VEST POCKET HORSES

REPORTS of a band of pygmy horses, trapped in a virtually inaccessible gorge by a landslide that sealed the entrance, persistently reached the National Park Service at Grand Canyon. According to the stories, these miniatureedition horses were the offspring of an original pair that wandered into an isolated canyon many years ago and were hemmed in by the slide. Via the radio and other mediums, these horses shrank rapdily from the size of dogs down to "no larger than jackrabbits."

Grand Canyon with its 1009 square mile area is a sizable place. When you sprinkle those square miles with a liberal helping of yawning chasms and perpendicular cliffs that are practically unscalable, such a band of horses could easily exist within the great gorge without detection.

It is probable that many of the peaks and chasms that compose Grand Canyon have never felt the tread of man. The isolation of one of the towering temples so intrigued the scientific minds of a great Eastern museum that an elaborate expedition was organized to scale the sheer walls guarding the plateau capping the pinnacle called Shiva Temple.

Park officials, too, wondered about the so-called Canyon of Little Horses. "Where there's smoke, there's fire. There might be truth in the rumor of a miniature equine type. Grand Canyon is fantastic itself-maybe we've got something." Before telling the world about this remarkable livestock, they decided to take a look around.

To settle the question once and for all time, M. R. Tillotson, superintendent of the Park, delegated Naturalist Edwin D. McKee, Assistant Chief Ranger Warren Hamilton, and Ranger Bert Lauzon, to organize a pack outfit and visit the Canyon of Little Horses.

Rumor placed this mythical spot somewhere between Havasu Canyon, 35 miles west of Grand Canyon village, and Great Thumb Point that juts into Grand Canyon from the south rim.

Vest Pocket

. . . HORSES

By H. G. FRANSE From Official Reports of the National Park Service Early in 1938 the expedition gathered at Hilltop at the head of the trail to Supai village in Havasu Canyon and went down from there. Jack Jones and Claude Wathomagie, Supai Indian guides, joined the party at Supai.

The venture into this little-known region cannot be described better than by McKee's and Lauzon's official reports.

Are my horses in the Grand Canyon? Interesting, if true! So an investigation was made, led by Park Naturalists, who believe nothing but the facts. The facts were found, and the whole problem is settled once and for all.

"We started out," said Lauzon, "in a cold wet rain. At Supai village, we made camp in a large dry cave. After graining the stock and eating supper, we settled down around the campfire to discuss our plans for the following day. About the time we got all set for a quiet evening we saw a number of lights come bobbing through the darkness toward our camp. It was the Supai Indian Councilmen and other members of the tribe coming to visit with us. Commenting on the meeting with the Supai Councilmen, Naturalist McKee wrote: "Around a campfire in Havasu Canyon, seated among members of the National Park Service expedition and nine Indians of the Havasupai tribe, Big Jim Gwetva, a chief, talking through an interpreter, spoke about the history of his people. Then followed a questioning as to our aims and plans, and a welcome extended by the Indians. Among other things, Big Jim stated that all of the horses in the area where we were going 'belonged to the old people' (his ancestors' formerly owned all the land eastward to the Little Colorado and to the San Francisco Peaks)."

"The Supais told us," Lauzon continued, "of three little sand rock horses that had been captured and were in a pasture near the village at that time. They said that these little horses range up Havasu Canyon for thirty miles; west on the sand rocks in Grand Canyon to Mohawk Canyon, and east to the Great Thumb.

"The Indian delegation lingered with us until past nine o'clock. Then Alva Jones, one of the Supais, said 'You shake hands with Big Jim and say good night, then all Indians go home.' It worked!

"We drove down to the falls the next day and stopped at Packadacoba's pasture to measure the little horses the Indians had told us about. Our Supai guides roped them."

In reporting the measurements of one of these horses, Naturalist McKee said: "The statement was made and confirmed by several Indians that this was the smallest horse they had seen in the region. It measured 48 inches at the shoulder, 61 inches from the ground to top of head erect, 53 inches girth, and 60 inches from ears to tail. The length of the head was 22 inches, and its age, judging by its teeth, was about 11 years. Estimates of weight placed it around 300 pounds. Four other horses, two from the Cataract country and two on the Esplande to the east, were caught and measured but all were slightly larger."

