Tag Archives: Wyoming checkerboard

Sep 30 2017

Carol Walker’s report on The Checkerboard Roundup Day 7 – Great Divide Basin

Source:  wildhoofbeats.com

The Checkerboard Roundup Day 7 – Great Divide Basin

by Carol J. Walker, Dir. of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation

A gorgeous black stallion who will be rounded up in the coming days

A gorgeous black stallion who will be rounded up in the coming days

The Checkerboard Roundup 2017 is taking place right now and is expected to take 4-6 weeks. The BLM is removing 1560 adult horses and we don’t know how many foals from three wild horse areas: Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin. The total area of these three herds is 2.4 million acres.

The family does not go into the trap

The family does not go into the trap

17CarolWalker002

This morning I drove out following the BLM and as we arrived at Bitter Creek Road, the fog moved in. We sat in our cars because it was bitterly cold and then we followed the contractor Cattoors and the BLM up to the trap site. We slipped and slid on the muddy mess the road had become and I worried if it rained we might get stuck trying to get out. When we arrived within view of the trap, we learned that the ideal spot to watch and photograph was on private land. Serena Baker, Public Information Officer insisted that they call John Hay the President of the Rock Springs Grazing Association and ask permission to have access to his land for observation. To my surprise and delight her agreed to let us be there. As we set up our cameras it began to rain. We covered ourselves and our cameras, and about half an hour later it began to clear. We heard the helicopter and he had a large group of horses.

The black stallion charges the helicopter

The black stallion charges the helicopter

He runs away

He runs away

As they got closer I saw a black stallion in front. As they approached the trap, they veered off. The helicopter came back, and the black stallion charged at it! He was so spirited. The Bay roan stallion behind him followed him. The group went over the hill, and then as they came down, he charged again! Then the whole group after one more attempt ran off, fast. The helicopter went to refuel and they added more jute to the wings of the trap. It was clear oto me that these horses have been rounded up too many times and they were not having it.

The bay stallion watches

The bay stallion watches

The bay stallion runs to the trailer

The bay stallion runs to the trailer

As another group came in a bay stallion broke away and watched he horses go into the trap. I wondered where his family was. Soon he was calling to the horses in the pen behind the trap. That answered my question. He ran around behind the trap, and we could see him watching the pen. We watched him, and when half his family was loaded onto a semi and drove out, he watched it and called to his mares. Then he would go around and call to his family members in the pens.

Read the rest of this article HERE.

Aug 4 2017

Please Comment on BLM’s Plans to Destroy and Slaughter Three Herds of Wild Horses in the Wyoming Checkerboard

Source:  wildhoofbeats.com

by Carol Walker, Dir. of Field Documentation, Wild Horse Freedom Federation

It is a very familiar and unwelcome feeling that I have, writing about the BLM’s plans to roundup and remove over 55% of the wild horses in the Wyoming Checkerboard. It seems like just yesterday I was writing about this plan that affects wild horses on 2.4 million acres in Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin. The last roundup was in 2014 when 1263 wild horses were removed from their homes and lands. 14 died during the roundup and over 100 died in short term holding facilities in the four months following the roundup.

This time, however, the situation facing the wild horses in Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek and Greek Divide Basin is much more dire. The consequences of being rounded up and removed from public lands could not be more serious because right now the BLM is asking Congress to lift the restrictions on killing and slaughtering wild horses, and every one of the 1560 wild horses that the BLM is planning to remove is facing imminent death. The BLM does not consider in its Environmental Assessments what will happen to the wild horses that are removed according to their Proposed Actions. They do not care about the suffering, illnesses and deaths of the horses and they do not care about you and I, the taxpayers, funding a lifetime of each horse being kept in pens, in captivity. It is a wasteful, cruel and insane policy that favors overwhelmingly corrupt livestock interests who get to graze and overgraze their private livestock on our lands, losing millions of dollars on this program each year.

In this Proposed Action, the BLM is pandering to the Rock Springs Grazing Association, which only has 24 members, and whose grazing rights on public land are a privilege, not a right – but they don’t see it that way. Land swaps could have easily solved the problem of the checkerboard of public and private lands, but it is not in their interests to cooperate. They want to control all the land. And they want the horses gone at any cost. But 70% of the land, of the 2.4 million acres in Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin is public land. It should not be managed as if it were all private land, but it is. We stopped the 2016 Checkerboard Roundup because we won an appeal which said that the BLM cannot manage all these lands as if they were private.

