Wild Horses: McCullough Peaks Shake Up After the Roundup

Last week I made my third trip to the McCullough Peaks Herd Area in northern Wyoming since the roundup last October. The herd area is 110,000 acres. At the roundup, 92 horses were removed, leaving about 125. This is significantly below the number of 150 breeding age adults which is the minimum recommended by Dr. Gus Cothren to insure genetic viability of a herd. Complicating this issue, the herd had been in a experimental birth control program using 2 year PZP as birth control, leaving 15 mares permanently sterile. This further decreases the size of the breeding population and the possibility of maintaining genetic viability for this herd.




Like every other herd except the Pryor Mountain herd, at the roundup, horses were not kept in their family bands, and so mares were separated from youngsters, stallions from mares, and families that had been together for many years were torn apart. The stallions were released together, and the mares were released together. But nothing will ever be the same. This is especially true since the decision was made to skew the sex ratio in this herd, leaving more stallions than mares, instead of roughly 50-50. The idea is that less mares and more stallions means less babies, less population increase. But it totally discounts the effect on the family structure, the heart, soul and glue of the herd.



What I found all over the herd area was single bachelors, bachelors in twos and threes hanging out together, and circling the family bands like sharks.







Two of my favorite stallions, Warbonnet (aka Medicine Boy) and Washakie (aka Rerun)who both had large family bands before the roundup I found with no mares (Washakie) or one mare (Warbonnet).



Indigo, the stallion who fathered my two cremello colts, who had one of the largest bands in the area now had two mares and a foal, and signs of recent battles on his body.





I was happy to see the late season foal of last year, Tall Socks who was one of the few foals left in the area after the roundup. He is growing up to be a handsome and outgoing colt.





Surprisingly, Tecumseh, a young stallion who had only had a family band for 1 year before the roundup had his family intact.





I was wondering why Washkie, who clearly outweighs him by quite a bit had not stolen his band, or some other older, more experienced stallion. In fact one evening by the waterhole, Tecumseh seems unconcerned by the proximity of Washakie to his band.





As I watched over several days it occured to me that Tecumseh was staying close to his father Tucson's band, and Tucson spent a lot of energy chasing off bachelors who got too close. This alliance is clearly working for both stallions.



Another surpise I found was Signal, the bachelor stallion who had been such a troublemaker last year had muscled up and gotten a family for himself, including some of Warbonnet's mares. He even chased Warbonnet far from his band, a real change of status for the two stallions.





Were there more skirmishes than normal? I don't think so right now, but I cannot image that some of these senior band stallions who lost their mares will let the situation stand for too long. With more and more stallions reaching maturity and less mares to go around, this situation will only worsen. It is not good for mares and foals to be constantly in the middle of fighting stallions, nor is it good for mares to be chased and stolen by stallion after stallion.







This is another example of BLM's mismanagement of wild horses. This is a small herd, so why can't the contractor keep the horses in their family bands as they do in the Pryor Mountains? Why must they mess with the sex ration of the horses, without any prior field studies on the effects this manipulation might have, instead just contributing to the turmoil the horses went through at the roundup?




This is one of my favorite wild horse herds, and it was painful to see it is this fractured state. Of course the horses are beautiful, and wonderful to watch, and even Washakie has gotten fat in his new bachelor lifestyle, but as he looks out after the families that are not his, I am sad.



I remembered at the roundup in October 2009 one of Indigo's buckskin mares looking back over her shoulder as she was released, never to see her foal or yearling or sister again. It breaks my heart.



At the meeting with the BLM in Denver all of the wild horse advocates repeatedly called for a moratorium on roundups until an actual workable plan can be put in place to properly manage the wild horses. These requests still go unheeded, and more and more horses continue to lose their freedom this summer.
Please go here to sign the petition for a moratorium on wild horse roundups:
http://www.environment.change.org/petitions/view/stop_the_summer_roundups_of_americas_mustangs_burros

New YouTube video by Carol Walker of the McCullough Peaks Herd at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydxygQto7SE

Wild Horses: Update on the Cremello Colts

On Saturday I went to visit my two cremello colts at Rich Scott's place in Byers, CO. I had waited for the weather to clear, as we have been having a very cold and snowy/rainy spring. Just an hour before I arrived, there was another downpour, but as I pulled up next to their large pen, the sun began to come out.

