Assignment: Louisville Courier-Journal
Published: Louisville Courier-Journal Sunday Magazine
Text and Photos by Tammy Lechner
©Tammy Lechner/STILL Productions/Inc
For decades mustangs have waged a losing battle with ranchers for a share of the Western range. Yet many attain a new lease on life through roundups and adoption programs conducted by the Bureau of Land Management. With Tennessee and Kentucky leading the way as the top adoption states, the BLM staged the beginning of the largest roundups to date in the Spring of 1985 in Wyoming's Red Desert.
A cowboy drags down the burlap, which served as the blind trap
leading to the capture corral, while the horses are immediately
sprayed with an insect disinfectant. Manes that have gown long
from years of running on the range are clipped.
It takes 40 acres of dry, steep and rocky Wyoming range to feed
one ranch cow, or one wild horse. Roundups for adoption is the
only humane method for dealing with the proliferating mustang
population, and lessens the realities of horse hunting and slaughter
At a holding center where the horses remain for several weeks after capture, a veterinarian determines the horse's age by checking it's teeth. Then the horse is tagged with a freeze brand, wormed , vaccinated tested for disease and cataloged. Finally they are shipped to adoption centers across the nation where their fates can vary.
Wild Horses Of the West: The Vast Roundup
Written & photographed by Tammy Lechner©
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