Economy is hard on horses too ALBUQUERQUE - The Walkin' N Circles Ranch, an Edgewood, N.M., equine rescue sanctuary, was staging an "adopt-a-thon" on a recent Saturday when the event was interrupted by the arrival of state livestock inspectors bringing in three malnourished horses. "The horses had been dumped out on the highway," recalled Charles Graham, the sanctuary's executive director, adding that it wasn't an isolated incident. Starved, abused and abandoned horses have shown up in increasing numbers at the ranch, currently home to more than 90 animals, 50% more than its usual population. Across New Mexico, officials say, hungry horses are being turned loose on public and tribal land or left by the side of the road. Others languish out of sight in backyard stalls, like the six emaciated horses Albuquerque police discovered in June when they answered an unrelated call at an auto salvage business. Lingering drought has sharply boosted hay prices in an already weak economy, driving an uptick in neglect and abuse cases being investigated by the New Mexico Livestock Board, said Myles Culbertson, the agency's executive director. Inspectors handled about 140 investigations in the just-ended fiscal year, compared with 90 the previous year, he said. "We've seen a gradual increase for quite a while," Culbertson said. Each year we have more animal cruelty investigations. People too often buy horses without appreciating the needs of a large creature that can live for 30 years or more, Culbertson said. Feed, grooming and veterinary care for a horse ranges from $2,300 to $3,000 a year. In many households, he said, if someone loses a job or sees a wage reduction, something has to give - and the horse often winds up on the losing end. It may cost more to transport a horse to auction than it would sell for, so some owners turn their animals out in the wild to fend for themselves. "Horses that have had care all their lives are not going to know how to adapt to that situation," Culbertson said. Feral horses are already having an "extreme ecological impact" on the state's rangeland, he said, noting that officials from the Navajo Nation, which encompasses parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, have estimated there are 90,000 unclaimed horses on tribal land. Graham buys hay wholesale from a farmer in Arizona for $16 to $18 per 105-pound bale - enough to feed a horse for five or six days. Private owners might pay as much as $29 per bale retail, he said; a few years ago, before drought curtailed hay production, they would have paid $7 to $10. The rise in unwanted animals nationally is reflected in the number exported abroad for slaughter each year - about 138,000, according to a 2011 Government Accountability Office estimate. Animal welfare organizations say unwanted horses should be euthanized, but Graham doubts that would work. How in the heck are they going to euthanize 130,000 horses? That's the result of over-breeding in our country," he said. He supports humanely designed U.S.-based horse slaughtering plants, although Congress is poised to extend a ban on federal inspections that essentially shut down the domestic horse slaughtering business in 2007. Ericka Caslin, director of the Unwanted Horse Coalition at the Washington-based American Horse Council, said her group recently started a program to help pay for gelding stallions as a way of reducing the number of unwanted horses. "We have seen an increase in horse abandonment in the past few years," Caslin said. We try to teach people a lot about responsible ownership and what goes into owning a horse before they even buy one. Haederle writes for The Times.