There’s something about the sight of a horse roaming free across the western United States that brings to mind John Wayne movies and the American cowboy.
This scene is alive and well in Emery County. Maybe too well as the wild horses and burros that roam Emery County have increased in numbers over their objective levels. The Muddy Creek Unit for the wild horses is managed as one unit although the horses are spread throughout a wide area.
This past week the Bureau of Land Management recently concluded their wild horse gather on the Muddy.
The horses have not been gathered for nine years and they have more than doubled their AML.
The gathering the first day took place on McKay Flat. The range there was very sparse and the watering holes in the area dry.
The second day the gather took place in the Salt Wash/Lone Tree area where the range looked better due to recent rains. Any rain across the Swell has been spotty.
A helicopter aided in herding the horses into the jute barriers that were placed in a wing shape with the wide open end narrowing down to a small corral where the horses were then loaded onto horse trailers.
From the horse trailers they were transferred to livestock trailers which completed the journey for the wild horses as they arrived at the adoption center in Delta.
Decoy horses are used to draw in the wild horses to get them to come into the corral. The helicopter is used to guide them to the corral.
Tate Weber, Ferron resident was involved with the wild horse gather. He was working as a wrangler for the contractor. He said the fences were set up on the road so the gather didn’t interfere with the cactus in the area. He said the horses are pretty scattered in the Swell. There’s been some rain so there’s been a few more watering holes. “They aren’t traveling in large groups,” said Weber.
Weber explained the plight of these wild horses as they have suffered from the drought conditions, over-population, and lack of food and water.
He said they have found some horses who will not leave a dried up watering hole. These horses stay at the dry hole and suck up the mud which then packs into their intestine and causes their death. These horses that are gathered around the holes, don’t get out to roam around and look for feed, this adds to their deteriorating condition.
Some of the horses have adapted and will travel looking for water.
Weber reported the range conditions were rough and well below normal. The spotty rains have brought a little re-growth to the and, but not much.
“There hasn’t been any real soaking storms across the desert. Anywhere the horses congregate, they will paw at the ground and dig up the roots, leaving the ground bare. There are some springs around and some of the horses will drink from the rock tanks. Most of the ponds are dried out. These horses are watering at cattlemen developed water sources. The permittees around Lone Tree have reworked a lot of the ponds and this has helped to disperse the horses. Year round grazing is really hard on the roots. Horses can do more damage than the cows. The cows are on a rotation, but these horses are here year-round. Cows can be very beneficial when it’s grazed right and the timing is right. Proper grazing creates more vegetation.
“The AML stands for Appropriate Management Levels. The Muddy’s numbers are 75-125. Yesterday, (Sept. 12) 109 horses were gathered. There were still 30 or more left there on McKay Flat. The Muddy Creek HMA takes in Reds Canyon area, McKay Flat, Copper Globe, Salt Creek and this area will still be in the high range for AML numbers.
“These drought conditions are affecting the horses, there are premature deaths,” said Weber.
The BLM representative Mike Tweddell said last year he found 12 horses who had died due to lack of water and this year there have been six. Some horses were in such poor condition they had to be put down. They were hanging their heads. The horses were so weak, they could not raise their heads. He said it was heartbreaking to see horses in this condition. With 30 horses in a small area with only one watering source, conditions aren’t good for the remaining horses. They didn’t catch any horses in Red Canyon or Hondoo, they were taken the first day mainly off McKay Flat.
The helicopter flew all day and still saw a lot of horses. The BLM hopes to do a census soon to establish accurate numbers of the horses remaining. It’s expected these numbers will still meet or exceed the AML.
BLM representatives said a lot depends on the winter coming up it will be critical for how the horses do on the range next year. A really bad winter is not good for the horses either as they have to travel long distances for food and water, but a good winter is needed to regrow the food the horses depend on to sustain their life on the desert.
He is glad they are removing horses now while they are still in fairly good condition. It’s much harder to get a horse healthy again after their condition has been allowed to deteriorate over time.
There is also a two year burro study ongoing. They are looking at birth control methods for the burros. Their objective numbers are 75-125 as well. Many burros have been collared and their movements are being tracked. The burros are a tougher animal than the wild horses. They will travel to find food and water. They also make use of the ponds provided by the stockmen. The Sinbad herd is made up of just the burros.
As with any action the BLM undertakes this wild horse gather attracted the attention of those not in favor of removing the horses from their natural environment.
Weber had plenty to say about those protesting the gather. “Some of these people just hate cows. They don’t realize that this is the livelihood of these ranchers. If the cows were running over the objective like these horses are, there would be nothing here. Cows can’t go over 100 percent. Most years we don’t even get 100 percent. When conditions get bad out here, the cows are the first to go.
