Place Found Where Horses 'Disappear' |
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| During the ‘97 research trip there was considerable concern when the horses seemed to disappear for two whole months. Farm workers who know the animals were not bothered, but for me and a few people not familiar with all the nooks and crannies of the area where the hroses roam, it was a disturbing time. The ‘disappearance‘, in retrospect, had much to do with the fact that at the time I was trying to cover the entire farm forest area on a bicycle (see article 'Herd Disappears'). During 1998, with the use of a moped (see article, 'AARK Donates'), and a slowly developing ability to do a little tracking, I found one of the places where the horses go. In fact, the two main groups of the herd, belonging to Hadar and Mimosa (see article Who’s Who'), spent nearly three months in what I can only describe as an equine paradise. |
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| Dubhe, left Acamar, right. | |||||||||||
| The area is located just south of the heart of the farm and is a particularly rocky, hilly and wet area. It is lush with vegetation both wild (left by farm management as windbreaks) and planted areas established by farm workers. Sugar cane, bananas, beans, grasses all flourish here. Even during three months of no rain, puddles and seeps remained filled, tadpoles were everywhere once the rains did come. The horses were sleek and shining, often grazing in areas where the greenery hid them completely. They could not be spotted inthe normal manner but had to be tracked. Often the only clue to their specific whereabouts (aside from droppings) was the occasional snort. It was notcied that many times the horses would move out of the sloughs into some of the citrus grove rows that comprise the farm. Here they would eat dried grasses that had been mowed. Perhaps the dry fodder offset some of the richness of the diet found in the sloughs. |
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| Left to right, Dubhe, Nunki and Acamar |
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