Life during COVID-19 (and normal weekends!) at Ridgecrest Corrals

One day JJ Nolan, a wrangler at Ridgecrest Regional Corrals, was doing a routine check of the facility.  First, he drove the utility vehicle around the perimeter looking over the horses and burros.  Then he drove down the interior alley.  Given the pens are acres in size, he could not see everything from the perimeter and the animals may not be standing near the perimeter fences. He may also follow up on something he saw from the perimeter view.  He looked for obvious things, or perhaps out of the ordinary things, when checking the corrals such as newborn foals, injured animals, broken water lines, or damaged fences. 

When driving down the alley, he noticed a horse that did not “look right.”  She was in a pen with 50 other horses, but she stood out to his experienced eye. When he first saw her, she was eating.  Then she moved, but not correctly. Her head was down but not to the ground, as if she was eating.  She was also standing on three legs. At first he thought she might be scratching her face with her hind leg, a normal behavior.  He watched her for a moment but she did not change her position.  He realized that her hind hoof was caught in her mane, a situation he had never seen before.  She was not in this predicament the day before but he had no idea how long she had been in that position, and he knew she needed help immediately.  If she stayed like that, she could hurt herself…or worse.

He went into the pen and tried to get her to move, hoping she could pull her hoof from the tangled mane, but she could not.  Thinking quickly, he approached her and hip-checked her to lay her down.  While that sounds extreme, keep in mind he was working with a wild horse who had no handling, was probably in pain, and was in a dire situation.  When she was down, he cut her mane above the tangled hoof with a pocketknife.  When her hoof was freed, JJ jumped up and ran away to avoid her kicking or biting him.  She got up and limped over to the water.  She was clearly sore from her ordeal, but she was up and moving.  He saw no point in stressing her further by separating her from the pen.  He hoped she would recover after her muscles stretched.

The next day he was relieved to see that she was up and moving about normally.  On Wednesday she was still a little sore but was eating, drinking, and moving well with her pen mates.  She will be monitored and given as much time as she needs to recover before she is offered for adoption, which would happen even if the corrals were open for adoptions right now.

Wranglers do more than sort and move animals around at the corrals.  The wranglers do not feed the animals; Ridgecrest Corrals have feeding contractors to take care of that duty, allowing the wranglers to focus on other activities.  The contractors also provide another set of eyes on the animals and call the staff when they notice a problem. The wranglers’ knowledge of horse and burro behavior and health is critical for their jobs and the welfare of the animals.  They also need to know how to think quickly on their feet and handle emergencies like this one. Not just anyone can do this job, let along do it well. 

Once the Ridgecrest Corrals are open for adoption, this mare, from the Devils Garden Wild Horse Territory, and the rest of the animals at the Ridgecrest Corrals will be available for adoption.  Until then, rest assured that the staff of the Ridgecrest Corrals are keeping a close watch on the animals.