The Mustang

Perhaps you have heard the term ‘Mustang’ before? Especially if you have spent any time in the West, the wild horse or Mustang is a bit of a thing of legend. The horses you see, if you’re exceptionally lucky, free-roaming across the states of the American West are descended from equines brought to the Americas by the Spanish. In 1971, the US Congress recognized that “wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West, which continue to contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people.” That’s pretty high praise for some of the most majestic and hardy creatures roaming the landscape of 10 Western States (Oregon, Idaho, Montana California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico). A hundred years ago mustangs drifted freely across these areas with little to no human intervention. Nowadays, there are significant, and some might even hazard to say, aggressive interventions undertaken by the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program to limit the mustangs’ movements. 

This BLM program has established Herd Management Areas across the states populated with mustangs. These herds are (supposedly) overseen using sound science-based range management practices. The goal is to ensure there are enough resources, vegetation and water, for wildlife to survive (and hopefully thrive) as well as domesticated livestock such as cows and sheep. BLM land is technically public land, as in all of us taxpayers have a stake in what happens on said terrain, but the BLM leases out huge swaths of this acreage to ranchers to graze their animals and ‘share’ the space with the mustangs as well as other local wildlife, at drastically reduced rates. 

The rub here is that if you have ever seen much of this land it is arid, barren, and desolate. To begin with, the food and water resources are scarce and few and far between. The mustangs have adapted to such conditions, evolution having changed their very DNA to survive on little food, and not much water, and be physically robust enough to walk miles and miles a day on rough terrain. But there is quite literally only so much to go around, the pie only has so many pieces, and these resources are finite. And humans have this nasty habit of consistently valuing commodities that benefit themselves over things that do not. While the mustangs are an enduring symbol of this country’s resilience and tenacity, they also do not provide us (in the US) with food or materials (i.e. beef, wool). 

In turn, when the mustang herds grow in size, and reach levels that the BLM claim are unsustainable for the land, that is when the roundups begin. It is currently legal to use helicopters to forcibly remove Mustang bands from their native lands. Can you even imagine? Even thinking of a helicopter conjures images of war, eliciting worry or even fear in those of us who know what a helicopter is, but what about the horses? These are prey animals that flee when they feel danger is near, and these helicopters never let up, not until the horses are herded into makeshift pens, loaded into trailers, and transported to holding. These roundups are downright dangerous for these animals. Plus the terror of being ripped from your home, separated from your family, your baby… It is cruel. Pure and simple. 

The BLM refers to the pens where the mustangs are held post-roundup as holding facilities, both short and long-term. But let’s call a spade a spade, they are no better than the worst possible prison. These horses go from living freely within their family structures, on lands they have known their whole lives, to dirty, dusty, dingy corrals. I have been to one of these short-term holding facilities and it is nothing short of tragic. The mares separated from their stallions, from their babies, to just waste away themselves all the while eating up taxpayer monies. It costs somewhere in the $50 million dollar range to sustain this program of indefinitely holding mustangs, yet the intangible, negative impacts on each of those animals can hardly be measured in dollars or cents. 

There is so much that needs to be overhauled with the Wild Horse and Burro Program, and that is a fight that desperately has to be had at the policy level. This is especially true with the BLM’s adoption incentive programs. The BLM allows for private individuals to adopt mustangs from short-term holding facilities, paying a nominal fee to take a horse home. The catch is the BLM still ‘owns’ each horse for one year. Yet after those 365 days, the BLM will ‘title’ the Mustang, and then that horse is formally and officially released to their new owner. The hope is that each Mustang has landed in a safe, loving, and forever home. But as you can imagine, that is just not always the case. After that one year, with a titled Mustang in hand, an owner can legally sell a wild horse to an auction house. And that is where many tragically end up…

Because much is never known about these mustangs when they land at auction, they tend to find themselves in the loose portion of the sale. This is the section of the weekend where a horse is flagged into the ring, with no rider, no real information, and bidding begins. The biggest fear being that they end up selling to a kill buyer, worth only their weight, nothing more. Mustangs are never supposed to ship across the border to Mexico or Canada. But they do… 

In terms of Rescue Ranchito, we will always attempt to change the narrative, educate our followers, stand on a soap box, and shout from the rooftops about what is happening to our beloved wild horses, but we will also seek to make a difference, on the ground, for individual mustangs. For these amazing animals that are ripped off their land, or are perhaps even born in holding, we can make a real difference to them. We can save their lives, we can help them heal both physically and mentally, we can set them up for success, and find them forever homes. There is something so so special about these wild spirits, they represent something ethereal, an almost indescribable feeling of freedom and being grounded in the land. They trigger a feeling that all of us can remember if we spend any time around them. Something deep down in our souls that has perhaps been forgotten. I will always hold a special place in my heart for Mustangs. They speak to me on a very real level, this knowing I have that being connected to the land is where I belong, and spending my time with my family is the most important of pastimes. While we can conform and toe a line, our lives are meant to be more feral and fierce our stories rugged and rough, just like the land the mustangs should forever call home. 

We have rescued two mustangs to date: 

Coyote, our first Mustang. He was rounded up at about one year old from a now non-existent Herd Management Area in Northern Nevada called the Seaman HMA. He was born in 2009 so is now right around fifteen years old. We rescued him from the loose sale at the Billings Livestock Auction in Montana. Nothing was known of his past and he would have most certainly ended up shipping to slaughter in Canada. He is a sensitive soul, clearly his past has scarred him. I am grateful to have intercepted what could have been a terrible fate for him. He has changed my life in myriad ways, and he is safe with us at Rescue Ranchito forever. 

Kestrel, our red mare. There is a joke in the horse world that only a certain type of person is attracted to red mare energy, as they are known to be, well… intense! But this girl is just one of the lights of my life. She is young, only 7 years old, and was born in a holding facility in Nevada and her birthday is April 1st! Which is quite fitting for her personality. She is fun and spunky and oh so curious. The thought of her having ended up in different hands or with a story that could have concluded before it even started just about breaks my heart. She is in training now with a wonderful woman back in her homelands of Nevada and is thriving. We sure do miss her, but know she is in great hands and will come back to us fully ready to enter her next chapter!