Stone Cabin
We began a series that responds to the BLM “Response to Public Testimony” from the Motorized Vehicle Hearing over the weekend. In part 1, we look at what BLM feels is an appropriate response to concerns involving motorized vehicle use in the Wild Horse and Burro Program and how they fail to provide any actual analysis in response to valid concerns with any educated or data-driven document. Instead, BLM did a public relations spin.
Before we delve into the “part 2” of the series of articles that will discuss how the culture of BLM was born and how it has produced a system that ignores the actual needs of horses and burros (and tries to belittle the input of advocates) we want to talk a bit about what a horse or burro is.
In order to manage or handle something, you first have to understand what that something is.
One of the ways to decrease the number of preventable injuries and deaths is to simply understand what a horse/burro is physiologically.
Basics like “How they see” the world are overlooked and lead to preventable injury and death. This is one of the “basics” we have been trying to get BLM to look at along with things like Air Quality and Heat Index (and the correlation to catastrophic injuries). Instead of actually responding to any of our efforts to address these issues, BLM puts up a fight (in the courtroom) and responds with public relations material. Both our wild ones and advocates deserve better from BLM.
Blue Wing
Management of wild horses and burros on the range should start with gaining an understanding of what you are managing. How a horse/burro processes their environment, uses their environment, physiology, psychology, etc., all are basics that need to be understood before any sound management, capture, holding facility, could even be contemplated or created.
Understanding horses and burros is simply not part of current practices on range, during capture and in holding.
Below: Simple things like the “dust bath” to remove sweat and loose hair are all part of natural behaviors. The change in frequency of natural behaviors like rolling, the amount of time spent grazing or resting, grooming each other, etc. can be used to measure stress. BLM does not use these simple metrics in any part of their program. These observation measures can determine stress both on and off the range.
As helicopter roundup season approaches, it is a good time to talk about the sheer lack of understanding of how horses and burros perceive their environment is evident in the program. In much the same way that on range management is data poor and ignores “what a horse is,” so does a roundup.
BLM has done roundups in essentially the same way they did them 50 years ago. There has never been any real attempt to understand the horse to make capture safer, just propagate what is convenient and expedient. `The attempts they claim they have made, have more to do with restricting public access, convenience, finding ways to endorse the status quo, than changing how they do things to make them safer for the specific species they are handling.
“How a horse sees the world?” is one simple subject BLM does not seem to understand or even care to contemplate. It serves as an example of the obstinance of the agency to consider any change, no matter how simple that change would be to implement.
Horse vision and flight zone (Consortium of the Animal Transport Guides Project (2017a))
As far back as ancient Greece, where chariot racers used them to keep their horses focused and prevent them from being distracted by the other horses, the crowd, or the surrounding environment, blinders/blinkers have been used. It takes a lot of mental energy to ignore the signals horses are getting from their nervous system that there is something moving in the “predator threat zone” of their vision. How a horse sees has been contemplated since ancient times, but not by BLM today.
The eye of the horse developed for grasslands’ existence as a large prey species. Laterally placed eyes with a horizontal pupil allow a broad field of view. Each eye used separately is called “monocular vision.” Each eye sees approximately 200-210 degrees. Many people mistakenly think horses can see 360 degrees. Horses have two clear blind spots: a cone shape directly 3 feet in front of them and right behind their head, over their back, and behind the tail. Monocular vision is great for seeing more of the world, but lousy for depth perception and seeing right in front of you. If you look at the eyes of a predator species, they line up on the front of the face creating “distance to prey.” Binocular vision is needed for true depth perception.
Placement of the eyes on the side of the head decreases the range of binocular vision (using both eyes at the same time in the same field of view) and binocular vision is very limited in horses. Horses use their limited binocular vision by looking straight at an object the same height as their head or by raising their head when looking at a distant object. Closer objects near the ground require a horse to drop its head so they can see distance and depth. A horse will raise or lower its head to increase its range of binocular vision. An example: A horse needs to lower its head to see before moving down an incline, or raise its head before attempting a jump. Only in moving the head can the horse judge depth.