This time, we need your help to speak up, write the BLM and demand that they select Alternative C – no roundup or removal.

The BLM should not be allowed to move forward with this roundup only on the basis of an Environmental Assessment.

Read the rest of this article HERE.

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/blog/please-comment-on-blms-plans-to-destroy-and-slaughter-three-herds-of-wild-horses-in-the-wyoming-checkerboard

Mar 28 2017

Please Comment to Protect Wyoming’s Wild Horses from the Devastating 2017 Checkerboard Roundup

Source:  wildhoofbeats.com

Adobe Town Family

by Carol Walker, Dir. of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Please Comment by April 4, 2017 on the Checkerboard 2017 Roundup

The BLM was unable to roundup wild horses from Salt Wells Creek, Adobe Town and Great Divide Basin in 2016 because we won a lawsuit that prohibits the BLM from managing the wild horses in the Checkerboard using only Section 4 of the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which allows them to remove wild horses from private lands.  Because the Checkerboard includes public lands, it is illegal to manage them as if they were privately owned by the ranchers demanding these roundups.  In order to legally roundup wild horses from the Checkerboard, the BLM must prove that the numbers are above Appropriate Management Level, or AML.  Now, they are not even conducting a census to prove this, instead they are “projecting” that the horses are over the high end of AML.

Roundups cause the destruction of hundreds of wild horse families, as well as injuries and death to the horses as they are chased by helicopters and flee in terror into traps.  These captured wild horses are chased into trailers and taken away from the only home they have ever had to end up spending the rest of their days languishing in holding corrals with no shelter.  Only a lucky few are adopted by members of the public and these do not always mean good homes – the return rate back to the BLM for adopted or purchased wild horses is over 50%.  Many many of these horses will end up at slaughter in Mexico.  There is no good reason to roundup and remove these horses from Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin.

I have been following and observing and photographing the wild horses in these three herd management areas for the last 13 years. These horses are uniquely suited to this sometime harsh high desert environment.  They are the last three largest herds in Wyoming, and they deserve to be preserved on our public lands.  Although the Checkerboard presents challenges to BLM management because of its pattern of public alternating with private lands, that is no reason to cave into petty demands from the Rock Springs Grazing Association, which is made up from less than 25 members.  These wild horses are valuable to us, the American public, and so every effort must be made to preserve them here where they were found at the time the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act was passed.  These horses were here long before the Grazing Association, and now what needs to happen is land swaps to consolidate blocks of public land that the horses can continue to roam upon.  Managing the wild horses on the range, on our public lands where they can continue to roam free and making these necessary land swaps happen is what the BLM needs to be working on, not perpetuating this every 3 year pattern of roundup, removal, then warehouse our wild horses.  The Field Manager of the Rock Springs BLM Field Office has been quoted as saying: “For all intents and purposes, we consider the Checkerboard private.”  But it is NOT private.  In fact, over half of the Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin Herd Management Areas are public land, that belongs to us, the citizens of the United States of America, not the Rock Springs Grazing Association.

Great Divide Basin Family

This time, the BLM wants to remove 1029 wild horses: 584 removed from Salt Wells Creek, 210 removed from Adobe Town, and 235 removed from Great Divide Basin.

They are not even calculating their numbers from an actual aerial census – they are making these numbers up.  Every year, the BLM conducts and aerial census in late April, but now they are just “projecting” the numbers.

Read the rest of this article and find out how YOU can comment HERE.

Oct 27 2016

‘No Ambiguity:” Court Tells BLM It Cannot Treat Public Land as Private

by Arno Rosenfeld  as published on the Casper Star Tribune

The appeals court ruled that while the BLM claimed it was justified in treating the entire checkerboard as private, given the “unique land management situation” the agency lacked the authority to make this judgement.

