Flies are already everywhere after “the winter that wasn’t” and early heat wave.
Our team continues to document the wild horses sent from last month’s Antelope HMA helicopter roundup to the Palomino Valley Center (PVC). Horses captured during the Owyhee roundup were moved immediately into private, off-limits facilities—where the public is barred from seeing conditions. Current bait traps operating across Nevada are removing more than 2,500 wild horses and burros, and nearly all are being shipped out of sight. The single exception—Spring Mountain Complex—has not yet transferred animals from its closed trap site into holding.
The BLM did not release a roundup schedule until halfway through the fiscal year. Now, appearing to make up time from funding delays, they’ve packed both helicopter and bait trap operations across the map. The current plan targets 14,830 wild horses and burros for capture—but that’s far from the “whole story.” (Learn more)
If you are visiting facilities it is the time of year to check lumps and bumps and drainage.
At the BLM’s Burns, Oregon facility, adoptions are halted due to confirmed cases of “strangles.” Despite the quarantine, events such as the “Forever Branded” program were held or planned there as recently as March 3–4, 2026. Although Burns is rarely a central intake point for newly captured wild horses or burros, BLM describes it as a “processing hub” that receives animals transferred from other sites for adoption events.
Even BLM admits the risk: wild horses rarely encounter contagious diseases on the open range, but once confined in short-term holding, animals from multiple herds are forced into close contact. This “kindergarten-like” environment accelerates disease spread. Newly captured horses arrive stressed, dehydrated, and suddenly exposed to unfamiliar bacteria such as Streptococcus equi (strangles). Their immune systems, already weakened, often can’t cope. Wild horses are “naive” to many pathogens found in domestic horses, meaning even something as basic as a contaminated trailer can pose a serious threat.
One of our long-standing fights with BLM is over routine trailer disinfection. This fundamental welfare measure—cleaning transport trailers between uses—is essential to prevent disease. Basic husbandry shouldn’t be optional, and that’s why enforceable welfare standards are urgently needed.
“Hay belly” is not a sign of overeating, it is a sign of improper care
What we see at PVC
What we’re seeing at PVC underscores the problem. Following another report on increasing rates of spontaneous abortion, uncounted foal deaths, and mares lost to foaling complications, BLM quietly shipped all heavily pregnant mares and newborns from PVC to the off-limits Winnemucca facility—where record keeping is poor at best. These horses endured a helicopter chase, confinement at temporary holding, a 7-hour haul to Reno, and just three weeks later, another 4-hour trip to Winnemucca. Instead of minimizing stress BLM has gone out of their way to maximize stress to heavily pregnant mares and new foals to get them out of the public eye.
The few dry mares, stallions, and prematurely weaned young remain at PVC. Although BLM tells observers at the trap that foals will reunite with their mares, in practice, they’re simply sorted and shipped separately. Once unloaded, those “reunions” become reclassification—foals are labeled “weanlings” or “yearlings.”
“Weaned” a month ago, far too young
So many issues are easy to change
“Hay belly” is not a cute sign of “lots of hay” or overeating in young horses. It is a visible symptom of improper care—especially early weaning, poor‑quality feed, and perhaps a parasite load picked up in the facility in immature bodies that can’t handle it.
On the range, foals typically nurse up to 10 months while they gradually learn to graze and browse; milk remains a critical source of easy‑to‑digest nutrition as their gut develops. They walk miles, build muscle over the back and hips (movement also helps digestion), and slowly transition onto a diverse diet of grasses and forbs that their systems can handle.
In holding, these same youngsters are weaned abruptly and far too early, then pushed onto hay (completely nonexistent in the wild) and their immature digestive systems cannot properly break it down. They stand in crowded pens, on ground heavily contaminated with manure, where parasites spread quickly. Muscle melts off their toplines, while their guts swell with fiber they cannot digest, leaving that classic pot‑bellied look and increasing the likelihood of colic that gets blamed on the horse instead of the system. Think of how you feel after eating more fibre than you are used to; bloating makes you feel really bad.
This “hard early wean” on top of capture stress and introduction of a diet never eaten by any nursing mare (hay) can cause bone development and lifelong issues with the immune system.
Adding a section to CAWP that keeps all newly captured wild horse mares and offspring together at arrival at facilities with a “transition” time of at least a month before any foal is separated and a hard “weaning age” that more reflects natural age like “8 months,” would fix this issue. But it would slow down the next leg of massive stress; these babies will be shipped all over the country to “Sale” events within weeks and BLM certainly doesn’t want to slow down the “empty the pens.”
Below: Weaned naturally on the range between 8-10 months old.
We need to stop blaming the horses—“that’s just a hay belly”—and recognize what it really shows: neglect built into a broken system. These signs reveal how far BLM’s management practices stray from basic equine welfare.
While headlines focus on helicopter crashes, broken necks, miscarriages, and the illegal slaughter pipeline, it’s the quieter signs—pot bellies, dull coats, abscesses—that expose the daily reality of neglect. Behind every “feel‑good” adoption post is a horse who’s endured conditions that no animal should.
If you haven’t yet, please take a moment to urge lawmakers to fund the completion of enforceable wild horse and burro welfare standards. It’s one of the most direct actions you can take today to help end this ongoing cycle of suffering.
Note: One of our team members who returned to document the wild horses captured during the Antelope roundup called in deeply upset. A lifelong horsewoman, she was near tears after seeing pregnant mares loaded for yet another transfer and foals in such poor condition. We’re sharing this update immediately in honor of her experience and the horses enduring this system. Please take action. The simplest step BLM could take is to formalize welfare standards—it’s inexpensive and long overdue. After 55 years of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, we should not still be fighting for basic, enforceable welfare rules.
Our team members are busy working on reports and litigation this week. We are blocking in our welfare team coverage for the coming helicopter roundup season. Our team members are also checking herd and range health on various ranges throughout the West.
We thank you for standing up for Freedom, Mercy and Justice.
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: Wild Horse Education
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