At Grayson Highlands State Park with American Wanderlust.

Helicopters were grounded this afternoon, with 133 horses captured, 39 shipped and one dead.

The colt lost yesterday died from a spinal cord injury caused by blunt trauma to the lower neck, according to today’s report.

One more update will be posted tomorrow.

Mares treated with Gonacon Equine could be returned to the HMA this week, but they won’t go home until October if two doses are given.

Stallions identified for return could be released before the contractor demobilizes.

RELATED: Where Are the Reveille Foals?

Last year the facility was closed due to a strangle outbreak.  Nineteen horses were lost.

In March, on-site adoptions resumed.

In June, in-person adoptions were suspended in favor of the online system.

On Friday, a BLM news release said wild horse and burro adoptions will resume as scheduled throughout the summer.

The Wheatland population consisted of 2,511 wild horses and 23 wild burros, according to the May 21 Facility Report.

Yesterday’s action netted 37 stallions, 40 mares and 6 foals.

Almost certainly the helicopter pilots are targeting family bands, as the advocates do, but why the low percentage of foals?

The sample size was not large but at the rate the incident is going, the chase may end tonight.

A 7.2% birth rate implies a herd growth rate of two percent per year.

Can the results be attributed to population suppression efforts?  Harsh winter?

Mares captured in the 2020 roundup were treated with fertility control of unspecified type according the gather page.

RELATED: Reveille Roundup in Progress

Of the two leading products, Zonastat-H and GonaCon Equine, Gonacon will outpace Zonastat in use, for the following reasons:

• May sterilize treated mares
• Applicators need not be certified
• Can be misused with no consequences
• Few if any limitations on where it can be used

In the first part of the June 14 roundup schedule, for nonmotorized removals, the two products are more-or-less evenly split.

Given that GonaCon Equine can be used to control or eradicate pests (wild horses and burros) that interfere or could interfere with animal agriculture (permitted grazing), which is not true for Zonastat-H, it will become the pesticide of record until something better comes along.

RELATED: An Incomplete History of GonaCon Equine.

The incident started today, according to the gather page, with 83 horses captured, none shipped and one dead.

The capture and removal goals are 129 and 76, respectively.

Mares returned to the HMA will be treated with GonaCon Equine, a fertility control pesticide that may act as a sterilant.

RELATED: Reveille Roundup Announced.

The following timeline is based on documents found during keyword searches at epa.gov.

2009 – The EPA publishes a Fact Sheet classifying the product as a restricted-use pesticide, for use on female deer.  The label indicated there is a chance that some animals will become permanently sterile.

2013 – The EPA registers GonaCon Equine as a restricted-use pesticide, naming USDA APHIS as the registrant, complete with PPE requirements and directions for use.  Same product, but rebranded.

2015 – The EPA amends the registration, correcting the label and confidential statement of formulation (CSF).  Still classified as RUP.

2017 – The EPA drops the restricted-use designation.  Still assigned to USDA APHIS.

2019 – The EPA registers the product to Spay First as GONACON Immunocontraceptive Vaccine – EQ for commercial sale and use.

The product interrupts ovulation and infertility can be achieved for up to four years in mares treated with a primer and booster, according to a 2018 report by CSU.

Spay First is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Oklahoma.

GonaCon EQ is not available for private use but you don’t need a diploma from the Billings School of PZP Darting and Public Deception to apply it.

RELATED: NPS Getting Rid of TRNP Wild Horses with GonaCon?

The Onaqui Mountain HMA has an AML of 210, which exceeds the minimum acceptable herd size of 150 to 200 animals in Section 4.4.6.3 of the WHB Handbook, but does that ensure genetic diversity?

Not really.  The low end of AML is 121, so the BLM could take the herd down to that level, compromising genetic variation.

How about Sand Wash Basin?  The AML is 163 to 363.

Nope, the low end is too low.

Hey Western Horse Watchers, what about Clan Alpine in Nevada, where the AML ranges from 612 to 979?

Not so fast, Chester!

There’s one more variable that must be considered: Are the advocates pounding the mares with pesticide-laced darts?

If so, the breeding population may dip below 50 even though the current population is well above the minimum recommended level.

This is what the advocates are doing at the Salt River and Virginia Range.

Eventually the herds will collapse because too many mares have been sterilized by the safe, proven and reversible “vaccines.”

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Snuffing Out New Life Edition.

