Who was Fargo?

by Gayle Hunt, Fargo’s person

“Don’t be afraid,” he would tell me. “I will always protect you.” That’s what Fargo, the wild Ochoco stallion, would say, when we would stumble across each other in the Ochoco Mountains. He said this by approaching me with no fear, then by standing guard over me. He watched over me for three years, until the Forest Service captured him. Then, I adopted him, and our roles were reversed as I guided him through the senseless world of humans.

This summer, Fargo got sick. All of his veterinarians loved him, and they fought day and night to save him. But now, it was my turn to assure him, that he should not fear. It is important to find all the strength you can, to give to someone you love very much, and as you give that gift to them, you make a sort of rope that keeps you bound together for all time.

Fargo loved going to schools and other places where kids might be. He had a way of acting disinterested, then inching closer until he was gently touching a young person he had chosen. That is why this is called Fargo’s Band. If he met you, he would love you, and you would be in his band.

Do you want to learn more? We love curiosity! Please email us any questions at contact@herd-magazine.com and we will be excited to answer them!

Fargo’s Creativity Corner

Come here to find fun crafts and contests!

Calling young artists.

 

In FARGO’S BAND, we want to offer a place to showcase your talents, and to help you develop them.

If you want to become more skilled at things you already like doing, the best ways to improve are to practice, and to show your work for others to enjoy. You are also encouraged to share your project with your teachers, for assistance, feedback, and maybe even extra credit!

The only rule is that your project needs to be about wild horses (or burros). At the end of the year, we will select the submissions which we feel best capture the essence of wild horses; not necessarily the drawing that is the most “correct” or the story that uses the biggest words. Skill is normally measured by technical achievement, but we believe it is also the ability to create from the vision in your mind, and the feelings in your heart.

Please send your submissions to contact@herd-magazine.com.

We have 5 categories:

1. Drawing and Painting. Images of wild horses in their natural habitat, or in their adoptive homes, or leaving the background to the imagination of the viewer.

2. Writing. Poems, true stories, or factual reports about real wild horse situations.

3. Crafts. Sculpture, pottery, mosaic, jewelry, beadwork, or anything you can imagine (just send photo).

4. Music. Write a song! (upload to YouTube)

5. Photography. Wild horses, or horses that were once wild. This may be difficult if you live in a big city. But you can call BLM to see if there are adopted wild horses in your area, horse shows with classes for Mustangs, or if your police department uses them.

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Nochecita, a wild horse from Nevada, painted this picture. Her owner, Sandy Klein, finished it with an outline of a horse head, but Nochecita did the most work. If a wild horse with no hands can paint, so can you!

The Real Wild Horse and Burro Habitat

 

The photos we’ve shared of the Ochoco Wild Horses are taken in a beautiful green forest. The only time the Ochoco forest isn’t green is when it’s a beautiful snowy forest, and the fuzzy red horses blend in with the wet bark of the Ponderosa pine trees. But that’s not how most wild horses and burros live.

This picture shows the kind of land where the majority of wild horses are found. It’s mostly sand and sagebrush. And yet, those horses have ranged over millions of acres, just like these, for thousands of years. We would consider these lands barren, and useless. We would not survive there. But wild horses (and burros) have adapted to the scarce forage and harsh conditions.

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The horses sometimes eat dry twigs of sagebrush, and they even eat crickets that hop around and chirp cricket talk in the sagebrush. Their warm and cozy “barns” are rocks that rise up against biting winds, to block some of the force of blowing sand or sleet. The desert also provides plants that the horses need for medicine and certain nutrients that keep the horses strong to outrun predators; seen and unseen.

So, here’s a “what if”. What if you were to create wild horse habitat…. on a CAKE? What if you were to bake a cake, either a round one or a square one or a rectangular one, and turn it into a desert or a forest with wild horses using your cake as habitat? You could bake your favorite flavor of cake, then when it’s nice and cool, you get to make the frosting look like a desert in the fall, like the picture above, or a desert in the spring (green!) or a forest in summer or a forest in winter. You can buy little plastic horses, or you can bake horse-shaped cookies. Or you could make marshmallow-toothpick horses. Or you could make cardboard horses. Or you could make burros.

