Wild horse auction keeps West alive
HALLETTSVILLE – The West wouldn’t have been won without the horse.
Horses and burros forged their place in American history by the tasks they performed and the companionship they provided. That fiery spirit is still evident in the wild horse herds today that roam Western states.
The Bureau of Land Management was tasked in 1971 with maintaining and cultivating these symbols of the American dream. The BLM conducted a Wild Horse and Burro Auction at the Wilbur Memorial Complex in Hallettsville in early February. The sale placed 24 of the more than 40 animals with new owners.
Pat Williams, the state lead for the New Mexico Region Wild Horse and Burro Program, welcomed a small crowd of buyers on that Friday morning in February. He provided a brief overview of the program and how it serves the horse population as well as the ecological well-being of the area where the animals roam.
What that meant is that horses and burros found on U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management land are protected under federal law, specifically the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, Williams said.
There are 177 total herd management areas throughout 10 Western states. And whenever the total population exceeds its limit, BLM officials capture the excess population.
Other reasons the BLM goes into federal lands to round up wild horses include the danger of fire or drought.
The wild horses primarily roam in Nevada, Utah and Northern California. The burros come from Southern California and Arizona. More than 240,000 wild equines have been collected and placed since the program’s inception. According to BLM data, almost 73,000 wild horses and burros share the 26.9 million acres – a population of almost three times the target population. It takes about nine football fields of native vegetation to feed one wild horse for a week, BLM officials said.
There are virtually no natural predators for wild horses and burros, Williams said, and a herd size can double about every four years.
“So we try to manage them” to maintain an ecological balance in those herd areas, he said. “We manage not only for wild horses, but we manage for livestock, wildlife, riparian areas … So when they just basically breed out of control, they can be really detrimental to those lands out West.”
The equines arrive at the auction completely unbroken, buyers learn before the event begins.
“These are wild horses; they have never been handled in any other way than just run through a chute. So if you have a weak spot in your corral, make sure you button it up before you let that horse out. Because if it’s going to leave, it’s going to leave as soon as you let it out,” Williams explained to potential buyers before the Hallettsville event.
With every purchase, buyers are given a bill of sale and a certificate about the animal’s health. And Williams gives the new horse and burro owners a quick piece of advice.
“The best thing when you get home is turn it out, put some hay in there and just leave it alone. Then start working with it. Give it 24 hours or whatever before you start messing with it,” he said.
Article original published in the Victoria advocate