by Carol Walker as published on Wild Horse Freedom Federation
In two days, weather permitting, the Bureau of Land Management will begin the Fifteenmile Roundup, in the Fifteenmile HMA in northern Wyoming
The nearest town is Worland. This HMA is very remote, little visited and boasts incredible rock formations, buttes, canyons, hoodoos and very colorful wild horses. The horses in this area are not used to being visited by photographers and tend to run at the mere sight of a vehicle. They have been relatively unmolested by the BLM since the last helicopter roundup in 2009. This to my mind made this herd a potential candidate for a study on the rate of wild horse births in a herd not subjected to constant roundup and removal, every 2 – 3 years. The National Academy of Sciences study found that the constant roundup and removal has an increase in birth rate as its result. But the BLM is going forward with the roundup anyway, and plans to remove 600 out of the approximately 700 wild horses that they estimate are in the HMA.
https://www.blm.gov/Wyoming/2019-Fifteenmile-Gather
This is the official link to information on the roundup and includes information on how members of the public can observe. To read about my comments against the roundup and proposed removal of 600 of the 700 wild horses living with their families in this area:
I will be providing updates and information as the roundup progresses.
To find out about Wild Horse Freedom Federation and our efforts to keep wild horses wild and free on our public lands, go to http://www.WildHorseFreedomFederation.org
Categories: Horse News, The Force of the Horse, Uncategorized, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Another example of BLM’s management to extinction. OUR horses and OUR land and “their” decision? That is wrong.
The Fifteenmile herd used to benefit from a much larger habitat. The original legally designated herd area encompassed 261,910 acres. The HMA that BLM carved out of it covers only 81,127 acres, a loss of 180,783 acres or 282 1/2 square miles.
This is known as “Regulatory Capture” which is a form of political corruption that occurs when a regulatory agency (BLM), created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure; it creates an opening for firms to behave in ways injurious to the public. The agencies are called “captured agencies”.
For the past 40 plus years the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and associates have been chipping away at these legal wild horse and wild burro lands and obviously the recovery and reinstatement of wild horses and wild burros back onto their legal lands would be unfavorable to any financial stakeholders, i.e. livestock permittees, mining and energy corporations, large lobbying trophy hunting “clubs” and many more. But let’s face it … the only persons that have worked for 40 plus years for the extinction of wild horses and burros are those with a financial interest. This has been and continues to be unacceptable, illegal and the American citizens including me are disgusted at the “sell-out” of our lands and resources by the agency that is responsible to protect them … the Bureau of Land Management.
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Good points, but I submit that those with the largest financial stake are the public, now well over 325 million, who both own and pay for the management of our public lands and related resources (including wildlife). Commercial interests, while powerful, are far fewer and should never “trump” the interests of the public on the public lands. So reinstatement may indeed be favorable to many millions more stakeholders, and ethical management may in fact benefit entire ecosystems from which commercial interests seek only limited-term profits at high cost to everyone and everything else.
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The Wild Horses Of Fifteen Mile – Washakie County, Wyoming
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This video appears to be a possible “spring fling”? A spring fling is a common name when numerous bands come together to exchange members of their band (and/or genetics). I have never seen this occurrence filmed before. Thank you Louie.
What a crying shame that the BLM is devastating this beautiful and natural herd!
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They are beautiful – all of them -That paint stallion was working harder than any of the other horses all thru this! there was a little lame foal about 8:09 or thereabouts? Its shameful that any of these horses would be rounded up.
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