At the Meeker Mustang Makeover, wild horses that recently roamed free on the prairie walk through obstacle courses and show off ranching skills ahead of an auction.
mustangs
Colorado’s largest wild horse roundup in history ends with 864 captured animals, and plans for ongoing fertility control
The third large-scale helicopter roundup of Colorado mustangs within a year ended Tuesday in dusty sagebrush country on the far western edge of the state, part of a massive effort by federal land managers to thin the wild horse population across the West. Wranglers and a helicopter pilot herded and trapped 864 stallions, mares and […]
More than 400 wild horses captured in first week of western Colorado helicopter roundup, despite objection from top state officials
It took federal land managers about a month to capture 18 wild horses by hiding in the sagebrush not far from a corral baited with food and fresh water. In a week, a helicopter buzzing across the rugged prairie of western Colorado has captured more than 400. The efficiency of a helicopter roundup is the […]
Helicopter roundup in western Colorado aims to capture 750 wild horses in the next month
A low-flying helicopter is set to begin rounding up wild horses on rugged, parched rangeland in western Colorado on Friday despite weeks of protest from national mustang groups as well as Gov. Jared Polis. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management intends to thin the Piceance East Douglas herd by 750 animals, leaving about 630 wild […]
Federal officials ignore Colorado governor’s plea to stop capturing wild horses, plan Western Slope roundup this week
Federal officials will begin capturing hundreds of mustangs roaming in far northwestern Colorado this week, dismissing a request from Gov. Jared Polis to halt roundups while the state and U.S. Bureau of Land Management find a “more humane” option for managing wild horses. The federal agency’s announcement of its next roundup — in the Piceance-East […]
SunLit Interview: Kathryn Wilder started with essays. Slowly, they grew into a cohesive narrative.
Kathryn Wilder’s work has been cited in Best American Essays, nominated for the Pushcart Prize and other awards, and has appeared in several publications and anthologies. A graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Wilder was a finalist for the 2016, 2019, and 2022 Ellen Meloy Fund Desert Writers Award; […]
SunLit Excerpt: In “Desert Chrome,” a woman’s familiar sense of place points her toward salvation
I take to my truck one fall morning and drive away from the problems I’m creating. Three border collies on the folded-down seat behind me, a long empty highway under my tires, I drive. For miles. Hours. A memory drifts in through an open window: sitting on a slab of red sandstone watching boaters run […]
Cañon City facility where 145 wild horses died is short-staffed, in violation of federal policies, report finds
The federal Bureau of Land Management failed to vaccinate wild horses captured from western Colorado because the Cañon City holding facility lacks enough workers and because the mustangs were “unusually high-strung,” according to a report released Thursday that offers the first clues about why 145 horses died from a typically preventable equine flu. A review […]
141 wild horses — a third of those captured from the Western Slope — died in country’s deadliest flu outbreak
A third of the wild horses captured from Western Slope rangeland last summer have died in the equine flu outbreak at their holding pens in Cañon City, though federal officials said Wednesday that the outbreak is winding down. Mustang deaths — which numbered more than 20 on the worst days of the outbreak — have […]
Many of the 119 wild horses killed by equine flu at Cañon City facility weren’t vaccinated, BLM says
Three dead foals were the first sign that something was wrong with the West Douglas herd, mustangs that until eight months ago had roamed dry and rugged rangeland in far western Colorado. When the third foal died on April 18, following the recent death of another foal and one that was stillborn, the Bureau of […]