As BLM gave us really nothing to show you from Day 9 at the ongoing Callaghan Complex (South Shoshone) roundup, we have a bit of time to talk about a few things you really need to know. What we saw indicates the same nonspecific chaos as day 8 at trap, we cannot show you much of anything specific. 

Below: No meaningful view of drive, no view of the initial push into the wings, no view of trap, refusing to allow observers to simply sit at the temporary corrals and watch sorting, really nothing to say except “the contractor says that the public is a distraction.”

Y’know, the pesky “public” in “public lands.” (Yes, we have passed all of this on to our attorney to include in the update to the court. You can learn more about how this is not legally acceptable in the article we published pre-roundup “Who is Responsible.” that covers welfare and access. We are also crafting a new lawsuit and we will have more on that soon.)

BLM captured another 139 (64 Stallions, 53 Mares, and 22 Foals) wild horses from inside the South Shoshone HMA and directly near the border.

This brings the total captured from South Shoshone to 1441 Wild Horses (603 Stallions, 581 Mares, and 257 Foals).

The goal of the plan we are fighting in court is to remove over 5000 wild horses from the entire 1.1 million acre “gather area” of the Callaghan Complex down to around 323 wild horses (or low AML) and begin “fertility control.” (the acronym “AML” is explained HERE)

Due to the volume of documentation we have deviated from our normal landing page format and have provided updates in “smaller chunks.”

The first days you can see HERE. Documentation from days 4-6 HERE. Day 7 you can find HERE. Day 8 you can see HERE. 

Some of you are commenting on the daily temperatures BLM publishes and simply ask how they can do that when the BLM temperatures do not even match the National Weather Service listed hourly temperatures for the gps location. 

It is because they take temperatures only in the shade in the little valley or draw they sit in. 

While we have the time let’s take a look at a couple of days:

• July 16 BLM publishes “59 to 87 degrees. BCS 2-4.”
• July 17 BLM publishes “62 to 71 degrees. BCS 2-4.”
• July 18 BLM publishes “67 to 88 degrees. BCS 2-5”

BCS stands for “body condition score” and we will talk about that next.

BLM is only publishing temperature from trap, in the shade, during active helicopter drives.

They are not publishing temperatures on the flats during the drive, during additional sorting at trap, shipping to the temporary corrals, sorting and “working” horses at the temporary corrals, or temperatures at the temporary corral at any time (when most of the time the flat and cleared areas of the corrals can register an ambient temperature of more than 10 degrees higher than a draw, bench or shady area on the range).

BLM is also not recognizing heat index.

The National weather service only publishes a heat index when the “caution zone” is entered. So where you simply see a number on the heat index list, you already need to start taking precautions. When you start to see the index move to 87/88, that is where the danger to even healthy people (or performance horses) begins to push to “really pay attention.”

On April 10, 2026, Nevada updated heat exposure laws. Does a worker face a “reasonable likelihood that heat illness could occur” due to duration and factors such as heat index under Regulation R131-24AP? There are now laws to stop the risk.  OSHA takes this into more specific territory where forecast temperature, not actual temperatures, trigger worker protection (things like more than a 30 minute exposure in a 60 minute timeframe trigger specific precautions). Nevada law requires a Written Safety Program: “Heat illness prevention procedures must be fully integrated into your written safety plan.” BLM has none of this during wild horse and burro roundups. 

We are not only talking about captive wild horses here, we are talking about the wranglers at trap (not the BLM employees that keep going into air conditioned vehicles at trap). 

During all of those days BLM enters into the official record as “warm and breezy,” conditions exist that dance into the extreme caution zone.

The ramifications of heat borne illness can hit days later. They can cause increases in capture myopathy related deaths, incidences of colic and catastrophic injury and death even after a wild horse is sent to a holding facility or even if care rapidly improves. (Things like poor judgement, fatigue, stroke, etc. are all things to watch for in humans.)

