Federal government thins the herds of wild horses in Colorado

Federal administration thins the herds of wild horses in Colorado U.S.

Key points

• Horse advocate Cindy Day practices training exercises with Moses, whom she adopted after a wild mustang roundup in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area.
• The BLM at present houses concerning 60, 000 horses at a cost to federal taxpayers of regarding $100 million a year.
• Cows vastly outnumber wild horses in the West – the BLM estimates that just over 85, 000 wild horses roam federal lands nationwide, compared with millions of cows.
• Robyn Smith (right), a horse advocate who traveled from Cheyenne, Wyo., speaks with Heather Marsh, a spokesperson for the U.S.
• Rio Blanco County Commissioner Callie Scritchfield, nevertheless, stated captivity is more humane than allowing the horses to roam free.

Federal administration thins the herds of wild horses in Colorado U.S. Office-holders say the ever-growing population of wild horses that roam federal lands in Colorado is depleting natural resources. But some activists say efforts to remove the horses are inhumane. Federal administration thins the herds of wild horses in Colorado.

Notably, a trailer of wild mustangs is transported to a temporary holding facility during the federal Bureau of Land Management's wild mustang roundup in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area in Rio Blanco County, Colo., on Aug. 5. McKenzie Lange/CPR News hide caption.

As a pilot scanned the high desert below for wild horses running through the dusty sagebrush, regarding an hour's drive west of Meeker, Colorado, a helicopter swooped through the bright blue sky. A small group of reporters and horse lovers watched from the cover of wizened trees, regarding a mile from a pen that would trap the horses.

Horse advocate Robyn Smith spotted the first group of the day. Through her high-powered camera lens, she watched regarding half a dozen horses of various colors galloping together.

"It makes me happy they're living their best life, " remarked Smith, a retired architect who has traveled throughout the West to photograph wild horses. "And it's just such a beautiful thing to see when you're just wild and free like that."

But she knew what would come next. Shortly the helicopter was hovering above the horses, including a baby. They ran away from the loud buzz and toward the pen, just out of view.

Wild mustangs are herded toward a capture pen by helicopter during the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's wild mustang roundup in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area in Rio Blanco County, Colo., on Aug. 5. McKenzie Lange/CPR News hide caption.

Scenes like this are common throughout the American West. The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the U.S. Interior Department, oversees both wild horses and the public rangeland they call home throughout 10 Western states. When the agency determines there are more horses than the land can backing, it removes a set number. For this gathering event in rural Colorado, regarding 1, 000 are slated for capture. Most of the gathered horses will end up in controversial long-term holding facilities that some horse advocates equate with prisons.

As Smith watched the horses gather in the pen, she clicked her camera's shutter in rapid fire and began to cry.

She explained that once captured, the horses will be separated. The BLM reunites particularly young foals with their mothers. Otherwise, none of the horses will probable be together again.

"That's a family. That's a family out there, " Smith remarked through tears. "It's a family broken."

Robyn Smith (right), a horse advocate who traveled from Cheyenne, Wyo., speaks with Heather Marsh, a spokesperson for the U.S. Interior Department, on the way to the Bureau of Land Management's wild mustang roundup viewing location. McKenzie Lange/CPR News hide caption. Protecting the land – and the horses?

Notably, the BLM at present houses concerning 60, 000 horses at a cost to federal taxpayers of regarding $100 million a year.

"You never see a skinny one in there, " she remarked of the holding facilities. "He's always got something to eat every day, and he's got a drink of water every day, " which she thinks is better than the life plenty of horses experience in the wild.

Scritchfield, a former rancher, described seeing wild horses starving on the range. She recalled coming throughout one stuck in a mud hole.

Meanwhile, the mustang "was trying to obtain the last drop of water, but he's bogged down. He don't have the strength to obtain out, " Scritchfield stated, grimacing at the memory. "It's not pretty."

Some federal lands outside Meeker have been denuded by both domestic cows and wild horses, remarked Troy Osborn, a range expert and former U.S. Forest Service employee. He remarked that both animals have similar diets and that the range needs to be protected from all those hungry mouths.

"We want to see the ground healthy. We want to see it productive, " he remarked. "We want to see it used by all animals, by all species."

Cows vastly outnumber wild horses in the West – the BLM estimates that just over 85, 000 wild horses roam federal lands nationwide, compared with millions of cows. While the movements of wild horses are less controlled, but ranchers argue that livestock are carefully managed.

Horse herds can additionally double in size every few years without human intervention. The BLM notes the roundups assist keep those numbers in check. Finding a home off the range.

Meanwhile, the BLM notes concerning 8, 000 of these wild horses were either sold or adopted last year.

When Cindy Day took in her wild horse, Moses, four years ago, he was "horrifically wild, " she remarked, but she has watched him learn to trust.

At the ranch she purchased for Moses near Grand Junction, Colo., Day petted his mane as he snorted and nuzzled her.

"Good boy! As she provided him a peck on his cheek, good boy!" Day remarked. "Mama kisses? Thank you, baby!"

She and the sizeable gray horse work together every day, with Day training Moses to be comfortable wearing a saddle as she leads him around the small ranch. While she still can't ride Moses, she imagines a day when she will show him the trails through the surrounding mesas.

She notes they share a bond she has never felt with any other animal. "He's the love of my life, " Day remarked.

Horse advocate Cindy Day practices training exercises with Moses, whom she adopted after a wild mustang roundup in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area. Day and Moses are at the ranch where Moses lives in Clifton, Colo., on Aug. 5. McKenzie Lange/CPR News hide caption.

Day volunteers with the nonprofit Piceance Mustangs, one of plenty of organizations throughout the West that support the BLM with tasks not in the agency's budget. That includes administering extra doses of birth control to horses. Day's tasks include shooting the horses with darts laced with medication. She additionally helps the group promote horse adoptions. She remarked she looks forward to showing potential mustang parents photos of her life with her horse.

"And hopefully those people can have a relationship like I have with Moses, " she remarked.

Day remarked she employed to hate horse roundups but now sees them as a sad necessity.

"You go and you spend time on the range, and you realize that there's too many of them, " she remarked.

Horse advocate Cindy Day shares a tender moment with her formerly wild horse, Moses. McKenzie Lange/CPR News hide caption.

Back at the roundup, a livestock trailer filled with captured horses rumbled down a dirt road. Two baby horses stood silently in the back, partitioned off from the adults.

Horse advocate Heather Hellyer watched multiple trailers filled with horses leave throughout the day. She remarked some horses reared up against the helicopter in a final act of defiance.

Some even managed to evade the wranglers and disappear into the vast rangeland.

"Wild horses are definitely the spirit of the Wild West, and they do have that fight in them, " Hillier remarked. "I'm very proud of them today."

Moses on the ranch where he lives on Aug. 5. McKenzie Lange/CPR News hide caption.

Taken together, the developments around federal government thins the herds of wild horses in Colorado point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.