An Española Mystery
Mike Smith
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Over the years, our state has become somewhat infamous as a backdrop for mysterious livestock mutilations—incidents in which cows and horses are killed, carved up, and at least partially drained of blood—incidents attributed to everything from extraterrestrial aliens, to satanic cults, to coyotes.
No one seems to be invoking aliens for the recent death of a horse in Española, but nearly everyone involved agrees it is a bit mysterious.
The May 15, 2008 Rio Grande Sun reported that on the afternoon of Saturday, May 10, a gruesome scene revealed itself in the north-central New Mexico town of Española. Jeff Fordham, a man living near an enclosed horse pasture, reported discovering a six-week-old, brown-and-white foal lying dead on the ground, along with two adult horses who appeared to have been savagely beaten.
The young foal, it seemed, had been killed by a blow to the head.
The foal’s mother, a nine-year-old mostly white Appaloosa mare named Baby Doll, appeared to have been bludgeoned about her face, in particular around her right eye, which was remarkably swollen. Her lower lip hung unnaturally slack, indicating damage to the horse’s nerves.
The other adult horse—an eight-year-old brown-and-white paint gelding named Bubba—stood dripping blood down the length of its face, from a smashed orbital bone surrounding its right eye. He moved in a disoriented manner likely caused by brain damage, seemed unable to open his mouth, and initially refused all offers of food and water.
Fordham, the scene’s discoverer, watched the surviving horses, until their owner, Teresa Sheriff, arrived that evening. Sheriff attempted unsuccessfully to arrange for a veterinarian to head northeast from Los Alamos—one couldn’t be scheduled until May 11, the next day—and then settled for applying cold compresses to the two horses’ swollen heads.
In time, everyone from a veterinarian, to a state livestock inspector, to an Española Animal Control officer, would take a look at the grisly equine aftermath, though not all would agree on a probable cause.
Sheriff, Fordham, and the veterinarian who later examined the two survivors, a Dr. Doug Thal, suspect the horses were attacked by people. Fordham, more than anyone, seemed concerned about the possibility, since he lives nearby and has horses of his own; he cited finding beer bottles near the dead foal and a conversation he had with two passing motorists.
According to the Sun article:
Fordham said while he was keeping vigil over the horses May 10, something suspicious happened — two teenagers drove by in a car as it was getting dark.
"I said, 'Are these your horses?'" Fordham said. "They said, 'No, we drove by earlier and we were wondering if that one is dead.'"
Dr. Thal wondered aloud whether any of the sizeable rocks scattered around the pasture might have been used to bash the horses's faces, and to kill the foal.
But livestock inspector Donald Maestas and Española Animal Control officer Tommy Gurule believe there’s a more likely explanation.
Again, from the Sun:
"The most logical explanation is the mare and the gelding got into a fight, and the foal got in the middle," Maestas said Tuesday. "That baby had a solid kick on the forehead."
Española Animal Control officer Tommy Gurule said it appeared the mare was in heat and the gelding tried mounting her, initiating a dispute.
"The way I looked at it it looked like a hoofprint on the (foal's) forehead," Española Animal Control officer Evaristo Lopez said.
Thal doesn’t seem too interested in accepting that theory, and Sheriff—despite hearing from Maestas that a mare’s attitude will sometimes sour drastically after giving birth—maintains that the two adults got along just fine in the same pasture for three years, and she believes a fight unlikely. They’re kind of attached to their idea still, and don’t want to give it up yet, but Maestas has no plans to investigate the happening any further.
For now, it seems the parties involved will not be agreeing on a solution to this mystery anytime soon, unless it’s to agree that, whatever it was that hurt their horses, it didn’t beam down from a flying saucer, or travel here from another planet.
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