The Wild Horse Problem Is Bigger—and More Complicated—Than You Think

I went to Colorado’s inaugural Wild Horse Symposium expecting to learn more about Mustangs. I did not expect to leave with more questions than answers—or to realize that some of the most important conversations about saving wild horses have very little to do with horses running free on the range.

The symposium, held August 6–8 at the Wild Horse Refuge in Craig, Colorado, and presented by The Wild Animal Sanctuary, brought together people with very different perspectives who share one common goal: finding a way to protect America’s wild horses.

Colorado is leading the nation in this effort, with bipartisan legislation introduced year after year since 2023 to improve protections for wild Mustangs. The state is also working on a wild horse license plate, with proceeds potentially helping fund fertility-control programs and other efforts to protect these animals.

And according to Alan Bittner of the Bureau of Land Management, the ultimate goal is not simply to improve roundups.

It is to eliminate the need for them altogether.

That sounds simple. It isn't.

I had the opportunity to speak with Alan personally about the challenges facing the BLM. One of the biggest is balancing the needs of wild horses with the needs of the entire ecosystem. The land also supports deer, elk and critically important sage grouse. In fact, the concentration of sage grouse at the Wild Horse Refuge makes the area important to conservation far beyond the Mustangs themselves.

We discussed the BLM's Appropriate Management Level, or ALM, and Alan expressed hope that the threshold could eventually be lowered so intervention could happen earlier, before a range becomes so compromised that large-scale gathers are necessary. Perhaps removing five horses at a time could prevent the need to remove hundreds later.

Then we talked about something most horse lovers hate to even imagine: how to gather them.

Alan told me that, in his opinion, the right helicopter operator can actually be a relatively gentle way to move horses. A skilled pilot can use the helicopter to carefully push horses toward the catch pens rather than terrorizing them. Other gathers use bait traps, allowing horses to enter the trap themselves.

There is no perfect answer.

And there are currently two Colorado gathers that make this issue painfully real: an active gather in the Piceance area and another scheduled for September in the Sand Wash Basin.

Another uncomfortable truth is that not one single fertility-control method has ever completely solved the problem. PZP, darting, removals and other approaches have all been tried, but none has been sufficient by itself to balance wild horse populations on public lands.

Natural predation isn't enough either. Mountain lions can prey on Mustang foals, and some populations have adapted specifically to them. But mountain lion populations are also controlled, meaning there simply aren't enough predators to make a meaningful impact on Mustang numbers.

So where does that leave us?

The federal government is currently caring for roughly 65,000 wild horses and spending approximately $43 million a year to feed and house them—an extraordinary taxpayer expense that demonstrates just how large the problem has become.

This is where my conversation with Pat Craig, founder of The Wild Animal Sanctuary, became particularly interesting.

During a fireside s’mores gathering, Pat told me that one of the biggest things missing from the current process is a way to evaluate a horse's temperament.

His idea was wonderfully simple: create a standardized personality scale, perhaps from one to five.

A horse rated a one or two might be relatively comfortable around humans and potentially suitable for training and adoption. A level-five horse might be so terrified that it screams, fights and struggles continuously during examination and treatment.

Pat has personally witnessed horses in that condition.

His suggestion was that these horses should be identified immediately as poor candidates for adoption and considered instead for permanent sanctuary or long-term protected turnout. That could prevent profoundly traumatized animals from being repeatedly moved through short-term holding facilities in the hope that someone will eventually adopt them.

And then I learned something else that surprised me.

Trained horses are far more adoptable than yearlings.

A wild yearling may be available for only 50–150, which sounds like an incredible bargain. But most people don't want to feed and care for a young horse for two years before it can be ridden. A trained horse has far greater value and demand.

That creates another enormous question: If trained horses are more adoptable and therefore more valuable, who does the training, and using what methods?

This was perhaps the most frustrating part of the symposium for me personally.

I watched trainers from around the country work with ten yearlings brought in for the auction. Most were clearly trying to be kind, especially with the public watching. But as a veterinarian, certified professional animal trainer and longtime student of horse behavior, I was stunned that only one trainer I observed appeared to understand the science of modern animal training—specifically positive reinforcement, or R+.

I watched clucking, driving, whipping and pressure being used to get frightened young horses to comply.

I literally watched women in casts, laughing about their most recent horse injuries.
And I kept thinking: We know there is another way. For the people, and the horses.
We even learned about a recent Colorado State University study showing that horses started with positive reinforcement and later transitioned to traditional pressure-based training experienced less stress and tolerated the pressure better than horses that had not first been started with R+.

That matters.

I know only one truly high-level dressage rider who has trained a competitive horse using R+ exclusively. It took seven years. She is an extraordinary outlier, but her success proves that what we call “impossible” may simply be something we haven't invested enough time and science into yet.

For me, the symposium ultimately came down to two enormous takeaways.

First, we have to protect the Mustangs from nefarious characters who might see vulnerable, captured animals as an opportunity to make money—particularly when an already understaffed and underfunded government agency is trying to manage an enormous problem.

Second, if trained horses are more valuable and more adoptable, then we have to ask: What kind of training are we willing to accept, and who should be doing it?

I even discussed privately with Alan whether there could be a path for private individuals with sufficient resources to lease large areas of land and provide homes for horses. He told me that a pathway had previously existed under federal law to facilitate arrangements like that, but that the current administration removed that pathway, leaving the BLM with even fewer options.

There are no easy answers here.

But there is hope.

Pat Craig has spent 46 years rescuing animals, and what impressed me most was his common-sense belief that rescue shouldn't simply mean keeping an animal alive. It should mean giving that animal room to express its natural behaviors and live a meaningful life.

That is the kind of sanctuary I believe in, and why I support the Mustang Refuge.

And there is one final lesson I took home.

In a world increasingly filled with AI-generated content, fake organizations and even fraudulent animal charities, it matters who you trust. There are plenty of people online asking you to donate to “save animals.” Some are real. Some aren't.

Follow real people doing real things.

I was there. I talked to the BLM. I sat around the campfire with Pat Craig. I watched the trainers. I listened to the lectures. I saw the horses.

And I will keep reporting back to you about what I learn, because if you are generous enough to donate your hard-earned money to help animals, you deserve to know that your dollars are actually reaching people and organizations doing valuable work. Like the Wild Mustang Refuge, and like the ResqRanch.

The Mustangs don't need another argument.

They need better answers.

And together, maybe Coloradans can help lead the way.

Thanks for reading! DrQ and the Crew of Aspen Park Vet Hospital and the ResqRanch

​​​​​Check out my YouTube channel for a daily "Good Morning!" from the rescues and lots of free tips and training resources. https://www.youtube.com/@the1drq

Here's a recent video from the ResqRanch:​