There were puddles everywhere. I walked slowly up to the pen, and Claro walked toward me, clearly the leader and the more adventurous of the two. He is the lighter colt, with one blue and one dark eye. He is also much dirtier than Cremosso - I remember that in the wild he loved to roll in the mud.

As I spent time there, he led the way for his brother Cremosso and blocked him and moved him around. Both colts looked much more relaxed than when I had last seen them at Steve Mantle's place. Rich told me that the two have begun to get more curious about people coming into their pen to feed them and clean their pen, and apparently they roughhouse together at mealtime.

I was very happy to see them relaxed and socializing with the horse next door to them. After about a half an hour, Rich, who was on a 4 year old colt he was riding for Marty Marten, said he would ride into their pen and just move them around a little.

It was so interesting to me to watch them track the horse and Rich, and move their feet to face him. He walked slowly and took care not to corner them and to encourage them to move themselves to face him.

After a few minutes, they remained closer to Rich and the horse as they went by, and Rich decided to quit.

After he left their pen, they were so relaxed that they fell asleep!

They have come a long way since the roundup. Next week Rich will start working with them to get them good to handle, so he can trim their feet, lead them on the halter, and other helpful things. I will be visiting and watching over the next month so that I can learn how best to work with them.

Next month, on June 14 the BLM will be having a public workshop in Denver, with an opportunity for the public to make comments on the Ken Salazar's plan for the wild horses. The next day, June 15 will be the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Meeting, with public comments at 3pm. I encourage you to come and make your voice heard, and if you cannot come, you can submit comments by June 7:
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2010/may/nr_05_13_2010.html

Wild Horses: The Tale of the Two Cremello Colts

Two weeks ago I was at Equine Affaire in Ohio, and that was the same weekend that the McCullough Peaks horses (along with a few from the nearby Fifteen Mile herd area) were up for adoption in Powell, WY. The roundup took place in October, but instead of having an adoption immediately afterward in the area, the horses were all shipped to the Rock Springs holding facility. The adoption was scheduled for April, and some horses were adopted at Rock Springs, a bunch were shipped to the Mantle Ranch so that the Mantles could work with the horses first, and some were adopted there.


Of course, during the weekend of the adoption I was thinking about two of my favorite horses that had been removed from the herd area during the roundup - the two cremello colts whom I had watched grow up since they were born in the summer of 2007. Both colts were in Indigo's band, a big grey stallion, and the first born was the darker of the two, with two blue eyes that look almost green to me. The BLM named him Crispy Cream.


His mother is a beautiful buckskin, and he was a very adventurous little guy, wading into the water hole one evening at sunset when a huge group of horses came down to drink.



Next born was the lighter of the two, an almost white colt with one blue eye and one dark eye, and the BLM named him White Lightning. His mother is a beautiful sorrel pinto.



That summer I remember being absolutely captivated by the antics of these two striking foals playing together. They and a bay filly and a bay pinto colt would romp and play for horses, and the filly would wrestle just as hard as the colts.


Over the last 2 1/2 years I always spent time and watched the two inseparable boys, and was amazed at how fuzzy their coats became in the winter.


Last fall before the roundup I was photographing them playing with each other and this years foal crop, and thinking that they would probably be kicked out of the band by Indigo next year, if they remained in the wild.



However, that was not to be. With the BLM planning to remove 100 horses from the area, the young horses were first in line to go. At the time, I was very sad to see them shipped off to Rock Springs, but as they are such striking colors, I felt sure that someone would adopt them.

After I returned home from Equine Affaire, I was very surprised to learn that neither colt had been adopted even though Steve Mantle brought them to the adoption. They and their pinto brother were the only horses not adopted. I wonder if the fact that they had not been worked with or handled contributed to this. I immediately called Steve and asked him what would happen to them. He said that he had some more horses coming in from Rock Springs and that he would probably not have time to work with them, and they would go in the online adoption. Of course, they would probably end up separated, and with the loss of the rest of their family and their home, I decided that they didn't need that loss as well. I had not planned to adopt a mustang - my travel schedule is full and I have been concentrating on helping keep horses in the wild. But these two called to me. So I got on the phone to find someone who could help me with the colts. Although I have owned domestic horses since I was 12 years old, I have never worked with a wild horse.