Sound quality was poor on Day 3, could barely hear it.  Wasn’t able to connect to video feed on Day 2.

The inaugural catch-treat-release roundup will occur in July, according to one of the snippets from today.

The meeting ends tomorrow.  Watch the final session at BLM Live.

RELATED: WHBAB Meeting Starts Today.

The answer can be found by the same method used for the HMA but with more acreage.

The HMA is a subset of the HA, which is a subset of the Reveille Allotment.

The allotment offers 39.1 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

The HA covers 387,676 public acres.

Therefore, the forage assigned to livestock inside the HA is 39.1 × 387,676 ÷ 1,000 = 15,158 AUMs per year, assuming the resource is evenly distributed across the parcel, enough to support 15,158 ÷ 12 = 1,263 wild horses.

The True AML would be 138 + 1,263 = 1,401, because the HA contains the HMA.

The BLM receives 15,158 × 1.35 = $20,463 per year from ranching activity inside the HA while it spends $5 per head per day, at least, for a total of $2,304,975 per year, to care for the 1,263 wild horses displaced from the HA by permitted grazing.

This is a fine example of how the government caters to special interests, wastes our money and mismanages our public lands.

RELATED: How Many Wild Horses Can the Reveille HMA Support?

There are three layers of forage demand in most HMAs: Horses, livestock and wildlife.

To estimate the carrying capacity, convert the forage assigned to livestock to wild horses and add the result to the AML.

The HMA is a subset of the Reveille Allotment, as shown in the National Data Viewer.

The HMA offers 138 × 12 = 1,656 AUMs per year on 104,500 public acres, or 15.8 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

The allotment offers 25,730 AUMs on 657,520 public acres, according to the Allotment Master Report, which works out to 39.1 AUMs per year per thousand public acres.

Land that can only produce 15.8 AUMs per year per thousand public acres for wild horses can produce 39.1 AUMs per year per thousand public acres for livestock.

If the resource is evenly distributed across the allotment, the forage assigned to livestock inside the HMA should be 39.1 × 104,500 ÷ 1,000 = 4,086 AUMs per year, enough to support 4,086 ÷ 12 = 340 wild horses.

Therefore, the True AML, the number of wild horses the HMA could support if it was managed principally for them (as specified in the original statute) is 138 + 340 = 478, to be achieved by confining the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season.

The current population, thought to be 164 plus this year’s foal crop, is well within this range.

The Authorization Use Report indicates a twelve-month grazing season.

The HMA is managed primarily for animal agriculture, with cattle receiving 2.5 times more forage than the horses.

The roundup will bring forage consumption in line with the resource specifications of the land-use plan(s) and the fertility control pesticides should keep it that way for many years to come.

RELATED: Reveille Roundup Announced.

The incident, which kicks off the second half of the FY23 roundup season, will begin on or about July 1, according to today’s news release.

Helicopters will push the horses into the traps and operations will be open to public observation.

The HMA covers 105,499 total acres, including 104,500 public acres, according to the March HA/HMA Report.

The HA, most of which is unfit for wild horses but not for livestock, covers 389,050 total acres, including 387,676 public acres, east of Tonopah, NV.

The AML is 138.

The current population is thought to be 164 plus this year’s foal crop.

The stocking rate allowed by plan is 1.3 wild horses per thousand public acres, slightly higher than the target rate across all HMAs of one wild horse per thousand acres.

The goal  is to capture 129 wild horses, remove 76 and return 26 stallions to their lawful home along with 27 mares treated with GonaCon Equine, an ovary-killing pesticide not a fertility control vaccine.

The HA and HMA lie within the Reveille Allotment and are subject to permitted grazing, as shown by the National Data Viewer.

Animals not returned to the HMA will be taken to the Ridgecrest off-range corrals.

Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.

RELATED: FY23 Roundup Schedule Grows.

Day 1 kicks off with an educational tour of the Blue Wing Complex, where wild horses have been cheated by the bureaucrats in favor of the ranchers with the concurrence of the advocates.

You can watch the proceedings live, starting tomorrow.

RELATED: More WHBAB Meeting Materials Posted.

The Corolla Wild Horse Fund, the group responsible for contraceptive darting, was unaware of their presence, according to this report by WVEC News.

The story did not indicate if the band had moved to the remote area in fear of the advocates.

RELATED: Currituck Herd Adds New Filly.