"On our way out of Havasu Canyon,"

said Lauzon, "we had not gone far when the lead pack horse bumped its pack on a ledge in a narrow place in the trail and fell over backward. We were holding the lead rope, and saved the horse from falling over a steep cliff. Rather than take chances of losing our outfits, we unloaded it and carried the packs over the bad stretches. The stock with empty saddles came over in good shape. "When we approached the head of Car-bonate Canyon we found we couldn't cross without building a trail to get the stock up over the wall and on to the narrow ledge above, so we made camp for the night.

"Firewood through certain sections of the Canyon is scarce. In spite of a lot of kidding I packed some good pieces of wood all day, and it came in mighty handy that night.

"Water was plentiful along the trail as all the pot holes in the sandstone were filled with water from the storm. In the dry season there is no water in this section of the Canyon.

"Few horses had been seen. In the two days travel from Supai we sighted but eight head and they all appeared to be average-size Supai stock.

"After heading Matakatamiba Canyon we jumped three wild horses and worked them along ahead of us all day. This little bunch kept trying to get back past us and the Indian boys told us that the horses ranged in that section of the Canyon for a long time and could always be found about that place."

"Two readily apparent and significant factors" wrote McKee, "concerning the distribution of horses over the portion of the Esplanade traversed by the expedition were: individuals stayed in defnite groups or herds and seldom mixed The careful search for facts led the Naturalists and party through rough country, country very few people have been inwith other herds even when they were driven together; each herd ranged over a definte part of the plateau and could be easily driven across that area but showed great reluctance to go together. That no physical barrier existed between natural ranges, however, is indicated by the fact that in several instances horses or groups of horses were driven from one range to the next, and by the fact that our pack train was able to negotiate the entire distance.

Resuming the narrative, Lauzon wrote that "the trail traveled is some places was made visible by the wild horses, but in other sections there was no sign of a trail of any kind. The three wild horses were joined by a fourth, and remained ahead of us until we made camp that evening at the edge of the snow line between Panameta and Chikapanagi Points. "At Gatagame Point, the Indians rode out and around the wild horses, hazed them down and onto a smooth red point where Jack roped the leading horse, a stallion, and worked him into camp. We tied him to a juniper tree for the night. "It has been reported that under the Great Thumb in the section of the Canyon we were then to see 'horses 24 inches in height' ranged on the sand rocks, but we saw nothing of that size except two last season's colts. "The next morning I helped Jack get his bronc lined out on the trail. We had about three miles to go before we reached the foot of the Thumb Trail, and before we arrived the bronc had fallen in behind the pack train and was free-wheeling along in good order. "We found the Thumb Trail an easy one and topped out at one o'clock that afternoon. We had lunch and measured the stallion. He was a small horse and a pretty one, but was considerably larger than a dog. He was 51 inches high to be exact, and weighed about 600 pounds."

In explanation of the dwarfed size of the horses, Naturalist McKee said in his report: "None of these horses are larger, and some individuals are very small, even for mustangs. "In the opinion of the party, the small horses of the Havasu region, including the so-called 'pygmies of Little Horse Canyon,' are the natural results of environment. Major General Williams Harding Carter, authority on horses, has shown 'that the conformation, size, and character, generally, of any type of horse may be modified in the course of time, by subjecting him to changes of climate, temperature, forage and soil,' and that this fact 'is too well known to admit of question."

"Even the Shetland Pony which is our smallest horse, averaging about 40 inches, varies tremendously with environment. According to Carter all breeders of Shetland Ponies have the same experience regarding the size and these diminutive horses that they invariably get bigger as soon as fed like other animals. Thus it seems clear that the small horses of Havasu area are not dwarfed by inbreeding in isolated canyon, but are simply the normal result of the environment and in this respect, not different from other horses of the open range in the Southwest."

In concluding his official report, Naturalist McKee writes: "The conclusions of the members of the National Park Service expedition to the so-called Canyon of the Little Horses in western Grand Canyon National Park are: "1. The size of the horses of this area has been greatly reduced in statements given out concerning the area. "2. The canyon blocked off by landslides in which pygmy horses are supposed to have evolved is a myth. "3. The small horses of the area are the normal results of the environment and are not confined to any one limited area or physical barriers."