I found Rich Scott in Byers, CO who is a natural horsemanship trainer with experience working with mustangs and he was willing to help me, going to get them, take them in, and work with them on basic handling, haltering, all the things that we take for granted that we can do with our domestic horses.

I went with Rich and his wife Shannon up to the Mantle Ranch in Wheatland on Wednesday. It was a beautiful day after all the rain, and we looked at the two colts as they stood close together in a pen. They looked worried and moved back as we approached. The only contact they had had with humans so far has been traumatic - rounded up by helicopter, moved from pen to pen, being castrated, freeze branded, having their blood drawn, being given shots - but as of today this all ends, and they will be treated very well.


They loaded into the trailer easily, and were quiet on the trip. I renamed them on the way, as part of their new start - the lighter of the two is now Claro, spanish for light colored, and the darker is Cremosso, spanish for creamy. They have settled in well at Rich's place, and in July I am going to take them to my home where they will have 25 acres to call their home. And they will be together. That's my promise to them.

Why Wild Horses? Back to the Peaks.

Why Wild Horses? Why not remove all of them from our public lands and keep them in "Salazoos" in the Midwest and East Coast? Why not geld all the stallions and stop their populations from growing? And then in 15 years, there will be no more wild horse problem. Well, I say we cannot do this because we need them.

This weekend I have been spending time with the horses in the McCullough Peaks Herd near Cody in northern Wyoming. Last October almost half of the herd was removed in a roundup because the BLM contended that 225 horses were too many for 110,000 acres. I have found most of my favorite horses that were left on the range, but both Washakie and Indigo now have 2 mares each in their bands. Before the roundup there were over 30 horses in those 2 bands. I was delighted to see the young pinto stallion Tecumseh who had just won a family band this year back with his mares. But two gorgeous palomino mares, probably mother and daughter, and favorites of people in the area who come to see the horses, have been split up, in bands in very different areas.



And two of my favorite horses, two lovely creamy colored two year old colts in Indigo's band, Crispy Creme and White Lightning were removed, never to play together again, never to grow to their full strength and vie for mares.
But there are many horses left and soon there will be new foals.



When I go out with the horses, I usually go alone. It is quiet, peaceful, and I often sit and just watch for hours. It is the most peaceful time I get to spend. Spring is here, and this morning there was sparring going on between stallions. When I first arrived near several bands, the horses took off running and bucking in the cold morning air, just for the joy of being alive and free. This afternoon, it is warmer, and the horses have spread out grazing, some are snoozing, and they look up briefly as I take my camera out of my car, but do not move.



One stallion looks up periodically to check if I have moved (I haven't). I see a band a long way off making its way toward the other horses. A striking grey stallion, a ridiculously beautiful black and white pinto foal, the latest foal of last year, and a pinto mare with a blue eye and very long ears are slowly moving this way. I relax and wait. The magnificent Bighorn Mountains, still capped with snow form a wonderful backdrop.



As the band gets closer, the grey stallion snorts at me, a long abrupt breath. He lifts his head. We are not familiar with each other. I am absolutely delighted as he moves toward me at a stiff legged, alert trot. He is so beautiful. He stops again, then starts to move at a trot then a gallop as he runs past me, mare and foal following behind him. It is the most gorgeous stirring sight, and my heart is full of joy. As he reaches the other bands of horses, he stops and snorts again, looking at me. I say "thank you" quietly and consider myself the luckiest of people. The horses touch something in my soul. Their joy in life, their beauty, their sense of family, their strength, their wildness - these qualities are unique to wild horses. And it is one of the very best parts of my life to be able to witness this and to share it.




We need wild horses. They speak to the very best part of all of us and preserving their right to roam free is essential.
The wild horses normally don't need anything from us - except now they need our help so that they can remain free.
In Defense of Animals has an online form that you can end comments on the proposed Adobe Town and Salt Wells roundups where the BLM plans to remove 1000 horses from 1.5 million acres. Comments are due by April 2: http://bit.ly/chE8Ko

WildHorses: BLM Targets Wyoming next - Adobe Town and Salt Wells

Now that the BLM has been halted in its massive roundups in NV it naturally follows they would set their sites on the state with the second largest wild horse population, Wyoming. The Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek Herds are the largest herds left in Wyoming. The Bureau of Land Management began managing the two herd areas as a "complex" because there are no fences or barriers to prevent the herds from ranging over a total area of over 1.5 million acres.



