Wild Horse Education

Roundups, Now (a thank you to our volunteers and a special guest, Scott Wilson)

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There are 18,400 recorded historical and active oil and gas wells within the Piceance Basin. The goal is to reduce the wild horse population to low AML of 135.

Wild Horse Education has team members and observers at both the Piceance-East Douglas roundup in Colorado and the Bible Springs roundup in Utah. We will be bringing you team coverage from both operations. Onsite and offsite teams are documenting individual wild horses they know being captured and monitoring welfare issues including heat and air quality.

We want to take a moment to recognize our team members onsite and thank a special contributor before daily reporting and offsite litigation work consume every moment.

Scott Wilson is onsite at Piceance-East Douglas as a contributor to WHE. Many advocate know Scott. 

Bio: Colorado-based conservation photographer Scott Wilson uses photography as a tool for advocacy through his PhotoAdvocacy platform. A regular contributor to We Animals—the world’s largest animal photojournalism agency—and to wild horse sanctuaries including Skydog Sanctuary, his work has received international recognition for documenting the beauty and hardships facing wild horses.
Witnessing the 2021 Sand Wash Basin helicopter roundup fundamentally changed the direction of his work. Since then, he has attended wild horse roundups to create an independent visual record of events that take place on public lands. His goal is not simply to document what happens, but to ensure that the experiences of America’s wild horses are understood and preserved through evidence-based storytelling.
Scott has recently joined the faculty of the University of Denver’s new Animals Forward executive education program, helping to develop emerging animal protection leaders.

Before the helicopter

Like our founder, Scott is a cancer survivor. Scott was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer with liver metastasis in 2016. HIs life’s journey shifted and he found wild horses. Scott remains a spokesperson for colon cancer and served on the board of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.

“From one survivor to another, I am glad you are still with us. I am grateful you are standing up for our wild horses and burros and are walking part of this road with those of us at WHE.” Laura Leigh, WHE founder, breast cancer survivor.

A message from Scott and Laura: Do not put off cancer screening. An early diagnosis can save your life. The time it takes to get screened is nothing compared to the alternative. Please, do not put it off.  

This image, taken today, speaks loudly

Reporting in from the roundup at 6:13 PT, Scott reported about 50 wild horses had just been captured.

Update, 10 a.m. PT, around 100 captured and the day has been called due to rising heat. We will have more in our full report publishing soon.

You can follow our daily updates on Piceance- East Douglas by clicking HERE. 

Also onsite at Piceance-East Douglas is Heather Hellyer, a regular contributor to WHE. Heather is also onsite at Piceance. Heather has a grassroots clearing house for information on wild horses and burros, Save Our Wild Horses.

Photo taken today

At Bible Springs in Utah, we have two members of the WHE team: Marie Milliman and Melissa Strickland. Marie has been a member of the WHE team since 2017. Melissa began her training for the CAWP team onsite at North Lander in Wyoming 2024 with our founder. 

fast look at the back of the camera, Bible Springs

Only 3 wild horses came in on the first run at the Bible Springs “complex.” The goal at Bible Springs is to drop the complex down to around 120 wild horses.

You can learn more about “the numbers” in the pre-roundup report for these operations by clicking HERE. 

Our onsite and offsite teams are really busy today. We have a full report in our daily format for you soon. Our offsite team is working in litigation addressing on-range planning and access issues today. 

Teamwork.

We are all links in a chain that can protect and preserve our wild ones. Today, our team in the field, is truly a united effort of individual hearts that treasure our wild horses and burros. They are working very hard and we thank them for their dedication. 

Through August 15th a generous donor has pledged to match contributions up to $10,000. Every dollar donated will be matched. 

We need your support to keep our teams engaging lawmakers, our team fighting in the court, our team running 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. Sincere Gratitude. 

Categories: Wild Horse Education