WINNEMUCCA - The Bureau of Land Management's Winnemucca District finished the Blue Wing Complex Emergency Wild Horse Gather on Aug. 4. A total of 203 wild horses were gathered from portions of the complex northwest of Lovelock.
This was an emergency gather which began on Aug. 2 to capture and remove 200 excess wild horses because of declining conditions of wild horses due to a lack of forage and declining availability of water sources due to severe drought.
The BLM transported 199 animals to the Palomino Valley Center outside of Reno. Four animals died or were euthanized because of accidents or chronic, pre-existing health issues.
All the HMAs are located in Pershing County north and west of Lovelock. The BWC consists of approximately 639,300 total acres, but the emergency gather area consisted of approximately 110,637 acres.
The removal of 203 excess wild horses is expected to lessen impacts to vegetation density, plant vigor, seed production, seedling establishment, and forage production relative to current conditions by reducing grazing pressures on drought-impacted rangeland resources. The gather also helped preserve the health and well-being of those animals removed from the range as well as those that will remain within the complex.
"This gather was critical to our efforts to reduce competition for already scarce resources within the HMA that all these animals depend on," said Derek Messmer, field manager for BLM's Humboldt River Field Office. "We hope by reducing the pressures caused by excess numbers the wild horses on the range will have better chance of survival through the remainder of this summer, fall and winter."
An Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) veterinarian was on site daily to evaluate animal conditions and provide recommendations to the on-site BLM wild horse and burro specialists for care and treatment.
The four wild horses that died or were euthanized during the course of the gather included a sorrel mare that died immediately after colliding with a panel within the alleyway fracturing its neck; another sorrel mare sustained a broken leg after being kicked by another horse and was euthanized due to a hopeless prognosis for recovery; a sorrel mare with pre-existing complete blindness in one eye was euthanized and one foal was discovered dead at the temporary holding facility Sunday morning. The foal was found to have succumbed to water intoxication.
The excess wild horses held at the temporary holding facility were watched carefully to assess if any appeared to be consuming excessive amounts of water. This foal had not been observed displaying this behavior during the daily activities.
The BLM staff utilized the Henneke body condition scale to classify gathered excess wild horses. On a scale from one to nine (one being poor condition and nine being extremely fat), the Blue Wing Complex wild horses were generally a body condition score of 2.5 to 4, with a few wild horses observed to be lower.
For more information, contact Mark Turney, BLM Winnemucca District public affairs specialist, at (775) 623-1541 or by email at mturney@blm.gov.
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