I have just returned from a long weekend in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is a 7-8 hour drive from Boulder. (except when you take a side trip to Taos, or get caught in a monsoon rainstorm in the mountains, as we did…) The colors, the light, and the Southwest art were all a creative palate-cleanser. We were fortunate to have a dramatic mind-blowing sunset every night we were there. Sophie was my sidekick and we had fun meeting friends to visit the “All Terrain” exhibit in the Roundhouse – the New Mexico State Capitol building. Thanks to Betty Busby and Gail Garber for giving us a private quilt show in Betty’s home in Albuquerque!
On the way home Monday afternoon, after stopping to visit Terrie Mangat’s Taos mountain home and art studio, we drove through the San Luis Valley, and were delighted to see a small band of mustangs on the side of the road in open range. This has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl – to actually see mustangs running free on the open range. Back then (early 70s) there were thousands roaming the Western wild lands.
The Wild Horse Mesa covers about 75 square miles, a few miles south of San Luis, near New Mexico. This area is home to about 150 wild horses. They are descendants of horses used by Spanish explorers (conquistadors), brought to America in the 1500’s. Spaniards began bringing horses to North America starting in 1493, after Columbus landed in 1492.
Local indigenous tribes acquired horses in the 1600’s. According to tribal historians, the Ute Indians acquired Spanish horses in 1580. Tribal history states that captive Utes escaped with horses from Santa Fe in 1637, making the Utes the first Native Americans to introduce horses into their culture.
You may have heard about the BLM rounding up wild horses and storing them in pens, and selling them at auction, often destined for the same final fate as cattle. The herds have been reduced to a tiny fraction of their original numbers over the last 50 years. As time goes on we are less likely to see mustangs running free, if this practice continues. Mustangs are a part of our Western heritage, and the majority of Americans would like the wild horses to be left on the land. We can only hope that the herds will be allowed to exist at their current numbers, and not reduced/removed further. It is an absolute thrill to spot a group of wild horses running free across a wild Western landscape.
A little piece of my own history – as a teenager I rode a pinto Quarter Horse in the barrel racing competitions at the Boulder County Fairs. When my parents divorced we couldn’t afford to keep him, which broke my heart. I loved to draw horses as a child, which you may have seen in my previous fabric collections I designed. I read every horsey book by Marguerite Henry at least 5 times!
We are still running a comfort quilt drive for Uvalde, Texas. You can read the details here. There is a still a need to comfort and support this traumatized community.
Thanks for telling your friends about our family-owned business. We appreciate you!
Sharing your love of fabric,
Luana and Paul
p.s. The photo collage above is a group of images photographed by Luana in the last week in Santa Fe.
See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, watch our videos, or follow us on Facebook.
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Quilt/Travel/Sponsor Calendar:
July 19 – Quilting Arts TV
July 21-27 – Sacred Threads Weekend, Dulles/Wash DC
August 4 – Long Beach Quilt Festival – Awards “Celebration of Color”
Aug 17-20 – Festival of Quilts – Birmingham UK – Quilt Trends Lecture & SAQA Forced to Flee
Sept 21-24 – SAQA Conference – San Diego CA
October 2022 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill Manitoba Canada
