Local horse shelter on alert after cougar kills two foals

In 2018 a trail camera on this property caught a cougar drinking at the trough under our windmill so when The Horse Shelter just east of Cerrillos reported two foals were killed last week nobody was very surprised. 

An Appaloosa mare in our care that foaled in 2023 showed up without it several weeks later so the logical conclusion was that a cougar took it. She is ready to deliver again any day now and the herd has doubled in size hooking up with another probably from the Kewa Pueblo.

After consulting with The Horse Shelter and an equine veterinarian an area couple decided that the best way to protect some of the free-roaming horses is to buy hay when forage is scarce and three stallions were gelded but two of the Spring foals still need to be treated. 

“We are completely devastated by this loss and in response have taken as many precautions and actions as possible,” Susan Hemmerle, executive director of Santa Fe-based nonprofit The Horse Shelter, said in an email. She said the shelter has moved its other mares with foals, and a pregnant mare, off its ranch in Cerrillos “as they are at the greatest risk.” [Albuquerque Journal]

Federal land managers removed about 50,000 free-roaming horses and burros from public ground across the West from 2020 to 2023.

Colorado could outlaw the trophy hunting of cougars but red state Wyoming would pay to kill them.