Expert Witness
I was born in Burns, Oregon in 1950, and at 7 years old my parents moved to Prairie City, Oregon. My father was a mechanic by trade and was an avid archer and hunter. He taught me tracking and habits of most animals at an early age.
In 1968 I had filed on a mining claim on Vinegar Creek in Baker County with an old World War II veteran named Harold Edwards, and through him got interested in guiding disabled veterans on elk hunts, which I did about 10 years until licensing and insurance got outrageous. In 1972 I bought a log truck and began a trucking career that brought me to the Ochocos a lot, logging for Hudspeth, Crown, Ochoco Lumber Co. along with Edward Hines and Prairie Wood Products and Ellingston Lumber out of Unity and Baker Oregon. We hauled into and out of Northern California, Western Idaho, and Central and Southern Montana. Going into long-haul trucking gave me occasion to see game animals and predators in nearly every state, and Canada and Mexico.
My point to the reader of this letter is to point out my personal early association with the Ochoco wild horses, and the rest of the wildlife in this and many other areas of our State of Oregon.
About 5 or 6 years ago, after tesling in the Grizzly and Ochoco Units, my wife and I and two other couples filed a mining claim on Ochoco Creek. That claim is 80 acres and also takes in part of Fisher Creek and is called Bull Run #6. One year later, three more couples filed on Bull Run #7 which is 120 acres. Over the course of the years of tesling on Ochoco Creek, I got to see the wild horses, and deer and elk, a lot. Now we see smaller bunches of 15 to 20 wander by, but they are more nervous acting than they used to be.
For the last three years, deer and elk sightings have dropped to practically none. We still see the horses, but not in groups big as 6 to 10 years ago. Three years ago in the spring while mining where Fisher Creek meets Ochoco Creek, I had been there for about an hour when movement above me on the creek bank caught my attention. It turned out to be two mares and two colts and they just seemed to be watching me, but kept looking up the creek, then back at me. The two mares seemed spooked, but not of me, though I didn’t know why.
After about a half hour, I got curious as to why they stayed about 20 feet from me, so finally I picked up my sluice and pan and shovel, and headed upstream to my pickup. The horses paralleled me but stayed on the south side of the creek. I put my equipment away, reached in and got my coffee cup, still watching the horses.
Curiosity got to me, so I crossed the creek, and all four horses backed off to about 30 feet. As I headed up the hill, they followed me at about 20 to 50 feet. I walked over to Fisher Creek and traveling up the east side of it, I found where several horses had crossed it and headed south, up the ridge.
About 40 minutes later as I broke out of the draw into more open ground, I spotted several more horses at about 50 yards from me. The horses spotted me at the same time, and a horse I thought at the time was a stud and had been off to the left of the rest of the horses trotted quickly over, placing himself between me and his herd.
That all happened really quick, and at the same time I heard the horses behind me start to move. I started to turn around, but they shot by me at a fast trot and rejoined the herd, and with soft nickers they were welcomed and seemed to be checked over to make sure they were ok. Meantime, the stud had become more agitated, pacing back and forth, stomping, blowing, and shaking his head. I didn’t want to disturb them any further, so I backed away and headed down the draw. Following the horses’ tracks where they had crossed Fisher Creek back to the west, about 50 yards in, I found where the four horses had split away, and by crossing back and forth between the two sets of tracks, I found in a small patch of snow, three or four fresh cougar tracks. Closer study told me the cat wasn’t very big. I figured about 130 or so pounds and two or three years old.
At this point I was sure the cat had cut those four horses away in hopes of getting one of the colts. Whether they saw the cat, smelled it, or it growled, I don’t know, but whatever the cat did, it put enough fear in them to make them leave the herd. The two mares apparently knew that getting closer to me than was comfortable to them, and me, that the cat would not come closer.
I will cherish this memory for the rest of my life, and it explained instances in past years where deer, elk, and even rabbits have stayed close to people where normally they would have been instantly gone.
One thing I’d like to add here is just this: I wish every person in Prineville could experience what I did, with those two mares and the two colts.
If the Forest Service and others continue down the path they are taking, especially 12-57 wild horses, in my opinion, it will spell an end totally for the wild horse herd, because no one is factoring the predators into the total equation.
