Wanted: More Pastures for Overpopulated Wild Horses in the West
March 9, 2019
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — If you've ever dreamed of witnessing a panorama of Western heritage from your living-room window, now might be your chance. The iconic image of wild horses stampeding across the American West has not only endured but has multiplied beyond sustainable levels. The U.S. government is seeking private pastures to accommodate the overpopulation of wild horses through May 3.
Many see rounding up wild horses to live on private pastures as a viable solution to this complex issue. These horses, cherished for their romantic value, are protected by federal law. However, providing a home for them comes with numerous requirements.
“It’s not like you can do this in your backyard, or even a 5-acre (2-hectare) plot,” said Debbie Collins, outreach specialist for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program in Norman, Oklahoma. You need extensive fenced-in land, enough to support 200 to 5,000 healthy horses, depending on pasture quality as assessed by the government.
The horses typically roam freely with minimal human intervention but require continuous water, basic shelter, supplemental forage, and corrals for transport. Participants in the private-pasture system must reside in 14 Western and Midwestern states, from eastern Washington to the Texas Panhandle. Over two-thirds of the 37 existing off-range pastures are in Oklahoma and Kansas.
These horses aren’t pets; they have had little exposure to people and many are over 5 years old, making them less suitable for training and adoption. Despite this, interest in the off-range pasture program remains high, with frequent inquiries, Collins noted.
“My only advice would be to go into it with your eyes wide open,” said Dwayne Oldham, a former Wyoming state veterinarian who has hosted wild horses on his family’s Double D cattle ranch since 2015. While working with the government can be demanding, caring for over 130 horses at the Wind River Wild Horse Sanctuary isn’t too challenging, Oldham said.
The sanctuary, unlike most private pastures, is open to the public, attracting tourists en route to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Meanwhile, about 50 miles south, ranchers, wild horse advocates, and the BLM have been entangled in lawsuits over wild horses in the Checkerboard, where wild horses compete with cattle for resources.
The BLM adheres to the 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which protects these animals on BLM land in 10 Western states. “We want to be part of the solution and not just the adversary,” Oldham emphasized.
The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) advocates for using contraceptives on mares to control overpopulation, arguing that roundups lead to compensatory breeding. However, they do not oppose off-range pastures as an alternative to long-term corralling.
“We advocate that if the government is going to remove wild horses from the range, long-term is more cost-effective than short-term holding,” said Grace Kuhn from the group. Over 55,000 more horses and burros roam the West than the 27,000 the BLM deems sustainable.
Adoptions and sales through the Wild Horse and Burro Program have rebounded to over 3,400 annually, up from a low of 1,800 in 2014. While the number of off-range pastures has grown since the 1990s, the number of horses they can support remains near capacity at about 36,500.
The number of pastured wild horses is primarily determined by roundups and adoptions. Stallions are gelded and kept separate from mares to prevent reproduction, except for the occasional pregnant mare captured from the wild.
The establishment of new off-range pastures through the latest bid solicitation, the first since 2016, will depend on costs and renewals of existing pastures, Collins explained. “It’s just a happier, healthier environment for a horse to be out in a pasture,” she concluded.
Originally posted by The Register-Guard