Day 3, North Lander Complex, Conant Creek HMA

Cumulative capture totals for the operation:

Captured: 573 Wild Horses (227 Stallions, 240 Mares, and 106 Foals)

Shipped to Wheatland: 386 Wild Horses (153 Stallions, 159 Mares, and 74 Foals)

Died 2: A 10-year old grey mare was kicked in the head. A foal was reported as having wobblers and was put down.

Additional notes: One foal was sent to vet and then to the Wyoming Honor Farm

You can see day 1 team reporting and background on this operation HERE

You can see day 2 team reporting HERE

Above: Two helicopters bunched bands together and one broke over the ridge near observation. The rest of the bands went up and over the hill on the far side of the valley and were driven back toward trap.

Temperatures reached the mid-80s as BLM “squeezed” out a third day at the trap-site in Conant Creek.

111 (46 Stallions, 46 Mares, and 19 Foals) wild horses were captured.

151 (138 Stallions, 12 Mares, and 1 Foals) were shipped to the Wheatland facility. This would make 184 the overnight total at temporary corrals (one foal went to the Wyoming Honor Farm and two died).

Above: The first bands entered the trap with a very small baby bringing up the rear.

Many of you asked for a description of the mare that was kicked in the head and died (as BLM has not included identifying information). We notified BLM that the descriptions were missing and were informed that they would fix the error with the evening report and they did. She was a 10-year old grey mare.

Above: Near to the end of the day, several bands were run from the far side of the valley. There were several very young foals. As the bands were being driven into trap we noticed a baby had been left behind. The baby was roped and brought in.

During the tour of temporary holding, we were informed that this baby was sent to “the vet in town” and would then be transferred to Wyoming Honor Farm, a cooperative with the Dept. of Corrections, for care.

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Above: A wild stallion named “Elvis” by photographer Jim Brown, who has been following the wild ones in this HMA for decades, was captured and trailered off to temporary holding. He will be shipped to Wheatland in the morning.

Many of you are asking “What can I do?”

The world of wild horse and burro advocacy has many layers. But when it comes to the roundup every layer seems to collide in the minds and hearts of those that love them.

When it comes to impacting wild horse and burro welfare at roundups, you can contact your representatives in Congress and urge them to create an incentive for BLM to engage in a process called “rulemaking” that would result in the open and transparent creation of enforceable welfare rules. BLM currently has what they loosely reference as a “policy,” but it really operates as a set of unenforceable standards that vary in implementation widely from roundup to roundup. We made it easy: Just Click HERE

If you would like to make a comment on a plan to remove all of the wild horses living in another area in Wyoming, the Rock Springs Complex, comments are due July 8th. We have an article explaining the situation and how you can get involved HERE. 

We are in the courts now with multiple cases addressing everything from the lack of management planning to the lack of an enforceable welfare policy. Earlier this year we won a resounding victory when the court recognized that a roundup plan is not a management plan and remanded a gather plan back to BLM and ordered them to create the HMAP for a herd in Nevada. But we have more work to do to create a broader and long overdue impact.

Our team is working hard behind the scenes and in the field.

We will be back onsite tomorrow.

As the roundups continue this season, we will add additional action items to our daily updates from the field. You can join the mailing list and receive notification each time we post an update by clicking HERE.

Thank you for keeping WHE on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our treasured wild ones!