Trailcam photos of youngsters on the Virginia Range, 05/05/18 and 05/06/18.

Trailcam image of a paint horse on the Virginia Range, 05/05/18.  This color pattern is known as ‘tobiano,’ meaning white across the spine, extending downward.  Base color is black.

Refer to this press release from the Forest Service.  More information can be found at this page.

Results of gather:

• 148 horses removed  (72 studs, 67 mares, 9 foals)
• 19 horses euthanized (12.8% death rate)

The remaining population was estimated to be around 140 horses.  The affected area consists of the Spring Mountain WHT (102,221 acres) and Wheeler Pass HMA (275,575 acres).  The AML is 66, for a target stocking rate of 0.2 horses per thousand acres.  The actual stocking rate, based on animals remaining, is 0.4 horses per thousand acres.

The action was prompted by drought conditions in the southwestern U.S.

UPDATE: One of the euthanized horses was not emaciated, not injured in the gather, but was blind.  Almost certainly he had one or more seeing-eye buddies on the range and would have been fine if allowed to stay there.  If nobody wants to adopt blind horses, returning them to the range would be more humane than putting them down?

Trailcam photo of a Virginia Range mustang, taken 05/05/18, showing condition of the hoof.  The natural rounding of the edge is known as the ‘mustang roll.’

Hard to tell with overcast skies, but she appears to be a dark bay.  Elevation 6500 feet.

Two Virginia Range mustangs visiting with the neighbors on 05/18/18.

On Wheeler Pass HMA.

1. Watch the following video about the Yakama Indians and their horses.

2. Go to Chillypepper.org and observe the endless string of rescued foals coming from Washington state.

3. Download the 05/09/18 episode of Mustang Matters and listen to the remarks from 14:50 to 23:10.

Are you connecting the dots?  They’re sending pregnant mares to slaughter.

In trucks marked ‘666?’

Disgusted?  Want it to stop?  Call a press conference and tell the truth.

Darkness hates the light.

Some of the horses may be traceable to the Horse Heaven Hills.

Even on western rangelands.  Let’s defend them against ugliness.

H/T American Digest.

The WHB Act protected horses and burros on lands where they were found when the law was signed by President Nixon in December 1971.  Some of those lands are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), some are managed by the U. S. Forest Service (USFS).  Lands managed by the USFS are called ‘Territories.’  BLM uses the term ‘Areas.’

There are currently 34 active WHB territories in seven states, some managed jointly with the BLM.  They can be found on this map.  If you can’t find a territory on the USFS list, try the BLM HMA page.

The USFS FAQ page provides a history of equines in North America, stating that horses and burros are indigenous species, evolving on the continent with its grasslands.

This contradicts one of the elements in the wild horse narrative, namely, that horses are non-native animals.

Ten to twelve thousand years ago, most of the large mammals became extinct in North America, including horses, mammoths and saber-tooth tigers.  Horses returned to the continent with the arrival of Spanish explorers.

Ian Tyson’s La Primera, the soundtrack in this video, takes it from there.  The story is told from the horse’s viewpoint.  H/T Sandy Palen at Wild in the Pryors.

An editorial that appeared in The Salt Lake Tribune on 05/01/18 points out the conflicting interests of the BLM in the area of rangeland management.  The photo at the top of the page was probably taken near the National Wild Horse and Burro Summit held in Salt Lake City last August.

The conference organizers and conference participants are not wild horse advocates.  How many elements of the wild horse narrative can you find in their plenary session?

The commentary is a response to the recent BLM Report to Congress about management of wild horses and burros on Western rangelands.

The writer argues that commercialization is the cause of rangeland degradation, not wild horses and burros.

It’s easy to see what livestock can do to the land, harder to imagine how widespread damage can be attributed to oil and gas exploration.  Go to 5:04 in this video for the scene at Stewart Creek HMA in Wyoming.

If the goal is to change the way Americans think about western rangelands, and to supplant traditional notions of freedom, ruggedness and self-reliance with new-age ideals of weakness, vulnerability and dependence on government, then the landscape should be dotted with cattle and sheep, not free-roaming horses and burros.

On Wheeler Pass HMA.

Refer to this statement at the Nevada Department of Agriculture grant page.