sulphur descent.) Nine of the 25 horses captured, including those released to Conger and those inspected by the KMA, were bloodtyped2. Delta was mtDNA tested, and found to have the "D1" pattern.

August 1990-Seven horses likely gathered from the south end of the Sulphur Springs HMA. All the horses captured in 1990 were caught by running and roping, so it is difficult to ascertain where they were caught. There was a serious accident during the roundup, in which one of the ropers accidently roped another rider around the neck, and jerked him off his horse. Fortunately, the rider survived.

August 1991-Ten horses captured on the HMA. The documentation I have so far on these horse is scanty, but since there is no dun factor horses amongst them, it's likely they came from the south end of the HMA.

March 1992-several horses gathered up on the Sulphur Springs HMA that were branded with and as Cedar Mountain Horses. At least one of these horses was released into the Cedar Mountain HMA.

July 1992-10 horses (including Mestene, SHR 1023) gathered at a trap several miles south of Cougar Spring, (the bloodtyping notes say Indian Peak [Green Canyon], but further research indicates the trap was on the Speers reseed, several miles to the northwest of the actual peak) and placed for adoption. These horses were water trapped (one of them, 596 or the "Blue Stallion", was released into the Conger HMA).(blog author here) Despite the information that the Blue Stallion was released onto the Conger HMA, one must realize that this is not first hand information. First hand information came from Ron Roubidoux in his report that the BLM reported that the Blue Stallion was released onto the Mountain Home Range and was never captured again. This first hand report can be found here: http://business.fortunecity.com/mars/221/ron.html

July 1992-17 horses (including Takita) illegally gathered during a weekend from the trap site at the Speers reseed. They were recovered, two were released into Mountain Home, three died, and the others were eventually placed for adoption. As part of the investigation of the attempted theft of these horses, blood samples were drawn from them as well as from the other horses captured at that trap and were sent to Gus Cothran for comparison between the two groups. Takita, Barb and Mestene were later mtDNA tested, and found to have the "D1" pattern.

August 1992-36 horses (including Cortez, Lancelot, Spice, Tia and Smokey; all of which were bloodtyped after adoption, and all of which but Lancelot were mtDNA tested, and found to have the "D3" pattern) gathered from Cougar Spring and placed for adoption. (Upon further research, it appears that about 1/4 of these horse were the ones captured further south, in Green Canyon, a few miles northwest of Indian Peak. Gale Bennett stated that the horses from Green Canyon were identical to the ones gathered further northwest. The horses from Cougar Spring and Green Canyon were mixed together when processed, so it's impossible to know which came from where, although he does remember that Cortez came from Cougar Spring).

January 1993-48 horses (including Diamond D Madrina [blood typed after adoption] and Colorado's Lady Hawk, both of which are SMR registered and also Sundance) gathered at a trap(s) on Mountain Home. One, a chestnut mare, was released to the Swasey HMA. She was recaptured in 2003, and sent to a sanctuary.

March 1993-69 horses (including Diamond D LaGrima [Annie], Chance [SHR 1024] and Spanish Lady, who were bloodtyped after adoption [Chance and Spanish Lady were also mtDNA tested, and found to have the "D1" pattern], and Sampson [SHR #1003] and Blossom [SHR #1006]) caught at Pot Sum Pah in the Southeast quadrant of Mountain Home. Four of the unadopted horses were released back to Mountain Home.

April 1993-three foals born in captivity.
In August 1993, the BLM paid Dr. Phil Sponenberg's expenses to visit Utah and evaluate the Sulphur horses.

December 1993-nine horses(740292, had previously been captured and released in 1985. She was recaptured at this time, making nine horses total. She was adopted by a [then] Sulphur breeder) caught southeast of Vance Springs. All but 740292 were bloodtyped. One of these, a dun stallion, was released to Conger and four others were released in Mountain Home.

