The incident occurred on or about November 14, according to the BLM news release.
A $2,000 reward has been posted.
A roundup was announced on November 11 but the gather page shows no activity.
Month: January 2022
Mustang Monday
At the Currituck Outer Banks with David Shockley.
Stupid Ranch Tricks
The caps on these five-gallon fuel cans don’t fit very well and are easy to lose.
A 1/2″ PVC pipe cap fits perfectly and won’t come off unless you pull it off.
Rock Springs Roundup Draws Some Media Attention
Although this report by KPVI News of Pocatello, ID mentions resource management plans, it does not explain them, but it’s far more informative than anything you’ll get from the advocates.
The article refers to legal actions by the Rock Springs Grazing Association and the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses as “Lawsuits from both sides of the debate,” which is not correct.
They are on the same side of the debate: One group wants the horses removed with helicopters, the other wants them removed with PZP.
The first method is fast and the second method is slow but both give the public-lands ranchers unfettered access to cheap feed in areas set aside for wild horses.
This bogus advocacy group cares more about its standing among the bureaucrats and ranchers than it does about America’s wild horses.
RELATED: Advocates to Interior: Let Us Get Rid of Rock Springs Horses.
Making the Advocates Drool
Unboxing video of Gen 2 gauged projector with scope and timber camo finish.
RELATED: Upgrading Your Gen 1 Projector.
Price of Hay Still Going Up
On July 3, the price was $19 per bale for 20 bales or more. Today, the price was $25 per bale, a 32% increase in six months.
The average horse would consume around five bales per month, putting the cost of feeding him at $125 per AUM.
Adopters will spend $1,500 on feed before they receive the second half of the $1,000 incentive, leaving them with a $500 deficit.
The price to graze livestock on public lands is $1.35 per AUM. The fee for the 2022 season should be announced in a few weeks.
RELATED: Price of Hay Up Again.
Fence Installation Next Week on South Edge of Virginia Range
Four-foot high livestock fencing will be erected along Highway 50 in Dayton starting on Monday, to reduce horse-vehicle collisions. Details in this announcement.
Between 2017 and 2019, 27 such incidents were reported in areas where the fencing will be installed.
Losses attributable to the Montana Solution, not mentioned in the news release, are in the neighborhood of 600 to 800 animals per year.
RELATED: More Fencing Needed for Virginia Range Mustangs?
Rock Springs Roundup Day 93
Operations resumed on January 6. Gather stats through January 7:
- Type: Planned
- Method: Helicopter
- Horses captured: 3,355, up from 3,121 on Day 61
- Average daily take: 36.1
- Capture goal: 4,400
- Removal goal: 3,500
- Returned: 488, up from 181 on Day 61
- Deaths: 20, up from 16 on Day 61
- Shipped: 2,877, up from 2,838 on Day 61
The second part of the roundup is getting off to a bad start from a data viewpoint, not that the first part was any better. The numbers for Day 93 sum to 115, not 112:
Day 61 went out with 181 horses returned to the area but the gather page now shows 488. The increase was not documented in the daily reports.
Three horses were put down on Day 92 and one died from a broken back, bringing the death rate to 0.6%.
The total includes 1,311 stallions, 1,357 mares and 687 foals. The gather page shows 1,308 stallions.
Foals represented 20.5% of the horses captured. Of the adults, 49.1% were male and 50.9% were female.
A birth rate of 20% implies a growth rate of 15% per year, assuming a 5% death rate.
Body condition scores were not reported.
Gather activity has shifted to White Mountain and Little Colorado.
The number of animals shipped has not been reported at the gather page but the total, based on the daily reports, is 2,877.
If 3,352 have been captured, as stated at the gather page, and 20 have died, the largest number of horses that could be returned to the area is 3,352 – 2,877 – 20 = 455, not 488 as stated in the cumulative totals.
Other statistics:
- AML: 2,165 (across five HMAs)
- Forage assigned to horses: 25,980 AUMs per year
- Pre-gather population: 5,105
- Forage liberated to date: 40,260 AUMs per year
- Water liberated to date: 33,550 gallons per day
- Forage assigned to livestock: 191,791 AUMs per year (estimated)
- Horses displaced from HMAs by livestock: 15,982 (32% of off-range holding)
- True AML: 18,147
RELATED: Rock Springs Roundup Day 61.
Pancake Roundup Announced
An estimated 2,060 wild horses will be captured starting on or about January 10, with 2,030 to be removed, from the Pancake Complex west of Ely, NV.
The incident, representing about 10% of the resource enforcement goal announced earlier this week, appears near the bottom of page 1 in the latest schedule.
Helicopters will push the horses into the traps, according to the news release, and the operation will be open to public observation.
The Complex covers 1,228,739 acres per Table 1 in the Final EA and the 638 horses allowed by plan require 7,656 AUMs per year.
The stocking rate allowed by plan is 0.5 wild horses per thousand acres, considerably lower than the target rate of one wild horse per thousand acres across all HMAs, and a potential indicator of large amounts of forage assigned to privately owned livestock.
The pre-gather population is thought to be 3,244.
The Western Watersheds map shows numerous grazing allotments intersecting the Complex and the data in Tables 3 – 6 show that it’s managed primarily for livestock.
The excess horses (those above AML) have been consuming resources assigned to the public-lands ranchers but the helicopters will shift them back. A darting program could accomplish the same thing but in a much longer timeframe.
Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals at Palomino Valley, Indian Lakes and Sutherland.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.
RELATED: Decision Reached in Pancake Gather Plan.
Missing Teat, Trainer’s Remorse and the Montana Solution
The writer of this letter to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle blames the animal for his/her own frustrations and inadequacies, a common practice in the horse world.
- The barn
- The barn manager
- Bad feed
- Horse in adjacent stall
- Wrong bit
- Oxygen deprivation
- Previous owner
- Bad breeding
- Sore feet
- Arthritis
- Wrong supplements
- Needs shoes
- Previous trainer
- The farrier
- He’s flighty
- And now, a missing teat
As Rick Gore has stated a million times, “It’s you, you big dummy!”
Rock Springs Roundup Resumes
Helicopters were back in the air today, according to the gather page, with 119 horses captured, none shipped and four dead.
RELATED: Rock Springs Roundup Day 61.
Nevada WHR Mares Waiting for Second Jab
They will receive another dose of GonaCon in 30 days and then be returned to the WHR, according to a news release issued today.
The announcement included a remark about research and the impact of climate change, a hoax, on the management of wild horses and burros.
The answer is already known: The wild horse and burro program has been a drag on the grazing program for 50 years and maybe the public will accept drastic reductions in herd sizes if they can be tied to global warming—a highly selective phenomenon that affects wild horses and burros but not privately owned cattle and sheep.
RELATED: Nevada WHR Roundup Over.
DeMayo Astonished by Her Own Handiwork!
The signatory to the rancher-friendly Path Forward is not happy with yesterday’s announcement that the first big installment will be rolling out in FY 2022.
It’s all here folks, in this news release, the idiocy of the advocates.
They want to end wild horse reproduction, not public-lands ranching.
RELATED: DeMayo Blasts Rock Springs Roundup, Tries to Save Face?
How Many Cow/Calf Pairs Will Roundup Plan Support?
The forage liberated by the removal of 20,000 wild horses from public lands would support 40,000 cow/calf pairs over a six-month grazing season.
The increase in supply will have little impact on beef prices, as the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve did for fuel prices, but may convince some of the voters that the one-horse pony and his illicit administration have their interests in mind.
The government will collect $324,000 per year in grazing fees from the project, in exchange for the $20 million outlay to remove the horses plus $15 million per year to stockpile them in off-range holding.
The only way the enterprise survives is with huge subsidies from American taxpayers.
RELATED: Wild Horse Gather Plan Preceded by Beef/Poultry Action Plan.
Wild Horse Gather Plan Preceded by Beef/Poultry Action Plan
The one-horse pony convened a roundtable on January 3 to unveil his Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain.
The goal, among other things, is to bring down prices for consumers, which, in the private sector, usually means boosting supplies.
On January 5, a plan to remove at least 19,000 wild horses and burros from America’s public lands was announced.
Heber Wild Horse Shootings in the News
This story by AP News is a rehash of the December 31 report by AZ Family, which was picked up by nobody.
RELATED: Three More Horses Found Dead in Apache-Sitgreaves Forest.
TOLDYA: Advocates Consigned to Mopping-Up Role
Per today’s news release:
The BLM continues to implement a multi-year plan to achieve and maintain the appropriate management level of wild horses and burros on public lands using a variety of management tools, including gathers to reduce overpopulation, fertility control to slow future growth, and adoptions to place excess animals into good homes.
Helicopters will make the big reductions in herd sizes while the advocates protect the ranchers after the fact by making sure the herds don’t bounce back.
RELATED: Can Darting Programs Compete with Helicopter Roundups?
FY 2022 Resource Enforcement Targets Don’t Balance
The BLM said today that at least 22,000 wild horses and burros would be captured on public lands this year, with at least 19,000 removed.
That leaves 3,000 unaccounted-for animals.
The announcement also stated that at least 2,300 animals would be treated with various forms of fertility control and returned to their home range.
That leaves 700 unaccounted-for animals.
Does that mean 700 untreated animals will be returned to the range or are they budgeting for 700 deaths?
Helicopter roundups and fertility control programs do not allocate resources and cannot change resource allocations. They enforce resource allocations already on the books.
With the exception of a few areas, wild horses and burros receive five to twenty percent of the authorized forage, with the balance going to privately owned livestock.
As the bureaucrats and advocates get rid of excess animals (those above AML), the ranchers can enjoy more of what their allotments have to offer.
RELATED: FY 2022 Resource Enforcement Actions Announced.
FY 2022 Resource Enforcement Actions Announced
The BLM plans to capture at least 22,000 wild horses and burros from overpopulated herds this year, according to today’s news release, remove at least 19,000 excess animals, and treat at least 2,300 animals with fertility control.
When appropriate management levels are exceeded, roundups and darting programs shift resources in areas set aside for these animals back to the public-lands ranchers.
The latest schedule still shows 14 HMAs subject to the Montana Solution.
RELATED: Darting Programs and Helicopter Roundups on Same Side of Coin.
What Is Conservation?
Don’t ask the advocates. Ask someone trapped for 23 hours in the snowstorm earlier this week on I-95 in Virginia.
If this motorist managed his fuel the way the advocates manage wild horses, he’d grab a screwdriver, puncture his tank and let the contents trickle to the ground.
Western Horse Watchers Association 