Destruction of Wyoming's Adobe Town herd by the BLM ~ photo by Carol Walker of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Destruction of Wyoming’s Adobe Town herd by the BLM ~ photo by Carol Walker of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

The Bureau of Land Management may not treat public lands as private out of practical considerations, a federal appeals court wrote in an opinion released this week.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an Oct. 14 ruling that concluded the BLM’s 2014 roundup of wild horses in the checkerboard region was illegal. Monday’s decision explained the court’s reasoning.

The judges wrote that the BLM violated the Wild Horses Act due to the difficulty of rounding up horses in the region, where public and private land alternate in one-square-mile plots in south-central Wyoming.

 “Its methodology was to treat public lands as private lands,” Judge Monroe McKay wrote in a concurring opinion. “But, though the BLM’s solution to the problem presented by the checkerboard may seem reasonable, it is not in accordance with the [law].”

The case originated in 2013 when the Rock Springs Grazing Association sued the BLM demanding the agency remove wild horses from their land in the checkerboard.

The BLM agreed to do so and determined the only way to keep horses off the grazing association land was to remove them from the public plots of land as well, given that the area is unfenced and horses move around on a daily basis.

But horse advocates sued the BLM claiming that while the agency can unilaterally remove horses from private land, it must go through an extensive review process before removing horses from public land.

A U.S. District Court in Wyoming initially sided with the BLM but the 10th Circuit decision overturned that ruling and agreed with the argument made by horse advocates.

 The appeals court ruled that while the BLM claimed it was justified in treating the entire checkerboard as private, given the “unique land management situation” the agency lacked the authority to make this judgement.

There is “no basis for BLM to construe the terms ‘privately owned land’ and ‘private lands’ to include the public land sections of the checkerboard,” the court wrote.

“[P]ractical realities do not provide BLM with the authority to construct the [Wild Horses] Act in a manner contrary to its plain and unambiguous terms.”

While the ruling released earlier this month halted the BLM’s checkerboard roundup planned for Oct. 18, Monday’s full opinion may set a precedent for similar cases around the West.

The groups that sued the BLM, including American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign and the Cloud Foundation, argued that the BLM’s actions in the checkerboard posed a wider threat to public land management.

If the BLM was allowed to treat public lands within the checkerboard as private for purposes of horse roundups, the groups argued the agency could also treat other public land as private if it helped them meet their land management objectives.

But the 10th Circuit decision may put this concern to rest.

“[T]here is simply no ambiguity in the terms ‘public lands,’ … and ‘private lands,’” the court wrote.

Sep 21 2016

Insider’s Look: Wyoming Checkerboard Wild Horse Case

By Carol Walker ~ Director of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation

img_0006On Monday I was in Denver at the Byron White Courthouse for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in two cases for wild horses. I am a plaintiff in both these cases, and had waited an especially long time for this day, as our lawsuit was originally filed in District Court in Wyoming in September, 2014.

The old courthouse is beautiful, full of character and I enjoy looking around while waiting for our first Oral Argument. The judges were: Judge Scott M. Matheson Jr., Chief Judge Mary Beck Briscoe and Senior Judge Monroe G. McKay.

Our attorneys were Meyer Glitzenstein & Eubanks LLP attorneys Bill Eubanks, Kathy Meyer and Nick Lawton.

Each side was only allowed 15 minutes, which could go a bit longer depending upon questions from the judges. Bill Eubanks argued for our side in both appeals. I was very impressed by his presentation and answers to questions, which were very thorough and methodical in laying out the important points. One issue that came up is that the BLM is wanting the Checkerboard case dismissed on grounds of mootness. Yet it is far from moot – on Friday the Decision Record was published by the BLM for the Checkerboard II Roundup, in which the BLM is again treating public lands as if they are private:  https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/nepa/59563/81678/95899/3c.DR_Checkerboard_Removal_2016.pdf

These are the two appeals:

American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, The Cloud Foundation, Return to Freedom, Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl Appellants v. Jewell, et al.

In the Checkerboard area in Wyoming, with alternating private and public lands on over 2 million acres we are fighting to keep our wild horse son our public lands, and to keep the BLM and private landowners treating public lands as if they are private. The consequences of this decision will have an impact on how our wild horses are treated in every Herd Management Area that includes private lands – not just other Checkerboard Areas like in Utah and Nevada.

