Neighbors win wild horse reprieve

A wild horse slated for removal from a band off Deer Run Road got a reprieve Friday when a group of neighbors asked the Bureau of Land Management to reconsider.

Greg Hendricks noticed on Thursday a corral to capture a horse was set up at Ambrose Park. He said when he called the BLM to inquire about the corral, he was told someone had complained that a colt in a small band familiar to the area had acted aggressively toward a woman on horseback.

The news caused a slight uproar in the neighborhood, and on Friday morning, Hendricks, accompanied by neighbor Steve Rose and others, arrived at the BLM office on Morgan Mill Road just after 6 a.m. to ask that the colt be given a second chance. The BLM agreed.

"There was a report last week that horse literally almost attacked someone riding their domestic horse in the area. We decided to go out and set up a temporary trap to see if we could get that particular stud out of the area. Some folks called and complained and came by and talked to us and we decided to pull the trap out," said Mark Struble, BLM spokesman. "We'll just monitor the situation and if we find that this horse is a danger ... we'll need to get him out of there."

The news was a relief to Merlyn Smith, 88, who said he has gone out to that area every day, sometimes twice a day, for several years to watch that band of horses.

"They are like family to me. And there are a lot of those people that live out there that just love that group of horses. They don't want one of them pulled out of the bunch," he said.