What's New!

For the last month many of us have eagerly awaited the public release of the GAO's report on the Wild Horse and Burro Program.

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FOREVER WILD AND FREE
By Craig C. Downer, Wild Horse Ecologist

Speech for Wild Horse Summit, Las Vegas.

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BLM proposes to "euthanize" 33,000 wild horses and burros held in holding facilities.

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Wild Horse and Burro Physiology

Wild horses come in all shapes and sizes but most are small by domestic standards, 15 hands or less. A hand is four inches so they are usually under five feet tall at the shoulders. Small size is more advantageous when trying to survive dry and cold and snowy conditions. It takes less food to fuel a small, compact body than a big one.

Some have primitive dorsal (back) stripes and zebra striped legs like the rare Mongolian Wild horses. These are called dun-factored horses and they come in shades of copper, yellow, and gray (Grullo). Others are bay, or sorrel (red), brown, black or even white. Palominos and buckskins as well as paints are found throughout the West.

Wild horses have very hard feet. Obviously, they don't wear shoes so their hooves, which are simply that last toe of a once multi-toed foot, must be able to withstand all kinds of natural surfaces including the rugged mountains of the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. Most are medium or heavy boned to withstand the rigors of running wild. These characteristics make wild horses ideal for breeding with domestic horses in order to improve domestic horses naturally!