For those of us in the West it has been an intense summer fire season. Many of you tracked the Kiger/Riddle HMA fires (OR), the North Complex (Reno), Clan Alpine and New Pass/Ravenswood fires, etc. Onaqui in Utah is experiencing another fire this summer. There are also active fires in Triple B and moving into the Owyhee Complex in Nevada, again.
Royal and his mare and 2026 filly Vasilisa in June
The S 1 Vya fire has several of you reaching out for information on the Carter herd.
Our partner, Darice Massey of Carter Reservoir Mustangs Inc., headed down to Cedarville (the nearest towm) as soon as there was word of the fire.
pictures of Cinnamon with her ’26 foal Pepper, and ’25 colt Castaic, the big stallion Royal and his 2026 and 2027 offspring (Vasilisa in back and Brando in front)
Darice was able to find some of the wild horses. These horses are not in danger right now.
“I was out right after the fire started, at a safe distance to check where the horses were, and I’ve been tracking the fire. Knowing the Carter HMA like the back of my hand and the old New Year Lake HMA extremely well, the horses are not usually in the area where the fire this time of year.” Darice wrote. “I can say with certainty that there are no fences that would impede the horses or wildlife from getting away from the fire and they would have started moving as soon as they sensed danger. I am waiting for the road restrictions to be lifted to make a detailed observation.”
Today the wind is still pushing the fire to the east, away from critical winter habitat. Right now the fire sits on about 50/50 on public lands and private lands. A home was lost to the fire.
As soon as the fires are out our team members and volunteers will report in on what they find in other HMAs.
Royal is one of our founders favorite Carter Mustangs. While so many of the Carter wild horses have obvious primitive markings or other unique features, Royal may look a plainer but he has a truly regal presence.
But like so many that do not “stand out” in an adoption pen, mature wild stallions like Royal are the ones most at risk of the Sale Program loophole that could land him in a kill-pen if he were removed from the range.
As soon as it is safe to get back on the range and roadblocks are removed we will report back to you.
For those of you tracking roundups we just loaded a new report from Confusion in Utah where we are the only organization onsite HERE.
Note: BLM has not updated the roundup schedule. We cannot say or sure where roundups will move after West Douglas (CO) and Confusion (UT).
We will update you as we know more.
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
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