Woman is at home among rescued horses

Joshua Tree Ranch operator Charla King smiles at Indigo, one of her rescued horses. Of the way she chooses a horse, she says,"One of the things that I look for is a kind eye."

JOSHUA TREE -Heart and soul of the Joshua Tree Ranch here, the smiling and no-nonsense Charla King acts as the backbone of daily operations as well as the expert on all things equine.

Ranch owner Wally Barker found a woman with a passion for horses and the willingness to do the physical labor to manage the operation via a 3-by-5 index card he posted on a bulletin board.

In addition to overseeing the ranch's breeding, boarding, buying and selling of horses, King runs the ranch's trail-riding operation.

Between King and Barker, they have the experience, both with horses and in business, to make a go of it.

After a childhood of searching out "all horses within a 10-mile radius," King finally purchased her first horse, Rummy, when she was 30, with her income tax return.

She convinced her husband one horse would be enough for her.

Eight years later, she owns 15 of the furry quadrupeds, all boarded at the ranch. They're in various phases of training and getting ready to do trail rides, and a few are pregnant. But she's in no hurry to move a horse along.

"Most of these horses were adopted from neglected homes," says King of her horses along with Barker's 15. "I have a few horses that were really thin, that came from auction yards."

As King spoke at the ranch recently, she pointed out Indigo as a good example of the type of horse she brings to the ranch.

"This would have been the kind of horse who would have gone to a feed lot," said King of the beautiful blue-toned horse she got for $175 at auction. "They can get a lot of money for her because she's big. She would have ended up on a plate."

As she spoke, Indigo backed up toward her, rear-end first, for a little scratch.

"I breed. I train. I drive carriage. I just dove into it," she declared. "Rummy changed my life. This is not a hobby for me."

Overall, the ranch boarders appeared to be a pretty peaceful and contented lot. Although four stallions do live on the property, King said,"You'd never know it."

"Basically, she runs the ranch by herself with her family," said ranch spokeswoman Marie Salsberry.

King's 13-year-old daughter, a fine rider in her own right, trains and exercises boarding horses.

Salsberry, who also boards and trains her horses at the ranch, explained trail rides go for one, two and three hours or all day. They are available for all levels and are guided by an experienced trail boss.

"All-day rides are on public lands and established horse trails on the south side of Joshua Tree," said Salsberry.

The ranch is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. They recommend calling ahead for trail-riding reservations. Summertime rides are by reservation only.

For details, call 366-5357 or visit www.joshuatreeranch.com

Adopted wild mustang gives birth

Not long after its birth, a colt nuzzles up to its mother, a wild mustang Marie Salsberry of Joshua Tree adopted from the Bureau of Land Management.

JOSHUA TREE - When Marie Salsberry brought her newly adopted wild mustang home to Joshua Tree, she had a hunch that the 4-year-old mare she named India might bear a surprise come spring. Sure enough, India gave birth to a colt the night of March 9, using all of her motherly and wild instinct to time his arrival in the safety of darkness, an hour before the moon rose.

According to Salsberry, these leggy quadrupeds come into the world equipped to avoid predators and run with the herd within an hour of their arrival.

Apparently, this little mustang is no exception. "He ran around for hours," said Salsberry of the silvery black animal with a curly mane and tail, and shaggy newborn beard.

To adopt her wild mustang, Salsberry ventured with Charla King, manager and operator of the Joshua Tree Ranch, to Ridgecrest where the Bureau of Land Management runs an arm of its National Wild Horse and Burro Program.

Salsberry says there were about 700 horses for adoption at the BLM facility there.

She spent three days picking out her horse. "I spent an entire day looking at the horses with binoculars. You take the number of the one you like. There's a file for each horse with its age and where it came from."

The second day, she went into the pens in a little golf car, ostensibly to get a little closer - a difficult task with wild mustangs.

"I wanted a true mustang influence," she explained. "There are a lot of feral horses that have escaped from domestic horse ranches and have taken up with a herd, or have descended from such a horse. I was looking for a horse with a more wild heritage."

Salsberry sought a strong horse with endurance because she wants to do a lot of back-country riding.

Salsberry's horse was rounded up in August from Southern Nevada, in an area the BLM refers to as the Dry Lakes Area. Because it was after breeding season, and India looked ever so slightly round, she thought there was a chance that she would confront a birthing horse within a few months.

As part of managing public lands, the BLM manages the wild horse and burro population. According to the BLM, without natural predators, wild horses and burros reproduce at a rate of about 18 percent a year.

Food and water available on the public range lands cannot sustain this population growth in conjunction with other wildlife and domestic livestock.

Each year the BLM rounds up extra populations from areas determined to have food and water shortages. These animals are offered to qualified people for auction through the adopt-a-horse program at a variety of facilities.

In fact, the BLM placed more than 178,000 wild horses and burros into private care from 1973 to 2000.