You can also buy little plastic trees, or you can make cookie trees or cardboard trees. You can make rocks out of chocolate chunks or marshmallows, or you could make cardboard rocks. You could use real rocks, which might mean more cake for you because no one else would want to eat it. You can make sagebrush out of frosting blobs, or… broccoli! Or cardboard. You can make the frosting in several different colors in different bowls, like green grass, tan desert, blue water, brown rocks. Or, you can use different colors of sprinkles to achieve color.

But here’s an important frosting hint. When I was your age, I was scared to be alone when my family went to town. But my love for frosting was greater than my fear. I was the first one of us kids to decide I would be ok alone, but it was because I knew where the ingredients were kept to make all the frosting I ever wanted. My family doesn’t even know this secret, but now you do. This lifetime of making frosting has resulted in some expertise, which I am going to share with you. Keep it simple. All you need is powdered sugar (confectioners sugar), butter or margarine (you can substitute ½ cream cheese), a little milk (anything from skim to whole milk or half-and-half), and most importantly – a little salt. Most people make the mistake of adding vanilla. For some things, this is fine, but it distracts from the delicate blend of all the ingredients which are meant to complement the cake or cookie or cinnamon roll you are slathering the frosting on. Of course, you can buy frosting in a can, but trust, me, this is better. It’s worth being scared to death for, like when my family drove to town without me.

For a big cake, where you may need extra for decorating, use a two-pound package of powdered sugar, and two cubes of butter or substitute, and a few pinches of salt. Mix all this stuff first, then slowly add the milk so you can stop before it gets too runny for wild horse habitat.

And then… TAKE A PICTURE, and send it to us!

Cinnamon Dough Ornaments

The seasons are turning and fall is upon us. Nothing smells like fall than warm cinnamon and applesauce! You can make these ornaments when you are home with your family and enjoy some holiday joy!

This project will require you to use the oven, so be sure to ask adult to help you - it will make the project so much more fun if you create memories together. Also, it is important to remember that these will smell really good, but they are not good to eat.

  1. Get all your supplies ready for making the ornaments! You will need cinnamon, applesauce, glue, a mixing bowl, and a rubber spatula.

  2. Mix together 1 cup of ground cinnamon and 1/2 cup of applesauce. Mix until it’s all combined and looks kind of like dirt.

  3. Add the glue. You can start mixing with your hands to make it easier!

  4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it sit on the counter for one hour. It can be hard to wait, but this step is important! This is a perfect to go outside and make a snowman or watch your favorite holiday movie!

  5. Good job waiting! Have your adult help you set the oven to 200° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

  6. For this step, you need a knife - be sure to ask an adult. Cut your dough ball in half. Use a rolling pin to roll the cinnamon dough 1/4 inch thick. If the dough cracks while you are doing this, you can glue it back together with a little water.

  7. Use your cookie cutters to cut any shapes you like!

  8. Keep doing this until you use up all the dough. If it starts to get hard to work with, just add a little water to soften it.

  9. Use a straw to cut a hole in the top of ornament.

  10. Carefully put the cookies on the baking sheet. You can put them close together.

  11. Bake for two hours (have an adult help you with this). After one hour, using a spatula, flip the ornaments over - this way, they will bake evenly and stay flat. Your house will smell so yummy, like apple pie….mmmmmm……

  12. Once they are done baking, have your adult help you move them from the cookie sheet to a cooling rack. If you can be patient, it is best to let them sit overnight so they can finish drying and cooling.

Now you can decorate! You can use anything you want, but we think that puff paints are a great start! Then you can add glitter, sequins, or whatever you think looks best.

Carefully use scissors to cut a piece of ribbon about 12 inches long. Pull the ribbon through the ornament and tie a knot at the ends. And now it’s ready to go on your tree!

Keep a Folder

We want to offer everyone some opportunities to work on wild horse projects, but we also want to give you things that you may want to keep organized, so you can save your own projects along with information you may have collected from other sources.

The best way to do this might be to put everything in a folder. You can buy a folder, or a notebook, or you can make one. It can be as simple as cutting up a cereal box so you have two pieces of cardboard, then tape them together or punch holes in one edge so you can string ribbons through the holes. You can make the folder big enough to have pockets inside or out, or whatever works best for you. Of course, you can decorate it – your way.

At the end of the year 2121, we hope you will send us a picture of your folder. Just maybe there will be a prize for everyone who keeps a WILD HORSE AND BURRO FOLDER.

 
 
 
Print out this picture to color the horse of your dreams!

Print out this picture to color the horse of your dreams!