It’s a horse term.

BLM said today that approximately 225 wild horses would be removed from the Red Rock HMA west of Las Vegas, starting July 28.  The roundup was prompted by lack of water and rangeland degradation, according to the news release.

Operations will not be open to public observation and captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals in Ridgecrest, CA (site of the July 4 – 5 earthquakes).

The HMA covers 162,000 acres and has an AML of 27, for an aimed-at population density of 0.2 animals per thousand acres.

Gather stats and daily reports can be found at this page.

The announcement did not indicate if any advocacy groups had offered to haul water to the horses and if ‘other authorized users’ were present on the HMA.

Roughly half of the 11,000 wild horses and burros gathered from public lands in 2018 were removed on an emergency basis.

Not really, that’s what horses do.  Nevada is a fence-out state, so if you buy property there and this happens, don’t call the BLM or the animal control department.

The first leg of the event was yesterday.  Auction was held today, with the return swim set for tomorrow.

The Assateague ponies are split into two herds, one on the Maryland side of the state line and the other on the Virginia side.  The following video by WJZ News in Baltimore covers the Virginia herd, sometimes referred to as the Chincoteague ponies.

How can a herd of 150 animals produce 70 foals annually?  That’s a 50% growth rate, well above the rate seen on public lands in the western U.S.  Sex ratio skewing?

Nobody disputes the story of horses arriving in the New World with Spanish explorers 500 years ago.  According to the narrative, they evolved in North America but were wiped out around 10,000 years ago, making them a re-introduced species.

Now, a researcher who studied the fossil record and interviewed native peoples, says they were here all along, making them indigenous.

Refer to this story, posted today by the Navajo-Hopi Observer.

BLM said today that another 148 wild horses will be forced off their home range, starting next Monday, with 39 to be returned.  Mares released back onto the HMA will be treated with PZP, according to the news release.

The roundup will be open to public observation and will require five days.

Captured animals will be taken to the Palomino Valley Off-Range Corrals about 20 miles north of Sparks, NV.

Gather stats and daily reports can be found on this page, which contains data from the first part of the operation in February.

The roundup will protect herd health, prevent overgrazing of wildlife habitat and address public safety concerns.

It has nothing to do with pubic-lands ranching.

Yeah, right.

RELATED: Pine Nut Gather Called Off.

Virginia Range mustang plays in the water on a warm summer day.

On the Virginia Range.

The Forest Service will ship ten unadopted horses at the Double Devil Corrals to your ranch if you’ll take them, according to a report posted this evening by Action News Now of Chico, CA.

These animals were forced off their home range last October in a roundup at the Devil’s Garden Plateau WHT.  Another gather will occur this fall.

RELATED: Horses at Double Devil Corrals Now ‘Three Strikers’, Ranchers Encouraged by Devil’s Garden Roundup.

Trailcam at the water station usually doesn’t see much activity between 11 PM and 5 AM but here’s an exception.  Filmed 06/16/19 on the Virginia Range, Storey County, NV.

BLM announced on Friday the opening of a comment period on the scope of a program that would “…manage invasive annual grasses that intensify wildland fire behavior and diminish ecological integrity using a variety of livestock grazing practices.”

A ‘Targeted Grazing Scoping Letter’ was issued on 07/03/19, according to the news release, but no link was provided and a newspaper of record was not cited.

The project area includes several BLM districts in the northern half of the state.

All are inhabited by free-roaming horses.  Some have burros.

What will be the impact on those animals as forage is removed?  Will the public-lands ranchers be charged for the ‘service?’  Will the practice occur outside of established grazing allotments?

The casual observer may wonder if this is just another attempt to cram more privately owned cattle, sheep and goats onto public lands in the western U.S. at the expense of America’s wild horses and burros.

RELATED: Ranchers Want it Both Ways, BLM news release dated 06/21/19.

The Forest Service announced yesterday the opening of a comment period on the scope of a proposed management plan for the Murderer’s Creek WHT in eastern Oregon.

Refer to the scoping document for details.  Map is on page 13.

The WHT overlays ten livestock grazing allotments administered by the BLM and five grazing allotments administered by the USFS, according to the document.  All of them contain livestock (privately owned).

Therefore, the proposed plan should (1) include charts and figures showing how the resources will be allocated among the various consumers, (2) demonstrate clearly that the WHT will be managed principally but not necessarily exclusively for wild horses, and (3) list the steps that must be taken to achieve that result, including, but not limited to, AUM curtailments and permit retirements.

BLM said today that the gather was complete, with 804 wild horses removed from their home range.  Sixteen deaths (2.0%) were reported over the nine day period.

Captured animals were taken to the Palomino Valley Wild Horse and Burro Corrals, according to the news release, where they will be prepared for adoption or sale.

UPDATE: The original announcement said 802 horses removed and 14 deaths.

RELATED: Triple B Gather Starts Next Week, Triple B Horses Get Short End of Stick.

The trailcam shifts to black and white during periods of low light.  Here, some Virginia Range mustangs run past the water station just before dark on 07/06/19.

On Sand Wash Basin HMA with High Stakes Ranch.

A wild mare suffered fatal injuries yesterday after hitting a guy wire from a power pole, according to a report by The Virginian-Pilot.  Her foal, born in March, can survive on solid food and is staying with the family band.

The incident comes about a week after a Corolla stallion was hit by a vehicle and underscores the importance of keeping the mares up to date on their contraceptives.

This area is shown as a dry lake on maps but has held water for over two years (it’s the opening scene in this video).  Finally saw some Virginia Range mustangs on 07/12/19, when this photo was taken.  They appear as little dots near the center of the image.

The Park Service said in a news release dated 07/11/19 that, at the end of 2018, there were 116 wild horses on Shackleford Banks, with 62% females and 38% males.

Other statistics include:

• Horses over 20 years of age: 3 males and 17 females
• Deaths in 2018: 11
• Average lifespan for all horses: 11 years

The oldest mare, aged 34 years, died in 2018 according to the report.

The range of variation attributable to natural causes, for the proportion of males (or females) in a herd this size, is 36% to 64%.  (Refer to the statistical formulas on this page, where n = 116 and p = .50.)

Thus, unlike the Assateague herd, the reported proportions fall within the limits and searching for an assignable cause—to explain the observed difference between males and females—would be a waste of time.

The news release did not indicate if any of the deaths were associated with the arrival of Hurricane Florence in September 2018.

RELATED: Update on Shackleford Horses.

NPS said there were 22 stallions and 55 mares on the island in July, according to a report posted yesterday by WBOC News of Salisbury, MD.  A herd of 77 should have between 26 and 51 males (or females) if left to natural causes.

Why is the sex ratio skewed?  The calculation says ‘Look for an assignable cause.’

RELATED: Latest Census Shows Major Problems in Assateague Herd.

Five hundred and one wild horses have been forced off their home range during the first week of the roundup, according to today’s report, liberating approximately 6,000 AUMs per year for the public-lands ranchers.

The government can expect to receive an additional $8,000 per year in grazing fees in exchange for the roughly two hundred thousand of dollars it has spent so far on the operation, for a simple payout of 25 years.

Given that most of them won’t be adopted, the added cost of off-range holding means there is no payout at all.

The answer is clear: Leave them on the range, end public-lands ranching.

RELATED: Triple B Horses Get Short End of Stick, Economics of Wild Horse Gathers.