Home On The Range, However Risky

My walks this week to and from the new San Jose del Cabo branch of Cabo Fitness Club leave me both charmed and perturbed. Who wouldn't like to brush by a couple of docile and handsome horses that seem to have been hired to mow the grassy strip between Punta Sur Golf Course and the Transpeninsular Highway? A concrete path winds through the narrow and lush strip, and the highway is just a few feet to the west. That four-way helps account for my consternation. These are free-range horses, untethered and apparently unattended; no cowboys were in sight, though a crew of groundskeepers from either the city or from Fonatur, the national agency responsible for developing tourism in Mexico, generally isn't far off, though they seem virtually oblivious to the horses.

I'm hoping motorists behave as if they are a bit more aware of the horses, though rarely do any obviously slow. I'm also hoping the horses don't decide the grass is greener on the other side of the road, though that isn't likely, given that the opposite side mostly is a dry arroyo and a stand of brush that looks barely alive. Nonetheless, I've strolled by the calling cards of horses in the neighborhood reaching up into the hills from the west shoulder of the highway. The golf course would be tempting, but a fence keeps out the horses, who appeared at their happiest yesterday, when sprinklers were on and they could amble over for a welcome drink at their leisure.

I have yet to see if anyone drops off the horses in the morning and picks them up at night. They look well cared for, and I'm hoping they continue to look that way as they enjoy their precarious pasturage.