![]() ![]() The group of spectators stood about one-third of a mile from the holding pen as a helicopter swirled the cloudy sky. Among them were a wild horse advocate making a documentary, a woman who says she’s found spiritual healing by observing the horses, and a wildlife photographer whose other job is to travel the West bearing witness to the federal government’s roundups. 1, 2021, in Sand Wash Basin outside Craig. A wild horse peers from the fencing shortly after being captured during the roundup Sept. To witness the gather, a caravan of 14 vehicles sloshed down slick and muddy roads in the rain, following BLM officials to the corral set up about a half a mile across the state line into Wyoming. The roundup began Wednesday on the northern outskirts of Sand Wash Basin, on federal land leased several months of the year to sheep ranchers, and where an estimated 150 mustangs have escaped the basin, slipping around cattle guards and hopping fences for better food and water. Jared Polis, who called last week for a six-month moratorium on roundups but failed to stop the gather. The swiftness of the plan and the aggressive removal goal have elicited outcry from numerous wild horse groups, as well as Gov. Federal officials say the emergency operation is necessary because of years of drought that has decimated the bunch grasses and shrubs that horses and other wildlife need to survive the winter. The 22 studs occasionally squealed, kicking each other with one or both back legs, as they sorted out their dominance in close quarters.īy the time the roundup concludes in two or three weeks, the BLM hopes to have removed 733 mustangs from the Sand Wash Basin herd, thinning the wild horses by more than 80%. The remaining horses in the corral, including 11 foals, spent the night there, the stallions separated from the mares, colts and fillies, and were eventually destined for a holding facility in Cañon City. The stallion trotted away, his tail raised in an arch, and disappeared into the vast landscape of layered canyons, juniper trees and sagebrush that smelled earthy and minty in a light rain. The stud was one of 65 mustangs rounded up by helicopter and herded into a holding pen on the first day of the federal Bureau of Land Management roundup in Sand Wash Basin in far northwest Colorado. SAND WASH BASIN - The silvery-gray wild stallion scaled the metal corral as if it were a ladder, then thrust himself over the top rail and back to freedom.
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