Thanks to author Terri Farley for bringing this to our attention. This grass fire seems to be on the BLM’s Bartlesville Long Term Holding (now called “Off the Range”) Pasture. These wild horses are fenced in, and grass fires spread rapidly. I’ve contacted BLM’s Dean Bolstad and Debbie Collins asking for an update, and will relay any response to you. – Debbie Coffey
UPDATE: Debbie Collins of the BLM confirmed that there were no horses lost in the Oklahoma fire, and let us know they were waiting for an update on a fire in Kansas from their staff in Kansas. I have asked for an update when they get that information.
UPDATE #2: Debbie Collins stated that the Kansas fire was smaller and all wild horses are safe.
Source: news9.com
WATCH NOW: Wild Horses Escape Osage County Grass Fire
By: Dee Duren, NewsOn6.com
WATCH THE NEWS VIDEO HERE.
Grass fires in Osage and Washington counties are still burning Monday morning. Residents will smell smoke and can see the haze in the air.
Osage SkyNews 6 HD pilot Will Kavanagh flew overhead as wild horses escaped a fire line about five miles north, northwest of Ochelata Monday morning. Strong south winds continue at 20 to near 30 mph.
3/6/2016 Related Story: Massive Wildfire Makes Way Across Washington, Osage County Ranchlands
The fire began burning Sunday and continues in the rural area near the border of the two counties. Video shows the horses crossing a stream with ranchers nearby to help.
The horses don’t appear to be in any danger as they can get to land that has already been burned.
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
The Hughes Ranch is “Bartlesville” LTH with 2,045 of our wild geldings. Fire departments were called to help with a fire on Hughes Ranch.
Click to access WOFacRpt022416_web.pdf
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My heart was pounding watching them, I can only imagine how they felt! I hope they’re all ok.
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I hope all of these horses are safe. On the range, I’ve no doubt that they would be because of the equine behavior we see here. This is not the panicked stampede of horses pursued by helicopters. We can see them thinking, planning, judging the safety of passing nearer the fire to escape. And we can see the importance of the band. This is the horsepower that’s allowed them to survive for millions of years without human “help.”
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Being fenced in limits them in getting out of danger, I was afraid of them getting trapped. I know they’re much smarter than I could ever hope to be.
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Reblogged this on hocuspocus13 and commented:
jinxx🍀xoxo
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I read this comment: “It’s long term holding. There are no stallions. They’re there waiting to die, mostly on scrubland. I watched them for years when I lived in this area. They burn the fields, and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit to learn it was a “controlled burn”, improperly supervised, that caused this although I’ve not seen such a report. Just used to watch them burn all around my farm.”
These wild horses are fenced in and one story admitted that the wind was carrying it so fast (Sunday), it was scooting along probably between 3 (to) 400 feet a minute. To give you perspective as to how fast these fires were burning … a football field is 300 feet in length.
Apparently the Hughes Ranch did this last year also – see photo of horses in this 2015 article: http://www.newson6.com/story/27881202/washington-county-fire-burns-4000-acres
A drop of good news, I just read that it is now raining in that area which will help douse the fires.
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In this article it says the wild mustangs were adopted, were they?
http://examiner-enterprise.com/sections/news/local-news/local-rancher-honored-state.html
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Hughes has NOT adopted these wild horses. You and I have paid him $9,664,624 since Nov 2007 (and much more in previous years), and the last payment in January of this year was for $1,292,100. It would not cost us a dime to “manage” these wild horses by allowing nature to manage them on their legal 53,800,000 acre herd area lands that Congress unanimously designated for them.
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I didn’t think so, just trying to learn how this all works. Do they ever get adopted or can they? I’m sorry I ask so many questions & thank you for answering them.
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Wild horses and wild burros can be adopted (see link) but to my knowledge no horse or burro has ever been “adopted” from any of the BLM’s long term holding facilities (as with this Hughes ranch) although it is well known that BLM has sold truckloads of wild horses from these facilities to highly questionable buyers. Past National Wild Horse and Burro Program, Reno Nevada Office director, Lili Thomas stated (and I quote), “Horses cannot be purchased from BLM long term holding facilities except in “large” amounts.”
I think you know where all those large amounts of our wild horses went?
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2016/february/nr_02_08_2016.html
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UPDATE: Debbie Collins of the BLM confirmed that there were no horses lost in the Oklahoma fire, and let us know they were waiting for an update on a fire in Kansas from their staff in Kansas. I have asked for an update when they get that information.
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Debbie Coffey, how about asking them for an update on what killed all those horses penned in Scott City KS since they are providing more timely updates now it seems. I have still never seen anything like necropsy results or indication of the actual cause of so many deaths (exact numbers also unverified).
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IcySpots-
Please contact Debbie Collins and ask her about the Scott City KS horses and let us know what you find out. BLM covers up things hoping that it will blow over and disappear.
Collins, Deborah
Wild Horse & Burro Marketing Specialist (WO)
(405) 234-5935
dacollin@blm.gov
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From Jason Lutterman, BLM Public Affairs Specialist
Are you referring to the wild horse off-range corral in Scott City, Kansas? There are 1,329 horses at the off-range corral in Scott City, Kansas as of October 21.
Thank you,
Jason
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Thank you, Sue. All of the facility reports for the past few years are mid-page on this link. Not saying that I BELIEVE what BLM says but this is something for us all to keep our eyes on.
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/history_and_facts/quick_facts.html
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