Author: Western Horse Watchers

Foal-Free Friday, Systematic Removal Edition

As stated in its Year Two Report, the Colorado Wild Horse Working Group believes that strategic darting should be the cornerstone of wild horse management.

It’s an indication that the stakeholders are willing to play the long game in support of their goals and a major win for the advocates.

Not mentioned in the discussion are the long-term effects of the fertility control pesticides and the eventual disappearance of the herds.

PREVIOUS: Foal-Free Friday, Year of the RUP Edition.

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

Stewardship or Exploitation of the Public Lands?

One of the most amazing statistics in this report by High Country News is the number of individuals who declined to comment.

The article did not mention services provided by the wild horse advocates that benefit the ranchers.

Beating the horse populations down with ovary-killing pesticides.

The aim of the grazing program is to ensure that high-net-worth individuals receive generous government benefits, often at the expense of America’s wild horses, with no means testing and no expiration dates.

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

Helicopters Heading for Muddy Creek and Sinbad HMAs

They’ll be flying for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to capture bighorn sheep according to the BLM news release.

The Decision Record authorizes the Proposed Action, discussed in section 2.1 of the Final EA.

Table 1-2 indicates that “captures could take place in the Muddy Creek Wild Horse HMA as well as the Sinbad Burro HMA.  Helicopter overflights may temporarily disturb wild horses and burros in the vicinity of the capture.  Impacts beyond short-lived stress are not expected because these animals would not be the target of pursuits, which would already be short in duration, and could readily escape the area.”

Although the EA mentions livestock grazing, it does not show the allotments in the project area.

One of the greatest threats to wild sheep is illness picked up from domestic sheep.

The Authorization Use Report at RAS would tell which if any of the allotments are permitted for sheep.

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

Kisatchie Wild Horses Migrating to Woodworth?

Some residents were upset by limited opportunities for public comment at yesterday’s town council meeting according to a report by KALB News.

The mayor has received complaints ranging from horse manure and property damage to vehicle accidents and child safety.

The town is on the east side of the Evangeline Unit in the Calcasieu Ranger District, Kisatchie National Forest.

To the west is Fort Johnson (previously Fort Polk), an Army base the horses once called home.

The article did not associate the horses with the forest and did not indicate if the advocates had submitted a plan to beat the numbers down with ovary-killing pesticides.

RELATED: End of Line for Kisatchie Horses?

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

Kentucky Humane Society Targets Free-Roaming Horses

The fertility control program was launched in Magoffin County early last year according to a story by WHAS News.

The report refers to PZP as a contraceptive vaccine, not a restricted-use pesticide.

Contrary to another statement in the article, the product is not reversible if applied for more than five years.

The group expects the population to stabilize in three years.

The story did not indicate if the partner organizations would become obsessed with pesticides as they have out west and if the effort would morph into a mass sterilization program across the nine-county region where the horses are found.

RELATED: Horses of the Coalfields: Tragedy, Nuisance or Tourist Attraction?

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

House and Senate Release FY26 Appropriations Bills

The Senate news release includes links to summaries and explanatory statements for (1) Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, (2) Energy and Water Development and (3) Interior, Environment and Related Agencies.

The bill for Interior provides $144 million for wild horse and burro management according to the Division C explanatory statement, including $11 million for fertility control.

Temporary funding for the department expires at the end of the month.

The House news release includes similar links.

The bill text indicates $144 million for the wild horse and burro program but is silent on fertility control.

RELATED: Government Reopens, Back to Business as Usual.

UPDATE: The House bill is now HR6938.

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

Powerball, Pesticides and the Probability of Success

The hypergeometric function in Excel lets you compute the probabilities of matching one to five numbers in the first part of the Powerball drawing.

Suppose your favorite number is seven.  What is the probability that it appears in the sample of five taken at random from a field of 69, as it did on November 15?

Using Excel’s nomenclature, the number of successes in the sample would be one, the sample size would be five, the number of successes in the population would be one, the population size would be 69 and the cumulative argument would be set to false.

The result is approximately .072, about 7.2%.  The probability that seven does not appear would be 1 – .072 = .928 or 92.8%.

What is the probability of matching all five numbers?   Change the number of successes in the sample to five and the number of successes in the population to five.

The result is almost zero, .000000089, or 1 in 11,238,513.

Unfortunately, Excel does not have a function for computing the probability of the advocates telling the truth about PZP in 2026, that you can’t use the pesticide for “humane population reduction” without sterilizing the mares.

RELATED: Probabilities and Possibilities for 2026.

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

Was Cañon City Closure Political?

A report by The Hill says President Trump is in a full-fledged feud with politicians in Colorado due to the prosecution of former Mesa County elections clerk Tina Peters, who has aligned herself with the president’s claims of election fraud in 2020.

The article suggests that actions by the administration are retribution over Peters.

  • Vetoing a bill that would have completed the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a project that would send water to the southeastern part of the state
  • Dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research, an institution specializing in climate science
  • Denial of a disaster declaration following wildfires and flooding last year in southwestern Colorado

The writer did not cite the scuttling of the inmate training program at Cañon City.

