Foal-Free Friday, Auld Lang Syne Edition

The year saw some of the stupidest ideas yet from the advocates.

In the legislative arena, three bills come to mind:

H. R. 6635, the helicopter ban. The advocates thought that footage from the Buffalo Hills roundup would convince the American people that removals by wrangler are better than removals by helicopter.
H. R. 7631, the veterans against mustangs act. Combat veterans would be recruited to help the advocates pummel the mares with their favorite pesticide.
H. R. 9154, the rancher protection act. This self-serving measure, drafted by advocates for the benefit of advocates, would prohibit surgical sterilization but not chemical sterilization (with the Montana Solution).

All three died in committee, thankfully. But they speak volumes about those who supported them.

Regarding their important work, the advocates came up with these profound ideas:

If we get rid of them, they can stay
We’re protecting them from removal by getting rid of them with PZP
If we don’t get rid of them, the BLM will
We’re changing the way wild horse herds are managed, not their land
We have a better way (to get rid of wild horses)
You have to manage the numbers to fit what’s available for the horses

It’s getting harder and harder to distinguish them from the tools of their trade.

Give them the boot in 2023.

Students Learn About Darting 10-26-22

Alpine Horses Killed Because People Saw Harm They Caused?

That’s a possibility according to Bob Vahle, biologist and Region 1 Director for the Arizona Wildlife Federation, a hunting advocacy group.

Vahle told a reporter for Arizona PBS in a story posted today that the horses are competing with native wildlife.

“They may be competing with a permittee’s livestock … you think everybody loves horses, but I kind of take it in this situation, they’re looking at them as having impacts on habitat, impacts on the wildlife that they may like or impacts on maybe a rancher’s livelihood.”

So in those cases it’s okay to shoot them?

Contrary to what you read in the article, horses appear in the North American fossil record, cattle and sheep do not.

A spokesman for the Forest Servive said the best way to prevent future shootings is to get rid of them, the same approach used by the advocates to stop roundups.

He indicated that adverse impacts to the forest are due to unauthorized non-native species, not authorized non-native species, suggesting that the real issue is not wild vs feral, but who’s robbing forage from whom.

Curiously, the writer noted that “Horses present during the passage of the Wild Horse and Burro Act are protected, but those that arrived after that or were born out there are considered unauthorized livestock and aren’t protected.”

FY 2023 Omnibus Now Law

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, HR 2617, was signed today according to a White House news release.

The fledgling roundup schedule may grow noticeably larger.

Words Have Different Meanings in the Wild Horse World

Here’s a quick update on current usage:

Protect Wild Horses – Get rid of them with the Montana Solution

Keep Them Wild and Free – Ditto

Cruel and Costly Roundups – The advocates have a better way (to get rid of them)

On-Range Management – Take them off the range with the Montana Solution

Humane Management – Ditto

Cherished/Beloved/Innocent Wild Horses – Pests

In this example, the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses wants to replace removal by helicopter with removal by pesticide.

CAAWH Paid Ad on Google 12-29-22

As announced by one of their field marshals in September, you need to manage the numbers to fit what’s available for the horses.

What a loser.

Documenting roundups does not stop roundups and it damn sure doesn’t tell you what to do instead.

You’ll have to look elsewhere for that knowledge.

For Your Innocent Ants and Roaches 10-23-22

Two Doses of PZP for the Price of One?

The Billings School of PZP Darting is not having an after-Christmas sale.

Rather, the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses has a one-for-one matching gift program through the end of the year.

If you donate, say, $35, the cost of one dose of their favorite pesticide, an unnamed donor will also contribute $35, allowing them to inhibit two wild mares for a year, not just one, or push two older mares into sterility.

The downside is that darted mares still eat but in the long run, ranchers will be able to access more and more of their food as the herds die off.

CAAWH Matching Gift 12-28-22

Would you be surprised if the unnamed donor was a ranching advocacy group, farm bureau or stockgrower’s association?

Their legislative agenda consists of persuading the politicians to allocate more and more money for on-range management, code words for getting rid of them with the Montana Solution, and to influence new bills such as the self-serving HR 9154.

As for the legal agenda, they may try to block a roundup every now and then or thwart the construction of a new off-range holding facility, but they won’t say a word about the management plans that assign most of the resources to privately owned livestock.

From time to time they criticize the public-lands ranchers, but no offense is taken.

It’s all part of the charade that keeps the donations rolling in while maintaining the status quo.

Caliente Complex in Pictures

From the National Data Viewer.

First, the nearest HMAs, in orange.

Next, the former HMAs in black, unfit for wild horses.

Finally, the grazing allotments in green, managed exclusively for livestock.

This is how the bureaucrats nullify laws they don’t agree with.

RELATED: Comparing the HAs and HMAs.

The Downside of Big Box Stores

If you find something you like at Home Depot, go buy another one because when you need to replace it, they won’t have it.

The 18″ True Temper rake discussed previously has been out of stock for over a year but a nearby store had them on December 24, so I bought three.

They were $16 each two years ago but the price last week was $20.

Over the summer the local garden center had similar model by Flexrake. Price was $35.

New Rake

Assateague Naming Raffle Yields Over $3,000

The winner named the foal “Tako Kichi,” according to a story by the Maryland Coast Dispatch, but the list maintained by AIA indicates “Take Kichi.”