WY State of Wyoming, Appellant v. United States Department of the Interior DOI, et al.; Intervenors American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, The Cloud Foundation, Return to Freedom, Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl

In this appeal, the state of Wyoming sued the BLM to force them to remove wild horses from 7 herd management areas that were estimated to have more wild horses than the Appropriate Management Level. Here we a fighting to keep management of wild horses in Federal hands, where it belongs, rather than turning the management of our wild horses over to states who would as soon remove them all.

It was fascinating to me to listen to the back and forth between the attorneys and the judges. It was hard for me to tell how our side was doing, but I am hoping for the best. I was proud to be there representing our wild horses. We should hear the decision for both appeals in the next several weeks.

Related Posts:

Upcoming Checkerboard II Roundup

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/news/wild-horses-federal-court-rules-blm-violated-law-in-checkerboard-roundup

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/blog/wild-horses-stop-the-blms-illegal-plans-for-the-checkerboard-roundup-ii-comment-by-friday-april-22

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/blog/please-comment-on-the-blms-upcoming-checkerboard-ii-wild-horse-wipeout-plan

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/news/wild-horses-court-grants-wild-horse-advocates-right-to-intervene-in-state-of-wyoming-anti-mustang-lawsuit

Wyoming v. BLM and Intervention

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/news/wild-horse-advocates-blast-governor-mead-for-suit-against-feds-over-wild-horses

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/blog/wild-horses-wyomings-governor-seeks-complete-annihilation-of-his-states-wild-horses

Checkerboard Roundup and Lawsuit

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/news/wild-horses-court-grants-emergency-inunction-to-delay-wyoming-wild-horse-roundup

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/news/wild-horses-wyoming-wild-horse-roundup-delayed-as-advocates-appeal-to-tenth-circuit

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/news/wild-horses-court-denies-emergency-motion-allows-wyoming-wild-horse-roundup-that-turns-public-lands-over-to-private-livestock-interests

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/news/wild-horses-federal-court-rules-blm-violated-law-in-checkerboard-roundup

http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/blog/wild-horses-fighting-to-save-wyomings-wild-horses-is-personal

Oct 22 2015

Livestock land grab for checkerboard land in Wyoming

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Sheep grazing near Worland, Wyoming, in 1940. (photo:  BLM)

I knew it wasn’t going to be good for wild horses & burros when I read that the original Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act expired, and that Nevada’s Dean Heller was co-sponsoring S. 368, a new “reauthorization” which would be in effect for 10 years.   And sure enough, when looking at state fact sheets of the impact of the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act Reauthorization of 2015 (FLTFA), it’s clear that FLTFA will promote the chance for ranchers to buy checkerboard land, and benefit the livestock interests, especially in Wyoming.  Leading the charge in the House for H.R. 2068 is Rep. Lummis (R-WY).

The state fact sheet for Wyoming states “FLTFA is important to ranchers, as well as over 100 groups. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust, Public Lands Council, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Boone and Crockett, and over 100 other groups support FLTFA reauthorization.  Public lands are important to ranchers for grazing.  FLTFA sales also provide an opportunity for a rancher with a BLM tract of land within or adjacent to his or her property to purchase the property, possibly to expand the ranch, prevent a liability from having a public inholding, or other purposes.”

And “WYOMING BLM AND LAND SALES   Land available for disposal: at least 561,829 acres.  The Rock Springs Field Office ranks in the top seven BLM field offices that generated 97% of FLTFA revenue as of May 31, 2007.  Several sales in southwestern Wyoming, the most notable being the sale of 722.5 acres to PacifiCorp – in the Rock Springs Field Office.”

It seems like the BLM has been getting rid of Wyoming’s wild horses so they can outright sell the checkerboard public lands to private livestock ranchers, oil companies, and other special interests.          – Debbie

SOURCE:  The Nature Conservancy

Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act Reauthorization Introduced in U.S. Senate

U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Dean Heller (R-NV) have introduced the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act Reauthorization of 2015 (FLTFA). Reauthorizing FLTFA will bring back a mechanism that allows proceeds from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land sales to fund critical land conservation in the West at BLM conservation areas, national parks, national wildlife refuges and on national forests. Original cosponsors of this FLTFA reauthorization include Senators Tom Udall (D-NM), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Steve Daines (R-MT).

