BLM captures about 1,000 wild mustangs in western Colorado

BLM holds about 60,000 wild horses in long-term facilities

A helicopter swooped through the bright blue sky above the high desert about an hour west of Meeker, Colorado, herding wild horses through dusty sagebrush toward a capture pen. A small group of reporters and horse lovers watched from the cover of wizened trees about a mile from the pen. Within hours, livestock trailers rumbled down a dirt road carrying the first horses of the day to a temporary holding facility.

The Aug. 5 gathering event was part of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s decades-long effort to manage wild horse populations across 10 Western states. About 1,000 horses were slated for capture in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area in Rio Blanco County, the agency said. Most of the gathered horses will end up in long-term holding facilities that some horse advocates equate with prisons.

The agency, part of the U.S. Interior Department, currently houses about 60,000 horses in those facilities at a cost to federal taxpayers of about $100 million a year. According to BLM estimates, just over 85,000 wild horses roam federal lands nationwide — far fewer than the millions of cattle that share the range.

Horse advocate Robyn Smith, a retired architect from Cheyenne, Wyoming, was among those watching the roundup. Through a high-powered camera lens, she watched about half a dozen horses of various colors galloping together. “It makes me happy they’re living their best life,” Smith said. “And it’s just such a beautiful thing to see when you’re just wild and free like that.” As the helicopter drove the horses — including a baby — toward the pen, Smith began to cry. The BLM reunites particularly young foals with their mothers; otherwise, none of the horses will likely be together again. “That’s a family. That’s a family out there,” Smith said through tears. “It’s a family broken.”

Rio Blanco County Commissioner Callie Scritchfield offered a different view. A former rancher, she recalled coming across a wild horse stuck in a mud hole while searching for water. “The mustang was trying to get the last drop of water, but he’s bogged down,” Scritchfield said. “He don’t have the strength to get out. It’s not pretty.” Scritchfield argued captivity was more humane than life on the range. “You never see a skinny one in there,” she said of the holding facilities. “He’s always got something to eat every day, and he’s got a drink of water every day.”

Troy Osborn, a range expert and former U.S. Forest Service employee, said federal lands outside Meeker have been denuded by both domestic cows and wild horses. The two animals have similar diets, he said, and the range needs protection from all those hungry mouths. “We want to see the ground healthy. We want to see it productive,” Osborn said. “We want to see it used by all animals, by all species.” Ranchers argue that livestock are carefully managed while the movements of wild horses are less controlled. Horse herds can double in size every few years without human intervention, the BLM says.

Cindy Day, a horse advocate who adopted her mustang Moses four years ago after a previous roundup, has come to see the gatherings as “a sad necessity.” She first encountered Moses when he was “horrifically wild,” she said, and has since trained him at the ranch she bought near Grand Junction, in Clifton, Colorado. At the ranch, Day petted Moses’s mane as he snorted and nuzzled her. “Good boy! Good boy!” she said, giving him a peck on the cheek. “Mama kisses? Thank you, baby!” She said they share a bond she has never felt with any other animal. “He’s the love of my life,” Day said.

Day volunteers with the nonprofit Piceance Mustangs, one of several organizations that help the BLM with tasks the agency says are not in its budget. Her tasks include shooting the horses with darts laced with birth-control medication and helping the group promote adoptions. “And hopefully those people can have a relationship like I have with Moses,” Day said of the families she meets through the adoption program. “You go and you spend time on the range, and you realize that there’s too many of them.”

The BLM says about 8,000 wild horses were either sold or adopted last year. Back at the Colorado gathering event, two foals stood silently in the back of one trailer, partitioned off from the adults. Horse advocate Heather Hellyer watched multiple trailers filled with horses leave throughout the day. She said some horses reared up against the helicopter in a final act of defiance, and some 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,” Hellyer said. “I’m very proud of them today.”