Foal-Free Friday, Crossing the Line Edition

There are no foals in this video by KPNX News.

To date, the advocates have

  • Ruined the mares with PZP
  • Driven the breeding population to zero
  • Sacrificed long-term viability to their pesticide ideology

Now, they’ll venture into an area dominated by the legacy contractors, capturing 25 wild horses per year and placing them into private care.

Who said PZP wasn’t a gateway drug?

PREVIOUS: Foal-Free Friday, Valentine’s Eve Edition.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Salt River Motorized Removal to Begin This Summer?

The advocates have until the end of the year to take the herd from 274 to 243 according to a story by KPHO News.

That would require a death rate of nearly 12%.

274 × (1 – .12) = 241

Although the death rate is increasing along with the average age of the herd (because few if any new foals are hitting the ground), it’s not enough to achieve the goal.

The first step would be to mend fences with Jackie Hughes and bring her into the fold.

Then develop a plan for capture, removal and placement into private care, just like the roundups they’ve always condemned.

RELATED: How Might the World React to the New Salt River Contract?

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

How Might the World React to the New Salt River Contract?

Imagine the possibilities as the advocates turn to motorized removal—a practice they publicly opposed—to reach the population target:

  • Sharp increase in donations from hunters and ranchers
  • Praise from farm bureaus and stock grower’s associations
  • Endorsements from rural communities and public lands councils
  • Cooperative agreements with former nemeses
  • Support from legacy contractors

The move may inspire other advocacy groups to come out of the closet.

The Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group is a forward base for the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses.

RELATED: Salt River Advocates Win New Contract with AZDA.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

The Myth of the Lead Mare

Was this post written by a woman who sees the world not as it is but the way she thinks it should be?

Or maybe she reached her conclusion after watching herds where mares can’t be mares and the natural order has been disrupted by massive human involvement?

Stallions run the show.

Get over it.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Salt River Advocates Win New Contract with AZDA

The mass sterilization program will continue but the advocates will add motorized removal to their repertoire.

The current population is 274 according to a story by Phoenix New Times and the new target is 120.

To reach that number they will relocate 25 horses a year to sanctuaries.

The article said the group is actively seeking land or leases near the Salt River but did not indicate if they planned to attach them to vacant allotments in the forest—which would give their supporters more value for their investment.

As of today, AZDA has not announced the agreement at its news site.

RELATED: Salt River Management Contract Extended to March 31.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

BLM Publishes Callaghan Final Planning Documents

The Decision Record authorizes Alternative A, the Proposed Action, minus the IUDs and surgical sterilization.

The selected alternative, discussed in section 2.3 of the Final EA, also includes forcible removal to low AML, fertility control treatments and sex ratio skewing.

The new HMAP is presented in Appendix XIII.

All documents can be found in the project folder.

The news release did not indicate if the plan was subject to a 30-day appeal period but the DR suggests it is.

RELATED: Callaghan EA Out for Review.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

The Advocates Sound Like a Broken Record

The article about the Black Mountain WHT included a section about Return to Normal (Before WHB Act), a signatory to the “Path Forward,” and the sanctuaries it operates.

In the space of a few paragraphs, fertility control is mentioned five times.

RTF ringleader Neda DeMayo said the horses live as they’re designed to live—except for one minor detail.

She’s been pummeling the mares with a “non-hormonal, reversible birth control vaccine,” referred to on these pages as an ovary-killing pesticide, since 1999.

RELATED: Forest Service Abandoning Black Mountain WHT?

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Chincoteague Herd Loses Stallion and Mare

The stallion died of natural causes.  He was not one of the top producers in 2025.

The mare slipped on ice and broke her neck.

The report by WBOC News did not indicate if any foals had been born in 2026.

Known for its abnormal sex ratio and unprecedented birth rate, the saltwater cowboys have engineered the herd for maximum revenue at the annual pony swim and auction.

RELATED: Chincoteague Mare Found Dead.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Forest Service Abandoning Black Mountain WHT?

The herd is so small that it’s in danger of becoming extinct according to an article by the New Times of San Luis Obispo.

A retired ranger from the Los Padres National Forest, home of the WHT, said she’s recommending and hoping that the Forest Service lets it die out.

Western Horse Watchers was unable to find a map of the territory but believes it’s located at the northern end of the Santa Lucia Ranger District based on remarks about a radar dome on page 45 (55 in the pdf) of the land management plan for the forest.

The WHT is not subject to permitted grazing.

The Forest Service does not post AOIs for neighboring allotments so it’s not possible to determine if the target stocking rate (20 horses on 13,3215 public acres) is reasonable.

Objective LG 3 in the management plan says the WHT remains suitable and sustainable over the long term but that was from 2005.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Wild Horse and Burro Adoptions and Sales Jumped in FY25

Despite cancellation of the AIP, 8,080 animals were placed into private care last year, up 20% from FY24, according to a BLM blog post.

The report did not indicate how many animals were removed from public lands during the same period and if the off-range inventory was rising or falling.

RELATED: Court Halts AIP.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Foal-Free Friday, Valentine’s Eve Edition

What advocate isn’t striving to become a certified applicator of restricted-use pesticides?

You could have ordered the latest edition of the National Pesticide Applicator Certification Manual and given it to her on the big day.

Instead, you decided to watch the big game and now it’s too late.

The advocacy groups need more dupes to advance their anti-horse agenda.

PREVIOUS: Foal-Free Friday, S-Word Edition.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Allotment Status in Carlsbad Field Office

The allotment information report at RAS yielded 275 allotments covering 1,964,564 public acres.

The system put 24% of the allotments in the Improve category along with 40% of the public acres.

Nearly 39% of the allotments and 54% of the public acres were in the Maintain category.

Approximately 36% of the active AUMs fell into Improve, with 58% in Maintain.

Results have been summarized in this table:

CategoryAllotmentsPublic AcresActive AUMsAUMs / 1000 AcEquiv HorsesHorses / 1000 Ac
Custodial103128,58724,360189.42,03015.8
Improve66778,386135,887174.611,32414.5
Maintain1061,057,591222,252210.118,52117.5
Tot / Avg2751,964,564382,499194.731,87516.2
The field office supports livestock equivalent to 31,875 wild horses.

The results suggest that forage production and carrying capacity are greatest where standards for rangeland health have been achieved.

The original dataset and pivot tables can be found in this spreadsheet.

RELATED: Abundant Forage in Carlsbad Field Office.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Wild Horses and Burros Threaten Red Rock Sunflower?

The story takes place in the Calico Basin of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, west of Las Vegas.

Climate change, groundwater pumping and heavy visitor traffic aggravate the situation according to the news release.

A petition calls for protection of the flower as a threatened or endangered species.

The Red Rock HMA borders the project area, which includes deeded acreage, on the west side.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.