“The Nature Conservancy supports this bill and the use of proceeds from strategic land sales—which have already been identified through BLM land use plans—to accomplish high-priority conservation work on federally managed lands,” said Brent Keith, Senior Policy Advisor for The Nature Conservancy. “Reauthorization of FLTFA brings back the principle of ‘land-for-land’ transactions where the sale of strategic public lands not only reduces administrative costs to the BLM, but generates funding to protect other lands. We appreciate the bipartisan leadership of Senators Heinrich and Heller in working to reauthorize this program.”

Congress passed FLTFA in 2000, and the program successfully generated more than $100 million for public land conservation before it expired in 2011. The Conservancy is one of more than 150 diverse organizations supporting reauthorization of FLTFA.

Through FLTFA’s  “land for land” program, BLM sells land identified for disposal to public and private landowners to consolidate land ownership, create jobs, support economic development and increase revenues to counties by putting land on the tax rolls. These sales generate funding for federal agencies to acquire critical inholdings from willing sellers in certain designated areas. BLM has sold land to benefit both the private sector and municipalities, including ranchers, timber interests, real estate companies, a community college, and counties for both public and private purposes.

Federal land sales provide revenue for program administration and federal agencies to acquire high-priority lands with important recreational access for hunting, fishing, hiking, boating, and other recreational activities, as well as properties with historic, scenic and cultural resources. These new places help the local tourism economy through recreational equipment sales, hotels, restaurants, gas stations and more. And, because it is self-financed through BLM land sales, FLTFA does not require taxpayer funds.

Without FLTFA, revenue from sales of BLM lands goes directly to the U.S. Treasury and not to conservation.

Apr 15 2015

Western Wild Horses Under Siege, details by Carol Walker on Wild Horse & Burro Radio (Wed., 4/15)

painy

Wild_Horse_Burro_Radio_LogoJoin us on Wild Horse Wednesday (*SM) , April 15, 2015

6:00 pm PST … 7:00 pm MST … 8:00 pm CST … 9:00 pm EST

Listen to the archived show Here!

This is a 1 hour show.  Call in with questions during the 2nd half hour.  

Call in # (917) 388-4520

_____________________________________________

 image

Our guest is Carol Walker, Dir. of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation who will talk about BLM’s plans to sterilize wild horses, the many deaths of the recently captured Wyoming “checkerboard” wild horses, the BLM’s plans that could, in essence, destroy the Pryor Mountains wild horse herds, and an update on the wild horses at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. (photo above: wild horses in winter in Adobe Town, by Carol Walker)

4boyscarol-1958-editcc5x7 Carol Walker

Carol is a plaintiff in the lawsuit that has been attempting to stop the BLM from removing over 800 wild horses from Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek, and Great Divide Basin in Wyoming.

Carol’s website is http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/ and you can see her photography of wild horses at http://www.livingimagescjw.com/

Tonight’s radio show will be hosted by Debbie Coffey, V.P. & Dir. of Wild Horse Affairs, Wild Horse Freedom Federation

________________________________________

Continue reading →

Mar 3 2015

Federal Court Rules BLM Violated Law in Wyoming Wild Horse Roundup

image  Wild Horses in winter in Adobe Town (photo:  Carol Walker)

SOURCE:  wildhoofbeats.com

Laramie, Wyoming – March 4, 2015 – Today U.S. District Court of Wyoming Chief Judge Nancy D. Freudenthal issued an order stating that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it conducted a massive “Checkerboard Roundup” last fall, during which 1,263 wild horses were permanently removed from their homes on the range in southwestern Wyoming.  The Court remanded the NEPA violation back to the BLM to “remedy the deficiencies” while at the same time denied Plaintiffs’ claims that the BLM, in the Wyoming roundup, violated the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA).  Plaintiff Carol Walker, Dir. of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation, the Cloud Foundation, AWHPC, and photographer Kimberlee Curyl contended that the BLM violated federal law by proceeding with the roundup in the absence of any environmental analysis and public participation, and by reducing the populations in the Adobe Town, Salt Wells and Divide Basin Herd Management Areas below established “Appropriate” Management Levels.  The massive roundup removed all of the wild horses from the private and public Checkerboard lands within the Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek, and Great Divide Basin HMAs.  BLM authorized this drastic management action without analyzing any of the environmental consequences of a wild horse roundup of this magnitude, or reasonable alternatives to this action, as required by NEPA.  “We are disappointed that the court upheld BLM’s countertextural interpretation of the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act which allows the agency to disregard its own established wild horse minimum population levels,” said William Eubanks of the public interest environmental law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal.  “However, the court vindicated our concerns with BLM’s complete failure to analyze the impacts of this action on wild horses and the natural environment, as well as the agency’s failure to engage the public before pressing forward with this ill-advised decision.”

