Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
Alternative A, the Proposed Action, features
The new HMAP was copied to the project folder as Appendix XII.
Both were posted as Word documents.
Comments will be accepted through September 3 according to the news release.
RELATED: Scoping Begins for Callaghan HMAP.
The incident concluded on August 2 with 1,676 horses captured, 1,664 shipped, two released and seven dead according to figures in the sidebar.
There were three unaccounted-for animals.
1,676 – 1,664 – 2 – 7 = 3
The capture total does not include a mule caught on July 21.
The capture and removal goals were 1,675 each.
The daily reports indicate eight deaths, revised downward from nine, for a death rate of 0.5%.
The average daily take was 88.2.
Foals represented 21.2% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 45.6% were male and 54.4% were female.
There were no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing.
The operation liberated 20,088 AUMs per year.
RELATED: Adobe Town Roundup Pending.
Assuming that foals are produced by a simple random process centered at 50% males / 50% females, a herd of 150 adults should contain between 37.75% and 62.25% females according to this relationship, where n = 150 and p-bar = .5.
Converting to integers, the number of female adults should range between 57 and 93.
Given that twins are very rare for horses, a herd of 150 adults should not be able to produce 100 foals unless something has occurred that invalidates the assumption of 50% males and 50% females.
Your host sent an email to the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company this morning seeking the current size of the herd and the number of adult males and females.
At the 2025 Chincoteague pony swim with Peter Finocchio.
There was no news release but the gather page says Final report July 30.
There were no unaccounted-for animals.
The capture and removal goals were 1,100 and 1,000, respectively.
The death rate was 0.6%.
The average daily take was 21.1.
Foals represented 8% of the animals captured.
Of the adults, 53.5% were male and 46.5% were female.
The name of the contractor was not given.
The disposition of 100 jennies treated with PZP is unknown.
The incident supported three tenets of rangeland management.
Data from Superior Productions, a division of Superior Livestock Auction:
2023
2024
2025
Observations
Hypothesis
The incident started on July 15. Results through July 31:
The figures above are based on the daily reports. The sidebar at the gather page says 1,677 horses captured, including a mule, and 1,510 shipped.
The capture goal has been reached.
The sidebar indicates that two stallions were released but this is not documented in the daily reports.
A foal died of capture shock and a stallion was euthanized on Day 16.
A foal was dispatched on Day 17.
The death rate is 0.5%.
The capture total includes 601 stallions, 720 mares and 354 foals, not counting the mule.
The sidebar says 603/719/355.
Youngsters represented 21.1% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 45.5% were male and 54.5% were female.
The location of the trap site is not known.
The name of the contractor was not given.
There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
The map shows the Rock Springs HMAs before the RMP amendments, which were halted by an appeals court ruling on July 15. Click to enlarge.
RELATED: Adobe Town Roundup, Day 15.
How could a herd of 150 adults, on the Virginia side of the island, produce 100 foals?
Fifty stallions covering 100 mares with a 100% success rate?
Twenty-five stallions covering 125 mares with an 80% success rate?
Have the saltwater cowboys been skewing the sex ratio in favor of females?
All six of this year’s buy backs are fillies according to the auction results.
Ka-ching, ka-ching.
Foals are hard to find on the Maryland side because the mares have been ruined by PZP.
RELATED: Chincoteague Buy Backs Net $355,500.
Bids ranged from $31,500 to $100,000 according to the auction results.
A story by WBOC News says the total for all foals exceeded $1 million.
The six buy backs are the only foals, out of 100, allowed to return to the Virginia side of Assateague Island, along with the adults.
The Chincoteague ponies make their return swim today, minus all but six of the foals.
If you were to visit the island this weekend, you’d think the advocates were poisoning the mares with PZP.
But that would not be the case.
The event, organized by ranchers for the benefit of ranchers, helps the BLM take more wild horses off the range.
Deirdre Macnab still drives the bus.
You’re not supposed to know that she owns a $10 million base property and runs livestock on over 125,000 public acres.
New this year is an Adult In-Hand Division and a Mustang Only Horse Show, scheduled for August 22 according to a report by the Steamboat Pilot & Today.
The incident started on June 9. Results through July 30:
The figures above are based on the daily reports. More animals have been processed than trapped.
There is a discrepancy in the Day 51 results.
The capture goal has been reached according to the sidebar at the gather page.
One animal was dispatched on Day 51 for pre-existing conditions. The death rate is 0.6%.
The capture total includes 536 jacks, 470 jennies and 87 foals. The sidebar says 541/471/88.
Youngsters represented 8.0% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 53.3% were male and 46.7% were female.