With miles upon miles of sagebrush, buttes, harsh but beautiful landscapes with no man made sights other than oil wells, it is hard to believe that there is not room for the wild horses that have roamed this land for so many years.



The BLM has announced plans to remove over 1000 horses from the two herd areas this year. They say that there are currently 1950 horses roaming free in the two area. The problem is that the BLM can't seem to get its numbers straight. In an article by C. R. MacDonald "The Wild Horses of Wyoming, AdobeTown/Salt Wells - A Tale of Tallies" spans the intricacies of the BLM's convoluted estimation process: http://bit.ly/AdobeNumbers

In the last 4 years, BLM estimates for the two wild horse populations have gone from 300 to 3000 horses with no rhyme or reason.
So my questions are: 1. how many horses are REALLY out there, and
2. How many horses can 1.5 million acres support? I think these are really the only relevant questions. And the BLM does not have real answers for these questions. They will tell you they are doing this for the horses' own good, that the horses are starving, that the range is degraded, and that the Wyoming Consent Decree of 2003 requires them to remove horses in WY Herd Management Areas that are over AML.

I began observing and photographing the horses of Adobe Town in 2004. At that time, the BLM estimated 1200 horses were in the herd area. I spent time with 8 bands of wild horses over several years, and developed a relationship with them that allowed me to come close enough to observe their relationships and behavior over time. My book "Wild Hoofbeats: America's Vanishing Wild Horses" is the story of the Adobe Town Herd. There have been two roundups in those herd areas since then, and my current observation from driving the areas and looking for horses is that there are many less horses than the BLM suggests left in these herd areas. I have never seen starving horses - I have seen and photographed large, healthy horses on healthy range. You can see a YouTube video of the Adobe Town wild horses at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mSwvUMt_rI

The BLM posted its scoping notice for the two areas: http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/news_room/2010/february/19rsfo-gather.html

Comments from the public are due by mail and email by April 2, 2010. The Environmental Assessment will be posted approximately July 1 and the roundup is scheduled to begin on October 1 , 2010:

"Please submit written comments by April 2, 2010. Comments may be mailed or hand delivered to: 280 Hwy 191 North, Rock Springs, Wyo. 82901. Comments may also be email to Rock_Springs_WYMail@blm.gov. Please include “Adobe Town & Salt Wells Creek HMAs Scoping Comments” in the subject line. The scoping notice, map and all other future documents corresponding with this action will be posted at: http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/NEPA/rfodocs/at-sw2010.html ."



In 1999 the BLM estimated that over 11,000 wild horses roamed free on these lands. Now there are probably less than 1000, depending upon whom you ask.
Please send your comments in and help stop the destruction of one of the last large herds in our country, on our public lands - these are OUR wild horses.

Wild Horses: The Winter of Our Discontent - Protests Around the Country

It's a cold winter this year, made even colder by the unresponsiveness of our government to the plight of our wild horses. Right now, at the coldest time of the year, the BLM is rounding up over 2700 horses in northern Nevada, and horses are being injured and are dying in the harsh winter conditions. Despite a U.S. District Court Judge's recommendation, and despite protests by wild horse advocates around the country and even internationally, the BLM is proceeding with this roundup at a cost of almost 2 million dollars to the American taxpayer.

Never before has the public turned out to protest the actions of the Bureau of Land Management, but of course never before has that agencies abuses in managing wild horse been so blatant. When lawsuits fail and thousands upon thousands of letters, phone calls, faxes and emails fall on deaf ears, then all that is left is our freedom of speech, and protests have a way of attracting media attention that all those letters and phone calls and emails have failed to do.

Yesterday over thirty wild horse advocates assembled in Denver in spite of the bitterly cold weather. We gathered in front of Senator Mark Udall's office building in downtown Denver. Senator Udall is on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the Senate, and this is the committee where the ROAM Act languishes. Senator Udall has not come out in support of the ROAM Act and wild horses - neither has he come out against it. Ginger Kathrens, Makendra Silverman and I met with Kate Zimmerly in Senator Udall's office to discuss our concerns and to ask for Senator Udall's support after the protest.

Protests continue as the roundup in Nevada continues, and we continue to call and write and email. This is the time to stand strong - something has got to give.
Thank you to all of you who are protesting, writing and calling and emailing - you DO make a difference.

For a list of upcoming protests go here:

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/events