The Antelope HMA roundup of winter 2026 has concluded. All images and videos in this final wrap up are from the final day of this roundup. You can find our reporting as the roundup took place HERE. We take our responsibility seriously to be your frontline reporters during roundups. It is not easy and is like running a “newsroom from a dashboard.” If you can help support the team, we have a very special match challenge where contributions are being doubled through the end of the month.
BLM sent a press release midday on February 20th stating a roundup would begin at dawn on February 22nd that would: “The gather will primarily focus on wild horses located outside the Antelope Herd Management Area (HMA) and Moriah Herd Area (HA) in White Pine County, Nevada.”
However, once the roundup was underway the “background info” on BLM website simply focused on the Antelope HMA and the title of the operation became simply “outside Antelope HMA.” This might not seem important, but it is. The actual area of the operation is covered in a new BLM plan facing a legal challenge for failures to do things like “analyze seasonal movement” in the Complex, boundary lines, etc. If this were placed on a regular schedule and not slid in under the guise of “between Moriah and Antelope” and “emergency,” BLM would probably have had to wait instead of “getting the horses out fast before livestock turnout.” It gets really frustrating when we are told there is a set of rules and then BLM only seems to ignore those rules when it benefits their “preferred relationships” with livestock or mining.
This operation had nothing to do with Moriah and the horses removed were all Antelope HMA horses. Locations from gps points in overlay on BLM HMA/HA map.
In three days a total of 6 wild horses lost their lives in a roundup claimed to be an “emergency.”
On the final day a yearling broke her neck at trap. It may be the yearling that is knocked down and tromped on once in the catch pen. We do not know if she collapsed after leaving our view but suspect this is her in the video below.
No indicators of “emergency” were noted.
The wild horses put down by BLM where they claimed “poor body condition” were limited to older wild horses nearing the end of their natural lifespan and the percentage actually lower than during any scheduled roundup at this time of year (end of winter, before range green up).
BLM pushed over the initial target number of 300, capturing 344. Somehow Ely BLM apparently obtained permission from the national office to exceed the target number for an “emergency” when BLM in other districts/states are saying they cannot do any removals, of any size, based on space in holding facilities. This area has been impacted by 6 roundups since 2017. (These kinds of events and statements show a real preferential treatment. Not just between horse vs. cow, but even favoring very specific permittees.)
The final number tally:
Captured: 344 Wild Horses (131 Stallions, 147 Mares, and 66 Foals) Please note: During the Owyhee (Little Humbolt/Snowstorm) roundup that just ended, BLM claimed there were no foals and that every horse was a year old after January 1, even if it was born the month before. BLM has no clear cut designation and whomever is the Incident Commander at an operation decides what things happen and how they are recorded. The BLM employee designated as IC is responsible for everything that happens onsite.
Shipped to Palomino Valley Center north of Reno: 338 Wild Horses (129 Stallions, 143 Mares, and 66 Foals)
Deaths: 6 BLM said: “Bay stud, age 6, Pre-existing/Chronic, Lameness, Broken right back leg. Black stud, age 17, Pre-existing/Chronic, BCS 2, unable to maintain or improve. Sorrel mare, age 1, Sudden/Acute, Fractured neck at trap site.” Bay mare, age 3, Pre-existing/Chronic, physical defect, severe sway back. Sorrel mare, age 18, Pre-existing/Chronic, BCS 2, unable to maintain or improve. Dun mare, age 18, Pre-existing/Chronic, BCS 2, unable to maintain or improve.”
BLM does not count spontaneous abortions that can increase in winter roundups.
Above: Pregnant mare simply stops in the wings. As she is brought into trap we can see another pregnant mare that had been roped out of view brought into trap.
Welfare Concerns
Helicopters are forbidden during 8 weeks to either side of peak foaling season. Helicopters are forbidden while there are “heavily pregnant mares and new foals.”
That sounds like steps are being taken to protect wild horses? Actually in practice these are pretty meaningless words on a piece of paper. BLM adamantly insists peak foaling season consists of an arbitrary single day based on the writing of someone observing tribal horses in the Dakotas in the 1970s (that is where that day comes from). BLM has zero data to determine when actual foaling season occurs on ranges that face very different climate patterns throughout the West. In reality “peak” does not appear to be a single day in May, and many herds in the West have indicators that nature has created two “peaks” where there are two times of year when equal numbers of foals drop. On some ranges that have had fertility control applied in the past, there appear to be even more “peaks” as BLM applied drugs that change the time of year fertility returns (after never identifying any natural foaling season and analyzing impacts to determine if or when these drugs should be applied). So in reality BLM is using helicopters in February (when foaling has already begun) and in July (as the second peak appears to have just occurred).
We are fighting in court right now to insist that BLM begin to identify the actual peak foaling season(s) as part of management planning.
Doing helicopter drive trapping during foaling season impacts both foals and pregnant mares. Do you know anyone that would subject a mare days away from giving birth to a 10 mile (or more) run over rough terrain? A wild mare would not do this naturally, so don’t even try to make that claim.
Besides the risk of leaving a newborn on the range waiting for the band to come back, these roundups increase spontaneous abortions in captive mares. These late season (January/February) roundups also increase deaths from foaling complications and “failures to thrive” in foals born in holding.
When BLM actually published facility statistics as part of the daily “gather reports” online due to pressure from active litigation, at least 40 mares spontaneously aborted (in BLM facility reports as “noted miscarriage”) within weeks of the end of the 2009/10 Calico winter roundup. That number does not reflect the number of pregnant mares that died from foaling complications or “colic.”
Below: Another heavily pregnant mare roped at the end of the day.
What can be done?
When the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) was passed in 1976, amending the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act to allow the use of helicopters (the original law banned all mechanized capture), an annual hearingwas added as a requirement to address serious concerns that reinstating motorized vehicle use in any way for the capture of wild horses and burros would be inhumane. However, the hearings have become meaningless with decades going by where BLM does not even recognize testimony, let alone respond or review, create or amend rules.
Each BLM “gather plan” does not allow comments on “how a gather would be done.” Instead these gather plans cite the annual hearing as “analysis” on any gather protocol.
So we went to court and those lawsuits and rulings spurred BLM to (finally) create draft welfare standards and place them into their newly created Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP). They outlined steps that included public participation to finalize the draft welfare standards.
While we continue to research new avenues, litigate and engage lawmakers, exposure is important. You can help by telling people and sharing the information to push back the lies.
You can also send a letter to your Representatives as their teams begin to craft recommendations for the 2027 Appropriations bill. All lawmakers must have their recommendations submitted by the end of next month. Our teams are doing outreach… and you can help.
You can send a letter directly to your representatives… just click here.
Below: A very pregnant mare escapes and takes on last look back as her family is captured.
Above: Our team has already begun monitoring the captives as they arrive on holding and we will have a more in-depth report soon.
A very generous donor will match every gift dollar-for-dollar up to $5,000.
The challenge has been extended through the end of February by a very understanding supporter, appreciating our work load, for the love of our wild ones.
Every mile we travel to cover roundups or assess a herd, every court case we bring, every win, every action we take is only possible because of your support.
Categories: Lead
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