February 1994-three horses caught on "state land reseed east of the Speers Ranch", (this should not be confused with "Speers reseed" trap site the 1992 horses were captured at. The Speers Ranch is in Nevada, about due west of Indian Peak) to prevent them from trespassing on the state-owned lands. All three were bloodtyped; and a dun stallion was released to the Chloride herd. By removing these horses from Indian Peak, the BLM created something of a "horse free zone" extending from the line I previously described as "from the crooked fence indicated on the map, extending southeast through the middle of Green's Canyon to the Indian Peak Game Management Area" extending south to another imaginary line running northwest from the southwest corner of the Indian Peak Game Management Area, which draws a lot of human traffic, discouraging horses from migrating back into the area.

February 1994-two more mares caught at the January trapsite southeast of Vance Springs. Both were bloodtyped; one was adopted by an early Sulphur breeder.

March, 1994-Ron Roubidoux writes Wild Horses of Utah's Mountain Home Range. At the time, Spanish Mustang Registry (SMR) inspectors would travel to inspect horses for inclusion in the registry (a year or two later, the SMR changed its bylaws and mandated that horses be brought to the registry's annual meeting to be inspected), so two months later representatives of the SMR came to Utah, inspected 20 Sulphur Horses, and accepted 17 of them into the registry.

Later in 1994, Ron Roubidox and some other Sulphur owners tossed around the idea of starting the "Utah Sulphur Springs Mustang Association", and conducted a survey to determine interest in the organization. The results weren't favorable at the time, but Roubidoux did go on to work with some Kiger owners in Oregon and Vicky Ives of Texas to form the "Spanish Mustang Coalition". That organization fell apart, and Ives went on to revive the Horse of the Americas Registry. However, one excellent remnant of the Spanish Mustang Coalition is the breed standard, which can be used by Sulphur fanciers to judge horses they are considering adopting, buying or breeding.

In June, 1995, representatives of the SMR visited Rexburg, Idaho, and accepted 12 (including Chief Wakara, Sampson (SHR 1003), Blossom (SHR 1006), Tafel and Strawberry) horses into the registry. Unfortunately, only Chief Wakara was actually registered. Early in 1997, most of these horses were leased to the Blackfeet Buffalo Horse Coalition.

September 1996-148 horses, including REO (SHR 1095), Cisco (SHR 1061), Mere (SHR 1030), LaBlanca (SHR 1060), Chulito Ballo (SHR 1082), Sulphur's Prince (SHR 1091) and Senior Diego (SHR 1085) captured on Mountain Home. Hardy Oelke visited Utah to evaluate the horses and included several of them in his book Born Survivors on the Eve of Extinction. A report of his evaluation can also be seen at Sulphur Springs and Sorraia Mustangs.

April 1998-16 horses captured south of Indian Peak.
In June 1997, Ron Roubidoux took Sulphur's Candy Stripe, Sulphur's Riddler, Sulphur's Sunshine and Sulphur's Dona Wana (these mares were captured in the 1996 roundup. The names aren't the ones these mares are known by now; they were subsequently sold to new owner who renamed them before disposing of them himself) to the 1997 SMR meeting, where they were inspected for registration and rejected (there were two other Sulphurs taken to the same meeting by another individual; those two were accepted).

Not long thereafter, Clinton Galbraith acquired most of the Sulphur Horses leased to the Blackfeet Buffalo Horse Coalition, and, along with the founders of the Sulphur Horse Registry (SHR), tried to follow through on the SMR registration. The one year time limit from the inspection date had lapsed, so, rather than try to get horses reinspected they, Ron Roubidoux, and other early Sulphur owners began work to establish the Sulphur Horse Registry.

September, 1997-Gus Cothran releases his blood typing analysis of the Sulphur Herd.3

September 1998-111 horses, including Desert's Fancy Lady (SHR 1101), La Victoria (SHR 1059) and Tequila Ole Oro (SHR 1051), rounded up west of Mountain Home Pass and placed for adoption. 17 old horses were gathered during this roundup; 15 were branded and released along with two stallions that had been previously branded. The brand of one of these stallions, a stunning grullo, had third and fourth digits, 4 and 5, that would indicate he came from the Pryor herd.4

October 1998-a membership campaign begins for the Sulphur Horse Registry. By the time the first newsletter is published in February, 1999, the registry has 36 members and 92 horses (SHR 1001 through SHR 1092) registered.