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| The government estimates there are 47,000 wild horses
still roaming western public lands -- to manage or reduce these
populations, wild horses are rounded up annually by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and made available for public adoption. More horses have
been taken from their home on the public land than there are people
willing or able to provide homes for them. Thousands have been removed
from the range and held in crowded holding areas where they serve life
sentences, waiting to die, unless someone adopts them. Our horses have come from various government agencies gathered from desolate areas such as: Sheldon-Hart Mt. Wildlife Refuge in Oregon; White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and Modoc National Forest in California. Nearly two hundred wild horses and burros live on the Wild Horse Sanctuary, running free in small bachelor bands or harems -- a stallion and his mares. These horses are descendants of Spanish horses brought to the New World in the 1500’s by the Conquistadors. In the 1800’s, the Spanish stock began to mix with European horses -- favored by the settlers, trappers and miners -- that had escaped or been turned out by their owners. The wild horses were in demand until tractors and other mechanical means replaced them. Then, they were pushed back into the most arid, hostile public lands that are left. Yet they still survive! |
Each New Horse That Comes In Is Recorded And Photographed |
| As we unload them into holding pens, we check their physical condition before they are released onto the Sanctuary’s grazing land. We record the age, sex and identifying marks. This horse, for example is a Palomino 9 year old, 14 hands tall, and 850 lbs. He came to us from Sheldon-Hart Wildlife Refuge where horses have been removed by the government from public land. |  |
| Wild Horse Sanctuary Email: info@wildhorsesanctuary.org
This web site designed by Terry Jepsen Photographs © Katey Barrett - All Rights Reserved © 2005 Wild Horse Sanctuary |