The fate of major symbol of the West is currently undecided; the idea of these things in America is a picture of the past, but actually has extended into modern day, mustangs. Although no one still travels by wagon trail to look for gold with the ‘49ers, the mustangs still run over the rangelands.

Mustangs are the symbol of the West, running free across endless fields, plains and mountains, but those endless landscapes are not really endless any more. With all of the industrialized land that has impeded into the lands, there are too many horses for the land that is left.  Since 1971, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has taken mustangs off the land and everyone has a different opinion on how it should be dealt with.  Some want to keep the mustangs wild, and others want them off the land, and there are different shades of every idea throughout the spectrum.

The original wild mustang herds that evolved on the American plains went extinct around 12,000 years ago; the horses that live there now are the feral descendants of Spanish horses that escaped and were released hundreds of years ago. There are currently about 67,000 wild horses and burros living in the United States, and they are protected and controlled by the Bureau of Land Management. Because the horses are descendents from domesticated animals, they are considered feral by definition, but the normal laws regarding feral animals don’t apply to the mustangs and burros.

According to Merriam Webster dictionary, a feral animal is: 1. having escaped from domestication and become wild. So although by definition mustangs and burros are feral animals, the 1971 Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act protects them from the laws that typically apply to feral animals because it classifies the mustangs as wild.
Unmanaged mustang populations currently triple every 6-8 years, according to a National Research Council Report, with a high probability that populations will continue to grow until resources run out. With no way to get food and water, the living conditions would be extremely harsh and “mass mortality events possible during periods of drought”. This scary but considerable future would mean the final end to the symbol of the West. Overgrazing leads to destroying the rangelands that they live on, disrupting other species needs as well. Overgrazing occurs when during one season, pieces of grasses are so over eaten that they do not grow back, so there is even less food to go around With these possible results, maintaining the mustang populations is necessary to protect the horses; if they are left alone, they will most likely die off.

In order to avoid losing a major living symbol of the west, some horses have to be removed off the land. As of March 2016, there were 67,027 mustangs and burros are living on the range, and the Appropriate Management Level (AML)--under half of the current population -- is 26,715. The BLM will continue to remove horses and burros from the range until the AML is met.

Since 1971, the BLM has been rounding up mustangs and they are either sent to short term facilities to be adopted or to long term facilities where landowners can support a large herd. In the early 2000’s about 8,000 mustangs were adopted from short term facilities, but now, because of economic reasons, there are only about 2,500 horses adopted each year. Mustangs are just as amazing pets and teammates as pureblood horses, but horse owners tend to buy purebloods simply because it is all they know, similarly to the way dog and cat owners typically buy dogs from breeders instead of rescuing one at a pound. Unlike the pound, however, mustangs and burros are only euthanized for medical reasons, leaving the BLM with thousands of mustangs a year to add to the off range animals that they are caring for.

Once horses reach a certain age in the short term facilities, they are considered unadoptable and because euthanasia is not an option, they are sent to long term facilities. Long term facilities where they can roam on about 289,000 acres of privately owned land, basically in the wild, just on private property where they receive vaccines, food during the winter and the land owner needs to provide them with enough nutrients, whether the natural grass is sufficient or they need to provide more hay. Each horse in long term facilities cost about $50,000 over it’s lifetime. With such high costs to keep the mustangs alive in the wild, it is necessary to find ways to keep the population down, and to increase the number of mustangs adopted.

The cycle of money flow is consistently falling back on itself. When the adoption rate dropped, that led to more horses in long term facilities. More horses staying within the government’s care means much higher chunk of budget, from taxpayer money, to pay for the long term facilities. More money on the horses living on private property means less money to keep the wild populations under control and less money to research ways to keep the population down. The first step to help even out the movement of horses is for horse owners who are looking for a new horse to at least consider a mustang instead of a purebred.

Once more mustangs are adopted, decreasing the amount entering the long term facilities, there will be a much bigger chunk of money to research contraceptives for mustang mares. Researchers with  U.S. Geological Survey have been working to find contraceptives for wild horses to decrease population growth in the wild. The BLM uses a tiering pattern regarding a mustang’s genetics to decide which are candidates for the contraceptives. Overall, the test runs of the most common contraceptive have been effective, but the vaccines only last about 12 months, and they need to be hand injected into the horses. More research can lead to longer lasting vaccines that are easier to distribute, decreasing the mustangs population growth even more.

In order to keep the mustangs -- a symbol of the West-- alive in the wild, the Bureau of Land Management needs to protect the numbers that are living off the land.  Increased adoption rates as well as more research regarding contraceptives for mustang mares will allow the wild horses to stay at home on the range.


Reference Page
Garrott, R. A., & Oli, M. K. (2013). A critical crossroad for BLM's wild horse program. Science,          341(6148), 847-848.
Gokey, M. (2012). Pryor Mountain Mustangs: On the range or on the bring? Retrieved March 23, 2017
Program Data. (2016, March 1). Retrieved April 18, 2017
Wild Horses and Burros on Public Rangelands Now 2.5 Times Greater than 1971 when    Protection Law Was Passed. (2016, May 11). Retrieved April 18, 2017