LMC

poss

Fwd: The Gang

poss

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Poss Chapman" <oldchap4horses@gmail.com>
Date: Jan 28, 2016 6:24 PM
Subject: The Gang
To: <posschap@gmail.com>
Cc:

Well, here we go with the first installment of The Gang From Grateful!

At the moment we are 13 horses, half domestic, half wild, on a hillside in a little town called Gallina; not counting the two stud colts, Ruben and Chaco, still in Lindrith where I bunk, along with the dogs and assorted feral cats.  It was the only patch I could find, when none of  our other options panned out.  I had a feeling it wasn't a great option but where it seemed to be the only option, I set to make it work, best I could; it was way more "in town" than any of us were accustom and once winter set in there'd be no movin'.

We started out on the west side of the small 20 acre patch, with a small pasture for the wild ones and another for the domestic bunch, thinning and clearing best I could, so they had some visibility and room to run if they got spooked by neighbors or wildlife.

I figured we were pretty well set, though it was a cold and windy corner, that got little winter sun, north slope of the San Pedro mountains, as it was and I did have to haul water from the east side, up a muddy access road, that drifted in pretty bad when it snowed.

Then, just a few days before Christmas the elk came through; that morning, I showed up and all the fences were in bits and pieces, horse and elk tracks everywhere, but nary a horse in sight.  "In town" as it was, the little burough is surrounded by national forest and the San Pedro wilderness and people or not, the elk do come down lookin' for shallower snow.