“I’ve seen these activists kill horses. They’ve put a stop to wild horse gathers with their lawsuits and hundreds of horses have died. They do harm to these horses keeping them from being gathered. They die when they are impacted with mud.
“There are all kinds of activists. There are people who want to see these horses die naturally. Obviously they’ve never seen a horse who was suffering. There are those who want more horses out there than the AML allows. There’s no two activists that want to see these horses managed the same way. Horses are dying. When you see a horse dying or in dire straits it’s cruel,” said Weber.
Gus Warr is the Utah team wild horse and burro specialist. “There hasn’t been a gather out here since 2009. Wild horses are a challenge. There are so many of them across the Western United States. There are issues everywhere,” said Warr.
Warr said it’s not easy to get the approvals to do the gathers. This Muddy Creek gather had two lawsuits against it to work through before the gather could begin.
Warr said the budget for Wild Horses and Burros is $80 million nationwide. Of that roughly $65 million is going towards pastures and corrals to house these horses. There are 10 western states that have the wild horses and Utah is a relatively small player with only 5,000 animals. Nevada has a greater population with 45,000 animals. Currently there are four gathers going on in Nevada. “They are all in peril and in poor condition over there. They have some big gathers in Nevada with 2,000 or 3,000 horses being gathered at a time,” said Warr.
Warr has been with the Wild Horse and Burro program for almost 30 years. He said there are more horses on the range now than ever. There have been ups and downs through the years with the program and it’s been very challenging.
Warr said, “I’ve seen very few things that have the emotion of this issue, the love and passion associated with these animals. People have elevated the horse. We don’t euthanize the horses. We can’t seem to get people to understand, we don’t send these horses to slaughter. We fight lawsuits all the time against this misunderstanding. These horses are protected. We don’t send them to slaughter. Across the United States there are 48,000-49,000 horses in holding right now. They are in pasture and in corrals. All the stallions are gelded. There is no breeding of these horses off the range. In Oregon, they are rolling out a spaying program.
“We can’t continue to have the population growth we have now in these animals. They are growing, there’s a 20 percent increase each year. We’re working with methods of birth control and sterilization. On the range they are dying of dehydration. Some people say let them die naturally, but it’s cruel and inhumane to watch an animal die. We would be put in jail if we were in the private sector for allowing this to happen. We need to keep the numbers down so we can keep the animals healthy and the range healthy.
“When people look at the wild horse, they see a symbol of the Old West. They see the American Cowboy and the romanticism. People love the horses. We want to make sure they’re here, we love healthy horses. When these rangelands get beat down, it takes years for them to recover. There’s so much passion. These horses have been elevated. There’s sometimes I just have to agree to disagree with some people about these horses.
“We have a BLM person travel with the horses to Delta. When they arrive in Delta they will be fed and watered. They will be sorted. After they are evaluated they will be eligible for adoption. If there’s a horse out here that you’ve been watching, you can go adopt that horse. Delta is a 300 head facility. They adopt horses Monday-Friday. We also have special adoption day events throughout the state. The vets will check the animals for any injuries. They will do a blood draw to make sure they don’t have equine infectious anemia. The horses are vaccinated and ready for adoption. If they are still in the facility after 45-60 days they will receive a booster.
We will geld all stallions. If you got there soon enough and wanted a stallion, you could have a stud horse. The horses are rated on the Henneke score system. This is a score of 1-9 in terms of how healthy the horses are. The horses yesterday were a four and they are a three today. This is typical. We’ve had a few thin mares, but they are wet mares, so it’s to be expected. These horses look great considering the drought. We like to see them come off as a four. This is a moderate condition. It takes a lot of time and effort to bring them back to a better condition. There’s higher opportunity to find a home for them if they’re in better condition.
“There’s 2.5 million acres that can legally be managed for horses and burros. There’s a lot of those horses that don’t know when they’re on the wrong land and they’re going out looking for habitat, water and forage.
“The most frustrating thing for me is the misinformation and the untruthful statements people make to get people to donate and rally around a cause. People don’t educate themselves. I had a lady call me who told me how horrible I was. She said she saved two horses yesterday. I asked her how she did that and she said she donated on some website somewhere.
“I asked her if she’d checked into it. Most people are vulnerable. It’s most frustrating that people aren’t willing to educate themselves.
“I’ve met a lot of good people over the years. People who are taking these horses and giving them good homes. The market is saturated. In the mid 1990s we were adopting 8,000 to 10,000 per year. This year nationwide we’ve only adopted out 4,500. There’s been a couple of years when we didn’t reach 3,000.
“We’d love to send a horse home with you,” said Warr.
GALLERY: BLM gathers Wild Horses on the Muddy Herd Management Unit
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