MORAN — The two horses that went missing somewhere north of Moran on Oct. 27 remain lost more than six weeks later. Extensive aerial searches have turned up nothing, and winter has settled into the high country.
"Nothing yet," Ron Ostrom, one of the horse owners, told Cowboy State Daily. "We've got the brand inspectors in three states looking for him. There's a pile of people looking for him. That's all we can say right now."
Ostrom said the horses left camp during a late-season outing in the mountains.
"It was such a nice fall. We were just riding, camping out," Ostrom said. "We looked for them for a week up there in the mountains before we decided that we had to come out."
The Turpin Meadow area appears to be the last confirmed location for the animals, though Ostrom said reports from other trail users have been inconsistent.
"Because of people riding up and down the trail, we were given mixed stories on whether they were seen," Ostrom said. "But that Turpin Meadow area has got to be the last point."
Aerial Searches
Ostrom hired a pilot out of Cody to search the backcountry from above.
"We hired a plane, and we flew three different times flying over all of that country," Ostrom said. "And no sign of any tracks or anything — because you're looking for whether they're alive or they could be dead. But just nothing at all."
Through that pilot, Ostrom discovered he wasn't alone in searching for missing horses.
"There's an outfitter that's lost horses too, and they've been flying too," Ostrom said. "So we've been in coordination with each other."
The outfitter has two or three horses missing on the Cody side, which could bring the total number of lost animals in the general area to as many as five.
Ostrom said the connection happened coincidentally because the pilot was working both searches.
"We don't really know the outfitter. It's the guy that was flying and said, 'Well, last week we flew looking for these outfitter horses,'" Ostrom said.
He added: "It's the way we are in Wyoming. It's like, ‘Well heck, if we got a chance to help somebody, we're always going to do that.’"
Unwanted Attention
Ostrom declined to identify the outfitter, citing harassment that coverage of the missing horses has generated.
"We've been getting some hate emails and phone calls," Ostrom said. "They accuse us of being outfitters and that we torture these horses and stuff like that.”
He took the negativity in stride.
"Ninety percent or higher is good," Ostrom said of the comments he’s received. "There's always a few oddballs somewhere."
Wildlife Watchers
Ostrom said he's also reached out to wildlife officials who conduct aerial surveys, hoping they might spot the horses while monitoring wolf populations.
"It's usually the Fish and Wildlife Service, but I think this year Game and Fish is who I found out flies for the wolves. They got their radio collars and all that," Ostrom said. "And so I called them and said, ‘Hey, keep your eyes out. There's a few horses up there.’"
Drone Limits
Alex McElligott operates a $20,000 thermal imaging drone designed to locate lost animals, and Ostrom learned about his services reading Cowboy State Daily.
Ostrom hired McElligott, who traveled to the Turpin Meadow Loop Trailhead but quickly ran into federal regulations that limited where he could fly.
"There's a designated wilderness area to the north of it," McElligott told Cowboy State Daily. "So without any permits, there wasn't really anywhere to look."
Still, Ostrom wanted to rule out the accessible areas.
"He felt like he needed to exhaust all resources," McElligott said of Ostrom's reasoning for calling him out.
McElligott scanned what he could legally fly over.
"I searched at the trailhead for a couple hours up and down and not really much farther into the woods I could go, legally speaking," McElligott said. "There was nothing there."
Federal Aviation Administration regulations made obtaining wilderness permits impractical for an urgent animal search, McElligott explained.
"They ask you to apply for a permit if you want to fly in these places beforehand," he said. "So you don't know if you're going to get approved in 12 days or 90 days. That's why we didn't apply for anything.”
Survival Chances
Despite deep snow and brutal conditions in the wilderness north of Moran, there's a chance — possibly slim — the horses could make it through winter.
Heather Schultz, chairman of the Wyoming Back Country Horsemen of America and a member of the organization's national board of directors, said horses have been known to adapt their behavior to survive.
"It's not good, but I've heard stories," Schultz told Cowboy State Daily, describing the situation. "I've heard some crazy stories about horses joining the elk herd or whatever. Following the elk to forage."
Schultz said her own horse, an Arabian named Apache, demonstrates exactly this kind of cross-species bonding.
"He's not equine specific with his bond," Schultz said. "Bison and elk and moose — I think he would join any herd."
The first time she noticed the behavior, she was riding with friends in Colorado and encountered bison.
"I was a little concerned because I hadn't had him around bison. And I didn't know what his reaction was going to be," Schultz said. "He started and went into it and then wanted to stay with the bison and not go with all my friends on their horses. I was just kind of laughing. I was like, ‘Dude, just go, we're going. We're not staying with the bison.’"
Will the missing horses near Moran survive the onset of winter? It’s hard to say, said Schultz.
"You just never know. It depends on the personality of the horse, the country they're in, how well they can move around," Schultz said. "There's just so many variables."
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