Donkeys have a wider field of vision than horses as their eyes are proportionately larger and wider set. They have a slight increase in their ability see more of their surroundings at once. However, they may not be as good at judging distances.
A horse being pushed fast into the catch pen (the first set of panels at a trap) is processing an insane amount of information, in a panic, and has lousy depth-perception and, literally, can’t see objects right in front of it’s face. BLM gives them no time to determine where they are before pushing them into an alley to load on a trailer because they have more horses coming in and want to clear the trap. “Settle time” rarely ever happens.
Above: A trap that was not visible until entry did not allow enough stopping distance for stampeding horses. The stallion went higher and the mares head when through the panel breaking her neck. An orphan was created that day at Conger.
What your horse sees when approaching a gate (quotes from Horse and Rider): “To him, the gate appears to be a hologram—a collage of silver arms, shimmering into and out of focus, reaching forward and back as he approaches and passes it. Why he sees it that way: As a prey animal, your horse has monocular vision, meaning he has one eye on each side of his head.” “Only when your horse has directed both eyes on an object directly in front of him—beyond his front-end blind spot—do both eyes focus together in binocular vision. Regardless of whether he’s eyeing the gate—or any other up-close object—using one eye or both, your horse’s lenses are much less flexible than yours. His poorly developed ciliary muscles are ill-equipped to make more than small, slow adjustments—much too small, and much too slow to allow him to make quick, informed decisions visually. This is why Mother Nature has programmed him to first flee to safety, then to check out the situation from a safe distance.”
Research being done today, in fact, shows even a distinction between horses raised in a domestic environment and those born and bred in the wild. A large number of domestics seem to demonstrate a nearsightedness, while wild ones indicate a proclivity toward farsighted vision.
In other words, with all the activity at a trap, horses need time to see what is right in front of them. Trap size and placement should not be based on how many they expect to catch, but how to set a trap with a safe stopping distance and clear eye line for horses. BLM routinely builds traps as small as they can. Setting a trap is work and the smaller the wings and trap are, the less work they have to do.
Drive trapping is the same as it was 50 years ago. When you make a safety suggestion the reply is usually a raised voice answering, “We have been doing this for 50 years!” in a “how dare you make a suggestion” tone. (And if you make a suggestion, be ready to be pushed back farther where you cannot see much at the next trap.)
At a roundup, one of our observers introduced a simple conversation with BLM when someone said something about a red scarf she was wearing and told her to take it off. “They can’t see red,” our team member said. It was not only depth perception and motion sensitivity, BLM didn’t seem to understand that horses/burros do not see color the way we do.
Horses and burros see colors along a continuous range from blue to yellow. Horses do not see reds, oranges, and greens in the same way humans perceive them. This kind of vision is called “dichromatic vision.” Research demonstrates horses perceive color somewhat like red-green color blindness in humans (red and related colors, appear more green). Example: Orange post, cattle guard or snow fencing, might stand out to the human eyes, but would not be much of an obvious color for a horse to distinguish. This is one of the reasons show jumping is now moving away from orange to high contrast “white against blue” for jumps.
Do you think understanding how a horse sees the world could help design ways to keep them safe on the range and to handle them with fewer deaths and injuries?
We did a survey that included a few other points on safety and asked if you wanted to participate in open rulemaking for welfare. The response was a resounding “Yes!” (More HERE)
The public actually has real relevant information that could help BLM manage wild horses and burros more humanely both on and off the range. This information includes how to measure stress in wild populations from things like mining activity to how a horse/burro sees the world that could make barriers like cattle guards, fences and even traps safer.
But BLM simply does not want to hear from you on anything. They want to keep the system running like an old black and white movie because they are loathe to change.
In part two, coming soon, we will take a really close look at ow this BLM culture formed.
We are also working on a “burro spotlight.”
An educated and active advocacy is more important than ever. Thank you for being a voice for our wild ones.
All of our work is only possible with your support.
Your support keeps our teams in the field, our investigations running and our litigation alive. Together, we will take a strong stand to defend our precious wild ones.
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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