Who dunnit?
RELATED: Handiwork of the PZP Zealots?
Author: Western Horse Watchers
Onaqui Trivia
BLM Relocation Moves Ahead Despite Vacancies
A report posted today by The Hill says that 220 positions are shifting from Washington, DC to the new headquarters in Grand Junction, CO, with additional jobs moving to offices in other states, leaving just 61 employees in the Washington office.
Unfortunately, only 68 employees have agreed to move, leaving many unfilled positions in the new locations, including several top posts.
The agency hopes to complete the move to Colorado in July, according to the story.
RELATED: Why All the Backlash Regarding BLM’s Headquarters Move?
Wild Horse Population Control Plan Still in the News
You can’t have a conversation about wild horses without having a conversation about public-lands ranching, but a story published yesterday by KSL News of Salt Lake City does exactly that.
Why don’t the horses have any natural predators? Public-lands ranching.
Why can’t the land support more than 27,000 wild horses? Public-lands ranching.
Why do they leave their HMAs in search of food and water? Public-lands ranching.
Nature determines resource availability but resource allocations—and the problems arising therefrom—are man made.
When you carve out 80% or more of the forage for privately owned livestock, wild horse numbers must go down. The programs are not independent, but intertwined.
The PZP zealots want to see the horses wild and free on their home range, they just don’t want them conceived and born on their home range. Makes perfect sense.
RELATED: Lies of Omission in New WHB Management Strategy.
Handiwork of the PZP Zealots?
BLM Removes Unauthorized Water Troughs in Utah
The agency said today that the tanks were drawing wild horses and burros away from better forage in the Muddy Creek and Sinbad HMAs and habituating them to unnatural water sources.
An aerial survey on May 30 confirmed that natural water sources were available and that the public should not be concerned just because a pond near a road dries up.
Interested persons should always reach out to a nearby BLM office before taking any actions to support the health of wild horse and burros, according to the news release.
What Constitutes Harassment?
How many examples can you find in this story about the Fish Springs wild horses, who inhabit an area east of Gardnerville, NV?
- Flying an airplane or drone too closely
- Buzzing them in a paraglider
- Stalking them with clipboards and darting rifles
Nope, that last one doesn’t count. Firing contraceptive darts into their hindquarters, with all the attendant risks, is much less invasive than low-flying aircraft.
RELATED: EPA Ordered to Reconsider PZP Registration.
No Hard Feelings
Virginia Range mustangs spar briefly then go their merry way.
Mustang Monday
Barrel Racing Prospect?
Nope, his job is to be wild and free on his home range. This may be hard to understand, but for that to happen he first has to be conceived and born on the range.
Beachgoer Gets Too Close to Currituck Stud
Refer to this story by The Outer Banks Voice. They’re not predators but desensitizing them to humans is not a good idea. What happens if they approach you?
RELATED: Keeping a Safe Distance.
No Farriers in the Wild
The dished out area in the center of the foot suggests that most of the weight is carried by the hoof wall, not the sole. With roughly 60% of the weight carried by the front legs, that means about 300 pounds per hoof for an average horse.
Wild horse tech: Estimate the contact pressure in pounds per square inch.
RELATED: What Is the Mustang Roll?
Some Things Are More Important Than Water
Is that a mare in the distance?
Comments Invited on Draft EA for Nevada WHR Roundups
BLM announced today the beginning of a 30-day comment period on an environmental assessment for wild horse and burro management in the Nevada WHR.
The WHR, one of four areas in the western U.S. (out of 177) managed primarily for wild horses, covers 1.3 million acres and has an AML of 500, for an aimed-at stocking rate of 0.4 wild horses per thousand acres. Normally a rate that low could be sign of trouble—if it was an HMA—but livestock grazing is not allowed on the WHR.
Amendments to the land use plan restricted wild horse management to approximately 484,000 acres in the northern part of the WHR.
Actions to control herd size could also include sex ratio skewing, contraception and sterilization. Options are discussed in Section 2.0.
Substantive comments can be submitted at this page.
The last roundup occurred in August 2018, with a 3.9% death rate.
BLM Highlights Wild Horse Population Control Efforts
Today the agency cited recent efforts to combat wild horse overpopulation, including the adoption incentive program, fertility control research and report to Congress.
The news release said that an estimated 95,000 wild horses and burros inhabit lands that can only support 27,000.
Why can’t the land support more than 27,000? Refer to the following image but don’t say anything, because nobody’s allowed to talk about it.
RELATED: Hypothesis Revisited.
Colt at Eight Weeks
Sporting a mohawk mane, typical for this age. Dark spots on legs reveal his true colors, when baby fur goes away. Photo taken yesterday.
Pine Nut Stud Snakes Foal
One Day of WSHE Not Enough?
You can camp on site all four days! The event is still set for July 16 – 19 at the Murieta Equestrian Center, east of Sacramento.
RELATED: WSHE Rescheduled.
Boy Bands in the Mountains
Trailcam photos of some Virginia Range bachelors.
Cibola-Trigo Gather Suspended
BLM staff will take over later this summer, according to the daily reports. Thirty burros and twenty five horses had been captured as of May 13, with one death reported.
Western Horse Watchers Association 