Contrary to what the advocates have been telling you, they are not among the players in this WyoFile article about lawsuits, overpopulation and AMLs.

RELATED: Another Coalition Tries to Stop Rock Springs RMP Amendments.

The incident started on June 7 in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area according to a news release dated June 23 by NPS.

The horses were trapped on a beach in Navajo Canyon due to rising lake elevations and with food running out, the Park Service loaded them into a horse trailer on a boat and handed them off to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, UT.

NPS does not acknowledge the horses in its discussion of mammals in GCNRA, probably because it considers them to be non-native/invasive animals.

The National Data Viewer puts Navajo Canyon in Arizona near the Utah state line.

On Assateague Island with Adventures With Savannah!

A dataset published by the advocates in January shows the name, sex, color and age of each horse in the WHR.

Sweetheart and Boone appear on rows 28 and 29.

The darting status of the mares was not provided.

Calculations added by Western Horse Watchers indicate 75 males, 108 females and 27 foals (born in 2022).

Females outnumber males by 1.4:1.

The average age of the males, including foals, is 8.3 years.

The average of the females is 9.3 years.

The over-20 category consisted of two males and fifteen females.

Foals represented 14.8% of the population, higher than expected, suggesting the herd is growing at a rate of nine to ten percent per year.

Data from last year, for roundups starting on or after July 1 (after foaling season), indicated a weighted average birth rate of 17.4%.

If the goal is to slow population growth or bring birth rates in line with death rates, the program is not very effective.

Perhaps it has been curtailed or shut off.

With birth rates and breeding patterns determined by the advocates, not nature, the herd is not wild and the area qualifies as a curated horse exhibit.

RELATED: The Sad Story of Sweetheart and Boone.

The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, CO deviates slightly from its anti-horse bias in this article about a Little Book Cliffs mare that roamed the WHR for an astonishing 30 years, thanks to—wait for it—a contraceptive drug.

If you’re up to speed in the wild horse world, you know the drug as PZP or Zonastat-H, an ovary-killing pesticide on the same EPA list as toxic chemicals.

You also recognize the advanced age as a symptom of an abnormal sex ratio, which the advocates and their dupes refer to as mares living longer.

The BLM-approved darting program, which appears at the top of the latest roundup schedule (for non-motorized removals), is carried out by Friends of the Ranchers, an advocacy group founded in 1982.

Curiously, they’ve scrubbed their site of all references to the product except for an old/inactive page about their organization.

Most wild horse advocates insist that pummeling the mares with pesticide-laced darts, which they describe as safe, proven and reversible fertility control vaccines, is harmless.

Evidence to the contrary is on full display at Assateague Island and is now leaking out in Currituck County, NC.

As for the ranchers, Little Book Cliffs is surrounded by BLM grazing allotments.

The horses don’t always respect the WHR boundaries, as noted in the story, so beating the population down with restricted-use pesticides protects resources assigned to the public-lands ranchers.

Unfortunately, application of PZP to control pests that interfere, or could interfere, with animal agriculture is not one of the approved uses.

If the advocates are ashamed of what they’re doing to the horses, how do you think they’ll feel when arrest warrants go out for unlawful use of pesticides?

Same for the bureaucrats and grunts.

In her later years, the mare had taken up with a black stallion and the pair were often spotted by hikers and motorists, but they produced no offspring, possibly due to natural causes but more likely because she had been isolated from the gene pool (sterilized, for those of you in Rio Linda) years earlier by the advocates.

“We give them better lives and longer ones,” one of them told the reporter, referring to the mares, not the stallions.

A two-foals-and-you’re-done policy is the goal according to the report.

This permanent condition will be achieved with the temporary contraceptive mentioned in the story, not by surgery.

The advocates can be more honest and open about their true intentions and loyalties now that the Colorado Wild Horse Project has become law.

As the American people realize they’re charlatans, and adjust their financial support accordingly, the state will fund such programs, going as far as paying people to hike the range and dart more mares.

As for the stallion, the advocates say he’s going to be lonely and may go downhill fast because of the loss.  He’s already 23 or 24.

The June 21 update says $563,000 of the needed $625,000 has been donated.

The buyback filly auction yielded $40,500.

Now known as Beebe’s Perfect Storm, this youngster will remain on the island for the rest of her life, safe from the fertility control pesticides and those who promote them.

RELATED: Beebe Ranch Fundraiser Closing in on Goal.