Playing With Horses In South Dakota

Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary
Hot Springs, SD
GPS: 43.3129333^o, -103.6058833^o

Article published in Workamper News, July/August 2016, page 27

We are Bob and Michelle Hazlett of Titusville, FL. We have been workamping / volunteering for six years. Campground jobs are plentiful, and we have had a few of those. But what excites us is finding an unusual situation with interesting work and a flexible commitment – that usually means volunteering. This was one of the best and it was in South Dakota.

The Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary (BHWHS), an 11,000 acre sanctuary for rescued Mustangs, is just outside Hot Springs, SD on the southern edge of the Black Hills. The herd is over 500 horses rescued from many places, most from Bureau of Land Management land.

This workamping experience will go down as an "adventure of our lifetime". Ranching and horses was a different life for us. We had never done anything like it before. We found the horses, though wild, to be curious, playful, and friendly (at a distance). The ranch hands were hardworking and friendly with a great sense of humor. We city folks provided lots of material for their humor and we enjoyed the laughs too.

Our duties were primarily feeding and watering the horses. Bob also participated in ranch “fix-it” chores and Michelle worked in the Visitor Center Gift Shop and helped with bulk mailings. Feeding was done from a feed truck. We drove along a predetermined route through the mountains surrounding the ranch and deposited piles of feed at various locations. Watering was a similar task. Water troughs holding 400 gallons of water are situated at various locations in the mountains. We refilled them using a 300 gallon tank mounted on a pickup truck. In the heat of the summer, that became an almost continuing chore.

The ranch has a couple rental cabins. One was available for the long Labor Day weekend. So our son, his wife, and three boys joined us for a long weekend vacation. We took them out with us on the feed truck and let them interact with the horses. They still talk about that several years later. In the afternoon, we went a short distance to the Cascade Falls Swimming Hole for a refreshing dip in a real swimming hole. Be sure to check that out if you go there.

Mr. Dayton O. Hyde is the owner of the sanctuary. He recently celebrated his 95th birthday and has a long history as a rancher, rodeo cowboy, author, and conservation activist. Listening to his stories was an absolute delight and his sharp humor would often sneak up and grab you long after the joke was over. I love that.

Challenges came from the world of cyberspace. We had no problems with TV because we subscribe to Dish Network and my Tailgater antenna easily brought in the signal. Cell phone and internet were a different matter.

Our cell phones showed no bars at the ranch so we looked for a high spot. While making our rounds with the feed truck, I kept my cell phone on and watched the screen for some bars. Finally we found a spot on a hilltop where I got four bars. It was a beautiful location. We could see all the way to Wyoming. I named it "Four Bar Hill". From then on we stopped there every day to catch up on phone calls and voice mail.

For internet connection, we would go once a week into Hot Springs and spend most of the day in the library. Spending a day there was a pleasant respite from the ranch routine.

South Dakota is an expansive, sparsely populated midwestern state where rolling prairies give way to the dramatic Black Hills region in the western part of the state. The Missouri River flows south through the middle of the state. Dominant cities are Sioux Falls in the east and Rapid City in the west.

The Black Hills is home to two historical monuments carved right into towering granite peaks: Mt. Rushmore, the iconic depiction of four U.S. presidents, and Crazy Horse Memorial, a tribute to the legendary Native American tribal leader. And there is much more to see and do in the Black Hills region. This story is about workamping not touring so I can't do justice to any of these places in this short article. Let me just reel off some names. You can 'google' them on your own: Sturgis, Custer SP, Custer City, Wind Cave NP, Badlands NP, Wall Drug, Spearfish Canyon, Mammoth Site, Angostura Recreation Area (Cheyenne River), Cascade Falls Swimming Hole (43.319459, -103.563667).

Workamping isn’t just about working. It’s also about making memories. We made many that summer at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary.

Loading the feed truck with grandson

Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary entrance

Water Truck Holding 300 gallons

Workamper FHU RV site

Michelle bucket feeding horses with grandson Andrew

Cascade Falls swimming hole

Running Free in the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary – SD

Article published in WorKamper News, July/August 2013, page 39

During the summer of 2012, Bob and Michelle Hazlett spent three months volunteering at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary in Hot Springs, SD. This is an 11,000 acre sanctuary for rescued Mustangs. The herd is over 500 horses rescued from many places, the majority from Bureau of Land Management land.

The ranch proper sits in a box canyon and the horses freely roam the surrounding hills

Our duties were primarily feeding and watering the horses. Bob also participated in ranch “fix-it” chores and Michelle worked in the Visitor Center Gift Shop.

How do you feed and water WILD horses? With a truck of course. Our job was to disperse what could be considered nutritional supplements to the primary food source which is grazing on the natural landscape. We hauled water to 700 gallon water troughs located at various places in the hills around the ranch.

The Feed Truck is a familiar sight to the horses ...

... and they come running as soon as they see it
Hauling water can be an endless task in the heat of the summer especially in drought conditions like we experienced throughout the US in 2012

The horses could easily empty several of these 700 gallon water troughs in a day

While doing our chores, we always kept a sharp eye out for horses that had been injured. While we were there, one horse was bitten on the nose by a rattlesnake. She had to be caught and transported to the ranch for treatment. Horses always travel in pairs, so her friend had to be rounded up and brought along. A few weeks later we watched an obvious celebration when those two horses were released back into the herd. There was no mistaking the joy being felt by all the horses at the return of their comrades.

One day we saw a young horse limping badly. Close inspection revealed a nasty cut on her right front ankle. For the next two weeks we carried a bucket of feed mixed with medication. It took a couple days to get her to come close and eat from the bucket. From then on she expected the special treatment and came running to us every time she saw the feed truck … and of course we had to have a bucket for her friend.

Many of the horses have been given names by the ranch hands.
This is Bella who we medicated for about two weeks for a nasty ankle wound.
We became best friends.

All God’s creatures – two legged, four legged, slithering and flying – fear fire. The summer of 2012 was a bad time for fire in the western US. High temperatures and no rain made places like the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary a tinder box. Dry lightening caused many fires in the hills around the ranch.

This fire in July 2012 was on the ranch and almost caused an evacuation

Both Bob and Michelle are city folk. "We have no ranching experience in our background. WorKamping adventures like this give us a way to experience completely different lifestyles. We look forward to many more".

They Call The Wind Maria

Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, Hot Springs, SD

Away out here they got a name
For rain and wind and fire

The rain is TESS

the fire JOE

And they call the wind MARIA

Maria blows the stars around
And sends the clouds a’flyin’
Maria makes the mountains sound
Like folks were up there dyin'

Pronunciation of "Maria": The soft Spanish pronunciation is fine for some heroines, but our Maria here is too big for any man to embrace and much too boisterous. So put the accent on the second syllable, and pronounce it 'rye'.

"They Call the Wind Maria" is an American popular song with lyrics written by Alan J. Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe for their 1951 Broadway musical, Paint Your Wagon.

This year we have not seen TESS at all. The area is in severe drought conditions -- as is most of the US except for the east coast. The Cheyenne River is down to a trickle.

We have had a few bouts with JOE. Due to our drought conditions this summer, the Sanctuary along with other parts of the country are suffering through very dry conditions. With hot temperatures, occasional high wind and dry cell thunder storms we are receiving our share of lightening strike fires. Pictured is the Middle Canyon Fire at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, South Dakota on July 21, 2012.

MARIA makes her presence known frequently, usually in late afternoon or early evening. Often she gives us a blinding dust storm. How else could I take a picture of the wind. If I get a good one, I'll post it here.