BY DAVID GRANT LONG

Michelle Porter will probably never know who fired the fatal shot, or even the caliber of the bullet.

But it struck Dash of Wine, a promising 2-year-old registered quarterhorse, with sufficient force to shatter the fragile bones of a front shoulder and impose a death sentence on him. Porter found the wounded animal dragging its leg near her corral one afternoon last week when she went out to do her chores.

"We had a lot of high hopes for him," she said Thursday. "He was one of the nicest colts."

Porter said that after the colt was destroyed, the veterinarian was unable to find the bullet, which had traveled to another part of its body, so the type of weapon couldn’t be determined.

"I think it was some kids being careless," she said, adding that the incident is still being investigated by the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Department.

Discharging firearms in the unincorporated parts of the county is legal, although there are laws addressing the unsafe use of weapons and damaging public and private property.

The deputy investigating the shooting did not return repeated messages left Friday.

Porter, who with her husband John breeds quarterhorses at their ranch northwest of Cortez, said the value of the colt was estimated at $5,000, but considering its lineage and potential, it could have been worth far more.

"We didn’t really want to sell him." she said. "But there’s no telling what he could have been worth.

"We were fixing to take him to New Mexico to run [at San Juan Downs racetrack]. He was nominated into a $10-million racing program that’s for colts two years and up to run for a lot of money . . . so (the shooting) knocked that in the dirt, too."

Porter said she often hears guns being discharged in the area around her ranch, and speculated that it may be people shooting at coyotes and other varmints or poaching deer.

"In fact, I just got home and was unsaddling my horse and there were shots being fired again," she said Thursday. "I’m plumb afraid to turn my horses out now."

"And my barrel horse, he doesn’t like to be penned up," she added. "He gets kind of irate with me, but there ain’t no way I could replace him."

Neighbors have also experienced problems related to weapons being fired, Porter said, ranging from bullet holes in vehicles to horses being stampeded through fences. One neighbor had bullets whiz past while he was working in his garden, and Porter and her husband were forced to flee for their lives two years ago while they were building a fence.

"Bullets just started zinging by us and we had to pack up and leave," she said. "We were hollering — the people weren’t that far away —but it didn’t stop."

Porter stressed that she is in no way "anti-gun," and, in fact, is a member of the National Rifle Association.

"We go out and shoot prairie dogs and occasionally have to take care of stray dogs that get in with our mares," she said. "But people have to be aware of how far a bullet can travel.

"If they’re just pot-shotting them up in the air, there’s nothing going to stop them, and they’re going to come down somewhere."

Porter said she is also concerned about her family’s safety.

"The incident with my colt could have very well been me or my four-year-old daughter," she wrote in a letter addressed to rural residents.

Porter suggested that people do their shooting at one of the area’s rifle/pistol ranges or in less populated areas.