IMPORTANT! If someone or a search engine answers you using Fahrenheit in relation to heat index and safety, do NOT use that to determine it is “ok” to ride. There are numerous “shortcuts” being used by the general public and being picked up by social media and search engines (remember AI only learns by what is plugged in) and they are creating a danger. When we told “Google” they were wrong it answered “You are completely correct, and thank you for pointing that out—the confusion comes from mixing up two entirely different measurement systems used in equine care.” 

To find the heat index in your area just put your zip code in the NOAA/NWS website in the upper left. You can also use gps coordinates. 

Basics:

• Yellow: Start watching your young, old and compromised and do not work them (unless you absolutely have to and only slowly, with caution).
• Light orange: Start watching your performance horse (the athletes) and only work them if you have to. Young, old, just your “plain saddle horse” should not be given any additional stress at all.
• Orange: If you are Paul Revere on the midnight ride yelling “the British Are Coming” it is understandable why you are taking that kind of risk. Everyone else? Watch your horses even if they are just in pasture for signs of heat stress, fill water troughs and drink plenty of water yourself. Ride another day. 
• Red: You are literally trying to kill your horse, and probably yourself, if you ride.

The mixed together metric using Fahrenheit noted by Google would have you use a bit of caution in the suicide zone. Please, look it up yourself on the NOAA/NWS site.

BLM ignoring really important veterinary standards surrounding things like Heat Index and Air Quality are one of the reasons we are pushing so hard for the formalization of welfare standards within the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) BLM only created after years of relentless litigation. Complying with their program is basically BLM telling themselves it is all “ok.” 

Please take action today! CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION

Why do we have to document roundups? Because BLM says “they comply with CAWP.” CAWP is a program, not a welfare policy. BLM simply says “we do it better now.” No, they don’t. We actually have to prove that to the courts and to Congress under the weight of a word game that has changed “humane” to mean “fertility control,” and moved away from “enforceable welfare standards” that could stop this abuse. 

Please take the time to learn how that is supporting large roundups to get numbers down and the push for “fertility control” in the form of surgical spaying and more. Using vague terms when you talk to Congress can get you something you did not even think you were asking for.  Learn more HERE. 

BCS

BLM is posting that horses are BCS 2-4. 

Below is a body score 2 horse from the curriculum at Iowa State University.

The next figure is a body score 4 from Ohio State.

Please note that a body score of 5 is considered perfect. Over that and we enter into categories that include obesity.

We cannot see the wild horses captured today as all of them are being sent to Broken Arrow in Fallon, NV, and off-limits to the public. 

We can see the approximately 700 BLM sent to Palomino Valley Center north of Reno. We have been monitoring them as they arrive.

BLM is moving fast on the wild horses from Callaghan. Just like they do with large and remote herds, BLM treats them differently. In facilities where horses and burros can spend months or years, these Callaghan horses are going to be shipped out really fast.

Note: For those of you looking to adopt one of these horses be aware they are South Shoshone HMA horses. With “Complexes” the name of the complex does not carry to the adoption page. If you adopted a “Rock Creek” you adopted a horse from an Owyhee Complex roundup. Here, these are South Shoshone. 

In just 4 days this little one was run by a chopper and shoved in a hot and crowded pen, the next day sorted from his mom and shipped over 4 hours, and the next day sorted and branded. Now dumped onto white sand, back with mom but in temperatures reaching over 100 degrees with no shade. Not all foals were reunited. We will discuss the ones weaned way too early in our next update.

This is the “expert care” BLM gives wild horses and burros.

As BLM has also provided no meaningful access to assess handling of wild horses on July 19, tomorrow we will have time to cover additional information concerning this operation. 

Our team remains onsite. 

We will update you from the courtroom and Congress soon. 

The only thing that can change site-specific plans to remove wild horses down to unjustified and absurdly low numbers is litigation.

Our team is in the courts… now. 

We need your support to keep our teams engaging lawmakers, our team fighting in the court, our team ready to run the roundup schedule.

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.