Western Horse Watchers is not aware of closures in other states, which host programs at Florence, Rio Cosumnes, Hutchinson, Carson City and Riverton.

RELATED: BLM Pulling Wild Horses and Burros from Cañon City Prison.

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

Probabilities and Possibilities for 2026

The odds of winning the Powerball grand prize are 1 in 292,201,338 according to the prize chart.

You might have a better chance of being hit by lightning.

What are the odds that the advocates do something beneficial for wild horses in 2026?

Powerball players choose five numbers between 1 and 69 for the white balls and one number between 1 and 26 for the red Powerball.

The odds of matching the first five numbers are 1 in 11,238,513 and the odds of matching the Powerball are 1 in 26.

The odds of matching all six are 1 in 11,238,513 × 1 in 26 = 1 in 292,201,338.

RELATED: The Buckeye Lottery.

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

Foal-Free Friday, Year of the RUP Edition

Some folks say 2026 is the Year of the Horse, the perfect time to raise awareness about helicopter roundups.

They don’t see it as an opportunity to stop the removals and restore basic concepts such as principal use and management at the minimum feasible level.

Instead, they see it as an opportunity to expand the use of RUPs, to replace motorized removal with mass sterilization.

They don’t want you to know that public lands in the western U.S. can sustain many more wild horses than the government admits.

They are servants of the ranchers and don’t deserve a penny of your support.

PREVIOUS: Foal-Free Friday, Wave of the Future Edition.

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

The Buckeye Lottery

Click this link to search ePlanning for projects involving the Buckeye Allotment, to see if the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses has asked the BLM to convert its grazing preference to wild horses.

Try your luck!

Look for projects dated 2025 or beyond in the Sierra Front Field Office.

RELATED: Flipping the Buckeye Preference to Horses.

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

Tiny Warner Valley Allotment Getting Smaller?

The news release indicates the BLM conveyed 929 public acres to the Washington County Water Conservancy District in exchange for 89 private acres designated as critical habitat for the Mojave desert tortoise.

Figure 3.4 in the Final EA shows the arrangement.  The BLM parcel has a purple border and the private parcel is red.

Four allotments were affected by the project but the smallest was hit the hardest.

Table 3.3 in the Final EA gives the acreage and active AUMs.

Warner Valley, consisting of 834 public acres, will lose 700 acres and 119 of 124 active AUMs according to section 3.5.5.1.

It’s not clear what will happen to the Warner remnant.

The EA did not consider the loss in value of the base property tied to the allotment due to a near total loss of grazing preference.

The allotment master report puts Warner Valley in the Custodial category, condition unknown.

Before the exchange, the allotment supported livestock equivalent to 12.4 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres.

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

Out with the Old Lies, in with the New?

Not really.  The advocates will continue to push for mass sterilization in lieu of motorized removal, but they’ll call it wild horse conservation.

Their top priority—to separate you from your money—will not change.

They’ll post an endless stream of syrupy messages on socialist media to achieve it.

They’ll use your donations to buy pesticides so they can beat the horse populations down in favor of livestock.

They’ll say it’s necessary because of habitat loss.

Wherever they’re involved, you’ll find

  • Barren mares
  • Confused stallions
  • Shrinking herds
  • Injuries and infections
  • Abnormal sex ratios
  • Increasing death rates
  • Tiny breeding populations
  • Loss of genetic diversity
  • Acclimation to people

As the damage accrues, they’ll tell you the herds are living wild and free as nature intends.

They are phonies, leaders of the blind, and don’t deserve a penny of your support.

RELATED: New Year, Same Lies.

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

Standards for RUP Applicators Don’t Go Far Enough

The EPA specifies a minimum age for applying restricted-use pesticides but not a minimum height.

Breeding, not mass sterilization, assures long-term viability.

You should be tall enough to control your darting rifle, not the other way around.

There are no limitations on personalities or preferences and the profession is now dominated by wretches.

PZP (Zonastat-H) can be found on page 33 of the RUP list.

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

Estimating the Black Canyon Active AUMs

The 2024 AOIs show five pastures, each carrying 60 cow-calf pairs for approximately one month.

Therefore, the authorized forage should be around 5 × 60 × 1 = 300 AUMs per year, equivalent to 25 wild horses.

The allotment overlaps the Heber WHT.

AOIs for the ASNF can be found at its Rangeland and Grazing page.

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

Scoping Begins for Montana Allotment Merger

The project would combine the Blair and Stange allotments into the Little Joe allotment.

The ArcGIS Viewer shows the outline for Little Joe but not Blair and Stange.

Blair offers 61 active AUMs on 246 public acres according to the allotment master report, equivalent to 20.7 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Stange offers 360 active AUMs on 1,285 public acres, equivalent to 23.3 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres.

If resources on the deeded acreage were added to the mix, Little Joe would support livestock equivalent to 127 wild horses on 5,358 total acres, or 23.7 wild horses per thousand acres.

The deadline for submitting comments is January 5.

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