How to Submit Useful Comments for Clan Alpine Scoping

Just remember that you’re dealing with a resource enforcement action, or livestock protection plan if you prefer, not an RMP amendment.

Concerns about forage allocations and management priorities, although valid, are outside the scope of the project.

Comments should focus on the removal of excess horses, achieving AML and keeping the population at that level, so ranchers can access their fair share of the resources.

That the area was identified for wild horses is of no consequence.

Here are some examples:

Revealing the location of horses near private property
Reporting damage to a road that may be used to haul captured horses
Offering to provide an aggressive darting program at no cost to the government
Encouraging the BLM to get the numbers down as soon as possible
Submitting photos of damage to livestock fencing

The careful observer will realize that this opportunity for public involvement is a ruse that maintains the status quo at the expense of America’s wild horses.

RELATED: Clan Alpine Scoping Begins.

South Dakota Off-Range Pasture Sells for $37 Million

It’s listed as Vale/Geldings in the November Facility Report, covering 47,883 total acres, including 41,882 deeded acres, with a capacity of 1,000 horses, plus cattle.

More information by listing agent.

The seller, a 2009 Powerball winner, doubled his money in the transaction, according to a story by the Dakota Free Press.

The buyer is Kansas-based farm and ranching outfit J-Six South Dakota Land Holdings.

The article did not say if the new owners would continue to stockpile wild horses.

RELATED: Roughing It on the Range.

More Angst at TRNP

Good grief. The original wild horse herd has been gone for over twenty years.

The horses you see today were put there by the Park Service, as an exhibit.

With the Park Service threatening to remove them, the advocates are fighting back.

When their comrades try to eradicate other herds with the Montana Solution, there’s not even a whimper.

Have you seen a film by Deb Carson and Jamie Baldanza calling attention to the Virginia Range mustangs?

Pile Burning This Week on the Virginia Range?

The December 20 news release said the BLM would burn piles of branches near Jackson Ranch in Genoa, NV and Geiger Grade in the Virginia City Highlands when enough precipitation has fallen to prevent the fires from spreading beyond the pile areas and road conditions allow safe access.

The forecast for Virginia City, slightly to the south, shows rain and snow most of the week, perhaps too much to get anything to burn.

Virginia City Forecast 12-26-22

Most of the land in the Virginia Range is privately owned, denoted by white in this map from the National Data Viewer, but the BLM does control some acreage, denoted by tan.

Western Horse Watchers suspects the burns in the Highlands will occur on a 44-acre parcel surrounded by private lots, as shown in Storey County parcel map 03-18.

The announcement said the trees, probably pinyon pines and junipers, were thinned to reduce high severity wildfire and increase growth and vigor of the remaining trees.

Western Horse Watchers knows what you’re thinking: They sound like the advocates!

“If we get rid of them, they can stay.”

Speaking of the advocates, they have been pummeling the Virginia Range mares with their favorite pesticide for four years, and many are now at risk of sterility.

They do this not because they care about the horses but because they’re desperate for the approval of the bureaucrats and ranchers.

They are not having second thoughts about what they are doing.

Why are you still giving them money?

Mustang Monday

Horses have the day off.

In the Black Mountain HMA with Motorcycles and Poker Adventures.

Peace to People of Good Will

Western Horse Watchers Forward-Looking Statement for 2023: There is no good will in the Democrat Party, the faithless bureaucracy, the wild horse advocates and their big-tech minions, so there will be no peace.

How to Tell When Winter’s Almost Over

When you give your horse a kiss, some of her fur sticks to your lips.

How to Tell When Winter's Almost Over 12-25-22

How to Help the Bordo Atravesado Wild Horses

During the comment period for the draft EA, several advocates urged the BLM to reduce livestock grazing inside the HMA and/or shift livestock AUMs back to the horses, apparently unaware they were dealing with a resource enforcement action, or, if you prefer, a livestock protection plan, not an amendment to the land-use plan.

This is like asking a highway patrol officer to change the speed limit. He doesn’t write them, he doesn’t review them, he enforces them.

Fortunately, the answer is in Appendix G of the Decision Packet.

“Changes to livestock grazing cannot be made through a wild horse and burro gather decision or through 4710.5(a), and are only possible if the BLM first revises the land-use plans to allocate livestock forage to wild horses and to eliminate or reduce livestock grazing.”

That would be the Socorro Resource Management Plan.

Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth at TRNP?

“And then everyone will look back at the tragedy of these horses being gone and why didn’t anyone try to save them?”

There is much consternation about the possible removal of wild horses from Theodore Roosevelt National Park, including this opinion piece dated December 23 in INFORUM, a news service based in Fargo, ND.

The horses you see today were put there by the Park Service.

The original herd, thought to be descended from Sitting Bull’s horses, is gone, thanks to the Park Service.

Some were rescued by Leo Kuntz and moved to his ranch near Linton.

He called them Nokotas.

The story unfolds in Nakota Heart, a 60-minute film you can watch on YouTube.

FY 2023 Omnibus Going Through Enrollment Process

That’s the current status according to a story posted this morning by The Hill.

Enrollment is an administrative step that verifies the accuracy of bill texts, confirms House and Senate actions and prepares the measure for delivery to the President.

A bill must pass both chambers in identical form before it can be printed and sent to the President.

As for the Omnibus, you know it’s bad for the country because liberals support it.

Similarly, you know an idea is bad for wild horses if the advocates endorse it.

Sand Wash Advocates 01-17-22