Read the rest of the article HERE.

Mar 3 2015

Carol Walker, Dir. of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation, with an update on the Wyoming wild horse checkerboard court case and the captive wild horses, on Wild Horse & Burro Radio (Wed., 3/4/15)

painy

Wild_Horse_Burro_Radio_LogoJoin us on Wild Horse Wednesday (*SM) , March 4, 2015

6:00 pm PST … 7:00 pm MST … 8:00 pm CST … 9:00 pm EST

Listen Live (Here)!

This is a 1 hour show.  Call in with questions during the 2nd half hour.  

Call in # (917) 388-4520

_____________________________________________

4boyscarol-1958-editcc5x7

Our guest is Carol Walker, Dir. of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation and a plaintiff on the recent lawsuit attempting to stop the BLM from removing over 800 wild horses from Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek, and Great Divide Basin in Wyoming.  Carol was an observer at the roundups, and will give you an update on the court case, and on the wild horses that are now in captivity. Carol’s website is http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/ and you can see her photography of wild horses at http://www.livingimagescjw.com/

14CarolWalker049-

Tonight’s radio show will be co-hosted by R.T. & Terry Fitch, Founders (and Pres. & Treasurer) and Debbie Coffey, V.P. & Dir. of Wild Horse Affairs, Wild Horse Freedom Federation Continue reading →

Feb 26 2015

Checkerboard roundup wild horses now available at Rock Springs

By Carol Walker, Director of Field Documentation, Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Carol Walker’s blog is wildhoofbeats.com

Carol’s website is www.livingimagescjw.com

The Beautiful Mares

Rock Springs Short Term Holding Facility Reopens with Adoption Event February 27, 28 2015

The wild horses that were rounded up and removed from their homes in Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek that were sent to the Rock Springs Short Term Holding facility in Rock Springs, Wyoming are now available for adoption and sale. The horses 10 and under must be adopted, the horses older that 10 must be purchased and approved using a Sale Authority Application.

The facility has been closed to the public until this week, and approximately 600 of the 1263 wild horses removed from the three areas in September and October of 2014 are at the Rock Springs BLM facility. About 500 were sent to the Canon City, Colorado facility, and they still have quite a few of these horses available.

The Geldings - former Stallions

I have separated the photographs I have taken this week by gender and age. There are three links:

Geldings, mares and weanlings. The weanlings were difficult to photograph because they kept mobbing me – especially the fillies! There are many more weanlings available than I have photographs for.

Mares have a red string with their number tag, geldings have a black string with their number tag.

If the tag number is not visible, I do not have it – you need to contact Kathi Fine.

Please feel free to use my images as a reference for identification and adoption, but they are copyrighted and I do not allow any other use without prior permission.

http://www.livingimagescjw.com/15RockSpringsGeldings/

http://www.livingimagescjw.com/15RockSpringsMares/

http://www.livingimagescjw.com/15RockSpringsWeanlings/

Many Adorable Weanlings are Available

The horses laying down are simply enjoying a rare sunny day and taking a nap.

Many of the mares are pregnant, and foaling season has begun – there have been 5 foals born in the last 2 weeks at the facility.

Mares

This Friday February 27 and Saturday February 28 the public is welcome to come view the horses at the facility from 8-3 on Friday and Saturday from 8-12 and the horses are available to be adopted. Don’t worry – if you cannot make the adoption this weekend, the horses are available year round, simply contact Kathi Fine to schedule a time to visit the facility.

Read the rest of this story (HERE).