The location of the trap site is not known.
The name of the contractor was not provided.
On Day 51, 22 jennies were treated with PZP, bringing the total to 100.
With 1,100 captured, 1,093 shipped and seven dead, according to the gather page, the number of animals available for release is zero. Where are the treated jennies?
The Complex is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
RELATED: Three Rivers Roundup, Day 46.
The pony swim guide indicates that roughly 50 adult ponies and their foals live at the southern end of the island while 100 adult ponies and their foals reside a little farther to north, putting the total at 150 adults and 60 to 70 foals born in the spring.
But the list of this year’s foals published by DSC Photography includes 100 animals.
In the wild, a population of 150 adults could be expected to produce 20 to 30 foals, maybe a few more.
An article by WBOC News indicates that six will make the return swim to the island with the adults.
The remainder will be sold at auction.
What does that tell you about current management practices?
What is the long-term effect on genetic diversity and viability of the herd?
Given that the event is a fundraiser for the Chincoteague Fire Department, there is little if any reason to change course.
The more foals the better.
RELATED: Chincoteague Pony Swim Set for July 30.
A story by KPNX News does not indicate if the herd would be nonreproducing but the answer is clear, given that the advocates have ruined the mares with PZP.
RELATED: More Options for Salt River Horses?
The incident started on July 15. Results through July 29:
The figures above are based on the daily reports. The sidebar at the gather page says 1,519 horses captured (including a mule) and 1,293 shipped.
A foal died of capture shock on Day 14. The death rate is 0.4%.
The capture total includes 543 stallions, 649 mares and 325 foals, not counting the mule.
The sidebar says 545/648/326.
Youngsters represented 21.4% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 45.6% were male and 54.4% were female.
The location of the trap site is not known.
The name of the contractor was not given.
There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
The map shows the Rock Springs HMAs before the RMP amendments, which were halted by an appeals court ruling on July 15. Click to enlarge.
RELATED: Adobe Town Roundup, Day 13.
The article says the BLM, in partnership with the Forest Service, planned and installed five virtual fence towers in a jointly managed grazing allotment in the Agua Fria National Monument but did not give the name of the allotment.
A link to the NEPA review was not provided.
A keyword search of ePlanning for “Agua Fria” turned up nine results but nothing for this project.
A search for “virtual” yielded 62 results including three in Arizona but none for a fencing project in Agua Fria.
Maybe the Forest Service did the environmental review.
Or maybe it wasn’t done at all. Not even a CX.
The ArcGIS Viewer shows two allotments stretching eastward into Forest Service land, Horseshoe and EZ Ranch.
The allotment master report identifies the permittees.
A page at the JH Cattle Company website confirms the connection with Horseshoe.
Another page describes the Vence virtual fencing system, which matches the description in the BLM article.
Presumably, JH Cattle will benefit from the new equipment, but who paid for it?
The allotment offers 4,572 AUMs on 29,851 public acres, equivalent to 12.8 wild horses per thousand public acres.
Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (25,500 animals on 25.6 million acres).
The Proposed Action would also increase the grazing season by a factor of two.
Table 1 in the Draft EA, developed with no public input, summarizes the changes.
The project folder also contains an aerial image of the allotment.
The topic of increased forage usually appears in planning documents for wild horse roundups.
The customary response is that it can’t be accomplished through a wild horse gather decision and is only possible if the agency first revises the land-use plan to reallocate forage.
Refer to item 27 in the Lohanton comment summary for an example.
In this case, forage will go up with no changes to the LUP.
The allotment master report puts Granite Springs in the custodial category, condition unknown.
The EA claims the allotment has been underutilized.
The report shows no AUMs in the suspended column so the incremental forage has gone undetected for many years.
If the project is approved, the permittee will receive 383 AUMs on 982 public acres, equivalent to 32.5 wild horses per thousand public acres.
The target stocking rate across all HMAs is one wild horse per thousand acres (25,500 animals on 25.6 million acres).
On the Salt River with Walking with a Wookie.
The incident concluded on July 26 with 105 horses captured, 104 shipped, none released and one dead.
There were no unaccounted-for animals.
The capture and removal goals were 100 each.
The death rate was 1.0%.
The average daily take was 35.0.
The capture total included 41 stallions, 50 mares and 14 foals.
Youngsters represented 13.3% of the total.
Of the adults, 45.1% were male and 54.9% were female.
Ther were no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range so the number of animals removed was 105.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing. The operation liberated 1,260 AUMs per year.
The roundup supported three tenants of rangeland management.
RELATED: Pancake Emergency Roundup Starts July 22.
Western Horse Watchers Association 