#herd management

[whywishesarehorses]

Mustang Long-Term Holding

Lots of folks lately have been asking about LTH and what that looks like for mustangs who aren't adopted. Deerwood Ranch, one of the private ranches that contracts with the BLM, has an open day coming up on September 27, 2025. They are in Wyoming.

They will have lunch, tractor pulls, yearlings for adoption, and some demos from gentled horses as well.

[blueroansnbuckskins]

Was browsing the BLM online corral. That gelding on the bottom is just 👌🏻💋👌🏻

[azaliegang]

My mom may have her issues but god damn when she said she loved goats and wanted to have and take care of goats she meant it.

We've had them for months now and she still spends most of her free time with them. She gets worried if they're alone in the dark and she is constantly asking me to check if their stalls are clean enough.

When the vet came and said they were healthy, she said "but do they look happy?" because she wants them to be as happy as a goat can be. Any less would be unacceptable and..

She really fucking cares about them and it's so good to see LIVESTOCK being treated so damn well

[whywishesarehorses]

What is going on with the Bruneau herd??? They’ve got double cream/cremello going on, appie genes, flaxen, draft ancestry (some real chonky girls there), almost certainly some very strong Spanish ancestry with that tiger eye and the amount of dun, both ordinary and nd2. Plenty of mealy/pangare and seal going on, as well as wild type bay, which means there’s some funky locus stuff going on- AND that giant calico mark/somatic (?) on the palomino.

It’s like someone hit them with the mother of all genobombs.

So the Bruneau holding facility has horses from a bunch of different herds represented! The double dilutes and most of the palominos are from the High Rock herd (California), which is known for having taller mustangs:

All High Rock, at Bruneau.

All three appies at Bruneau are from the Twin Peaks HMA, also CA, known for Appies. Some of the pangare is from there as well!

We've also got Sheepshead-Heath Creek (Oregon) represented, and an assortment of others!

I generally like the assortment of herds that go through Bruneau

[whywishesarehorses]

Thanks for posting mustangs! Do you know what happens to the horses that aren’t sold?

Happy to do it!

Generally, mustangs are offered at least three times. This can be on the Internet Adoption or via in person events. After that, some are changed to “Sale authority”, meaning that they are listed for sale rather than adoption: “animals over 10 years old – as well as younger ones that have been passed over for adoption at least three times – are eligible for sale, a transaction in which the title of ownership passes immediately from the Federal government to the buyer.”

That clause of being offered three times is what gives rise to “three strike” mustangs.

If that doesn’t do the trick, the horses are moved to Long Term Holding (LTH). This is where the horses are turned out on contracted ranches, in enourmous pastures. They are provided with hay and water.

[whywishesarehorses]

If it's not too much of a bummer question, what tends to be the outcome for mustangs like the ones you post? Do they get passed on to sanctuaries all that often, or is that usually just the ones that have some preexisting fame?

It's a good question! I can tell you that since 1971, the BLM has adopted out over 290,000 mustangs and burros. For reference, in fiscal year 2023, the nationwide population estimate was 82,883 wild horses and burros.

In 2023: Total removed: 5,335 Total placed into private care (adoptions, sales, transfers): 8,045 Total fertility control treatments: 720

There's a good number of sanctuaries out there, and some take only famous horses. Some take older horses or horses that have a hard time adjusting to domestic life.

However, horses that aren't adopted (after three tries) or sold as sale authority (no title, only $25), aren't forfeit. They move to off-range holding:

"All off-range (unadopted or unsold) wild horses and burros, like those roaming Western public rangelands, are protected by the BLM under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, as amended. These off-range horses and burros are fed and cared for in either off-range corrals or pastures. The BLM maintains a monthly holding facilities report...The total capacity of all BLM off-range holding facilities is 82,567 animals."

As of April 2024, there are 63,028 burros and horses in public and private off range holding.

[whywishesarehorses]

Question, sorry if you’ve answered something similar previously, how do you find pictures of some of the mustangs the blm auctions off on the range before they’re rounded up? Are all the feral herds well documented or is it just some of them? I was wondering specifically in terms of if someone was trying to keep horses from a band or family group together during adoption, are there enough images collected of the wild herds for that to be feasible? Not like I can adopt any mustangs any time soon but theoretically.

i realize you sent this like two weeks ago, my apologies!

Just some of the herds are well documented - see Sand Wash Basin in particular. In auctions like those, where they are well documented, folks go feral over trying to scoop up whole family trees/'keep families together'. Sanctuaries reap donations from panicked people who are funding them to drop 8k on a feral horse so that she can be 'reunited' with a stud she spent a few seasons with after he stole her from another band. Bonkers

Fwiw, it's nonsense - horses don't have that kind of attachment to their bandmates. I would try to keep track of relatives mostly for interest/tracking personality, etc. I wish I knew who Thea's dam and sire were! I can make guesses, but I won't ever know.

[whywishesarehorses]

hey im so sorry if you been asked this before or if its obvious but why are mustangs rounded up?

def been asked before: linking you to one of my older posts to read about it

Mustang Culling Dilemma

Hey Y’all, I wanted to do a big informational post about some of the drama behind mustang gathers + the reason American taxpayers end up pa

I have more info in my #herd-management tag, or you can read up on the BLM website.

Long story short:

"The BLM gathers and removes wild horses and burros from public lands to protect the health of the animals and health of our nation’s public rangelands. In some locations, the BLM also uses birth control to slow the growth of wild horse herds. Absent management and natural predators, wild horse herds can double in just 4-5 years and quickly outgrow the ability of the land to support them." - from the BLM