The Saltwater Cowboys bring in the harvest on the eastern flank of Chincoteague NWR.
Denver Post Misleads Readers About Wild Horses
When you see a search result like this you know you’re about to be led down the garden path to a glorious place envisioned by ranchers and their allies.
How much of the material was sourced from the Bureau of Livestock Multiplication and the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses?
Western Horse Watchers was unable to access the article.
Public lands in the western U.S. may have 47,500 wild horses and burros than allowed by plan, but not 47,500 more than the land can support.
The issue is not overpopulation, but the way your public lands are managed.
RELATED: Narratives, Collusion Drive Wild Horse Reporting.
What Do the Advocates See in Wild Horses and Burros?
Targets for pesticide-laced darts.
The inevitable result of “humane population reduction,” which they peddle as wild horse conservation, is mass sterilization.
What rancher, thinking strategically, wouldn’t support this?
More Lies from the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses
They’re telling you that they’re reducing population growth but they’re the Nevada Department of Agriculture that they’ve reversed it.
Six years means they’ve sterilized most of the mares.
The herd is shrinking and they’re selling it as wild horse conservation.
They are phonies, servants of the ranchers, irrelevant.
Foal-Free Friday, Outliers and Counterexamples Edition
The conventional wisdom among the advocates is that procreation is bad for wild horses because the herds might outgrow the tiny resource boxes established for them by the bureaucrats, necessitating removal.
Their solution is to sterilize the mares with PZP.
However, there is an area where breeding is not only tolerated but expected.
It’s not compensatory reproduction, it’s factory farming.
Foals are harvested once a year and sold at auction.
Where is this herd?
On Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, the most profitable grazing allotment on the east coast, generating over $1 million for the Chincoteague Fire Company in 2025.
BLM Scraps Plan to Expand East Pershing Complex
The project would apply population controls to more lands in the Stillwater Field Office, conferring the authority of a 2017 EA on acreage that wasn’t analyzed.
One of the goals was to sterilize approximately 30 percent of the low-AML population of each herd, even though it was not approved in the 2018 decision.
The practice will undoubtedly play a larger role in wild horse management, as the advocates demand greater use of fertility control pesticides in lieu of motorized removal.
RELATED: Introduction to the East Pershing Complex.
Salt River Horses Won’t Survive at McDowell Sonoran Preserve?
There is no food, water, shade or fencing according to an opinion piece dated August 6 in the Daily Independent.
RELATED: Scottsdale Mayor Mulls Proposal to Relocate Salt River Horses.
Maverick-Medicine Emergency Roundup Starts August 8
The project scope includes Wood Hills, an area north of Spruce-Pequop in the I-80 checkerboard according to the ArcGIS Viewer.
The capture and removal goals are 215 each.
Horses will be drawn into the traps with bait.
Operations will not be open to public observation.
There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.
Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals at Palomino Valley.
Progress reports will be posted to the gather page.
The impact of drought on permitted grazing was not discussed in the news release.
Chincoteague Ponies: Cash Cows of Assateague Island
No response yet from the Chincoteague Fire Company on the number of adult males and females on the island.
The herd would need at least 100 females to produce 100 foals.
That leaves 50 males out of a herd of 150, the maximum number of ponies allowed by FWS, for a sex ratio two mares for each stallion.
Abnormal sex ratios are usually seen in herds treated with PZP, a byproduct of the effort to sterilize the mares, but in the case of the Chincoteague herd, it’s probably intentional.
Callaghan EA Out for Review
Alternative A, the Proposed Action, features
- Forcible removal to low AML
- Population growth suppression using fertility control pesticides and IUDs
- Sterilizing up to 25% of the mares
- Skewing the sex ratio in favor of males
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.
Assateague Mare Hit by Vehicle
Adobe Town Roundup Ends
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.
Unsolved Mystery: Chincoteague Pony Demographics
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.
Mustang Monday
At the 2025 Chincoteague pony swim with Peter Finocchio.
Three Rivers Roundup Over?
There was no news release but the gather page says Final report July 30.
- 1,100 burros captured
- 1,093 shipped
- None released
- Seven dead
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.
Trends in Chincoteague Pony Auction Results
Data from Superior Productions, a division of Superior Livestock Auction:
2023
- 71 foals offered at auction
- 35 colts
- 36 fillies
- 6 buy backs returned to island
- 3 colts
- 3 fillies
2024
- 88 foals offered at auction
- 38 colts
- 50 fillies
- 7 buy backs returned to island
- 2 colts
- 5 fillies
2025
- 94 foals offered at auction
- 39 colts
- 55 fillies
- 6 buy backs returned to island
- No colts
- 6 fillies
Observations
- The number of foals offered at auction is going up
- The number of colts returned to the island is going down
Hypothesis
- The saltwater cowboys are skewing the sex ratio in favor of females, turning the island into a puppy mill for wild horses, to increase revenue from auctions
Adobe Town Roundup, Day 17
The incident started on July 15. Results through July 31:
- Scope: Adobe Town HMA
- Target: Horses
- AML: 536 (was 800)
- Pre-gather population: Not given, 2,382 according to 2025 population dataset
- Type: Planned
- Method: Helicopter
- Category: Cruel and costly (according to advocates)
- Better way: Sterilize the mares with PZP (according to advocates)
- Capture goal: 1,675
- Removal goal: 1,675
- Captured: 1,675, up from 1,517 on Day 15
- Shipped: 1,508, up from 1,291 on Day 15
- Released: 2, up from zero on Day 15
- Deaths: 9, up from 6 on Day 15
- Average daily take: 98.5
- Unaccounted-for animals: 158
- Snippet from statute: It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death
- Snippet from manual: To protect wild horses and burros from unauthorized capture, branding, harassment or death
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:
- Forage: 20,100 AUMs per year
- Water: 16,750 gallons per day
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.
Miracles and Wonders on Assateague Island
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.
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.
Foal-Free Friday, Honey I Shrunk the Herd Edition
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.
Western Horse Watchers Association 