Wild Mustang Round ups

So why is it that all the horse activist are shown talking in a big city?  All the evil people doing the round up are out on BLM land.
I really don't think they understand the problem.
 
First off mustangs are not native to North America, They came over with the early explorers. As such, they have no natural predators to control there numbers. The only population controls they have are man remvoing the excess or nature allowing them to starve or die from disease.
 
Second, Biologist monitor and recommend numbers for every other animal. We conduct Antelope, Buffalo, Deer, Elk,  Moose hunts each fall to keep the herds inline  with the habitat. It's ok to harvest a deer, But it's not ok to remove a mustang? Man has to act as the predator since we have removed all the natural predators. Mainly because we don't enjoy living amongst them. Maybe we should turn loose a pride of african lions around every herd of mustangs. So nature can control the population. The Wolf activist were successful in restoring the wolf to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The Elk herd in Yellowstone that numbered over 20,000 elk when the wolves were introduced, now numbers in the 6000 elk.
 
Third, Nature is not as kind as man can be. We remove the excess mustangs and ship them off to Auctions. We conduct Extreme Mustang make overs to train and show case the breed in hopes of making them more adoptable. Anybody who has watched the wolves kill an elk, know that is pretty brutal. I've come across cougar kills in the winter. Blood sprayed all over the snow in large areas where the deer or elk was ambushed by the cougar.
 
There needs to be a balance in all things.  Something has to be done with the excess horses. Maybe we should just open a horse hunt and allow hunters to harvest a horse each year. Oh!,  I guess that is what we have done,  Instead of issuing a hunting license and  shooting, we allow anybody to adopt and take home each year.  In fact if you adopt one at normal price, you can adopt a second "Buddy" mustang for $25. What a bargain.
 
I don't know what is right or wrong.  I don't support people just going out and shooting for the purpose of just killing any animal. I'm a hunter and believe that if you harvest an animal, you do exactly that, Harvest and utilize it. But at the same time, I think it's foolish to round up thousands of mustangs and move them to a holding corral. Lets make an industry out of the excess.  Sell them to europeans who enjoy Horse meat.  Maybe we process them into mystery meat and feed them to folks on welfare or the prison populations. Ship canned horse to starving nations. Something other than holding them in a corral and burying them when they get old and die.

I have seen the Mustangs in the wild, it is truly a beautiful thing.  I have also seen several that have been brought in from a round-up that were nearly starved.  The mustangs of yesteryear are gone, the mustangs today are small and inbred.  I've always wondered why there isn't some sort of breeding program to at least introduce new bloodlines into these herds.  Any thoughts?

I own a BLM mustang She's amazing! All i know about roundup is it brought me and my girl together.

[quote=mustang rider]

I own a BLM mustang She's amazing! All i know about roundup is it brought me and my girl together.


That's awesome!!!  []

The first horses on the American mainland since the end of the Ice Age arrived with the Spanish Conquistadors. Hernán Cortés brought 16 horses of Andalusian, Barb, and Arabian ancestry to Mexico in 1519. Others followed, such as Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, who brought 250 horses of similar breeding to America in 1540.op=true#cite_note-Green-148' target='_blank' title='http://forum.horse.com/post.aspx?mq=&messageID=14999&ampop=true#cite_note-Green-148'>[149][/SUP] More horses followed with each new arrival of Conquistadors, missionaries, and settlers. Many horses escaped or were stolen, becoming the foundation stock of the American Mustang.op=true#cite_note-Forbis15-149' target='_blank' title='http://forum.horse.com/post.aspx?mq=&messageID=14999&ampop=true#cite_note-Forbis15-149'>[150][/SUP]op=true#cite_note-Patten24-150' target='_blank' title='http://forum.horse.com/post.aspx?mq=&messageID=14999&ampop=true#cite_note-Patten24-150'>[151][/SUP]

[quote=Painted Horse]

So why is it that all the horse activist are shown talking in a big city?  All the evil people doing the round up are out on BLM land.
I really don't think they understand the problem.

First off mustangs are not native to North America, They came over with the early explorers. As such, they have no natural predators to control there numbers. The only population controls they have are man remvoing the excess or nature allowing them to starve or die from disease.

Second, Biologist monitor and recommend numbers for every other animal. We conduct Antelope, Buffalo, Deer, Elk,  Moose hunts each fall to keep the herds inline  with the habitat. It's ok to harvest a deer, But it's not ok to remove a mustang? Man has to act as the predator since we have removed all the natural predators. Mainly because we don't enjoy living amongst them. Maybe we should turn loose a pride of african lions around every herd of mustangs. So nature can control the population. The Wolf activist were successful in restoring the wolf to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The Elk herd in Yellowstone that numbered over 20,000 elk when the wolves were introduced, now numbers in the 6000 elk.

Third, Nature is not as kind as man can be. We remove the excess mustangs and ship them off to Auctions. We conduct Extreme Mustang make overs to train and show case the breed in hopes of making them more adoptable. Anybody who has watched the wolves kill an elk, know that is pretty brutal. I've come across cougar kills in the winter. Blood sprayed all over the snow in large areas where the deer or elk was ambushed by the cougar.

There needs to be a balance in all things.  Something has to be done with the excess horses. Maybe we should just open a horse hunt and allow hunters to harvest a horse each year. Oh!,  I guess that is what we have done,  Instead of issuing a hunting license and  shooting, we allow anybody to adopt and take home each year.  In fact if you adopt one at normal price, you can adopt a second "Buddy" mustang for $25. What a bargain.

I don't know what is right or wrong.  I don't support people just going out and shooting for the purpose of just killing any animal. I'm a hunter and believe that if you harvest an animal, you do exactly that, Harvest and utilize it. But at the same time, I think it's foolish to round up thousands of mustangs and move them to a holding corral. Lets make an industry out of the excess.  Sell them to europeans who enjoy Horse meat.  Maybe we process them into mystery meat and feed them to folks on welfare or the prison populations. Ship canned horse to starving nations. Something other than holding them in a corral and burying them when they get old and die.


That is very well said but you did forget to mention that those evil ranchers, cowboys, and to a lesser degree hunting guide and other people that make their living up there, and if they go there will be problems for allot of us. no or higher priced steak and hamburger for our plates.
 
Punky, before 1974 or whenever the federal government took over managing the herd. Local ranchers were knowm to release a stud horse after culling the current herd stallion and then use some of the horse for new ranch horses. and those horses that survived to become 2 and 3 years old had the advanages of being hard raise and the hardiness that creates,&nbsplus the genes from the stud that had been choosen for that. This is also why allot of mustangs have a QH look to them. I have heard more about that in rumor and since I was not alife back then I am not however an expert on that subject. and I don't live in that part of the country.  

One of my friend have a mustang its really awesome and very cute,   
But Today, the Mustang population is managed and protected by the Bureau of Land Management.Controversy surrounds the sharing of land and resources by the free ranging Mustangs with the livestock of the ranching industry, and also with the methods with which the federal government manages the wild population numbers.  
======================= 
Earl  

I do enjoy seeing the wild horses when I'm out in the Desert areas of Utah. They beautiful to see running wild across the open spaces.

 
But this is an area where it takes almost 300 acres to feed a cow. Where water is in limited supply.
So I do believe there is a need to control the population and keep it with in reasonable numbers.
 
In central Utah, the wild donkeys have really over populated and need to be thinned

 
With the current ecconomy, there are lots of stories of domestic horses being turned loose. I suspect some of them do intergrate into the wild horse population. But the reports from the BLM and other agencies is that the mustangs don't accept the domestic horses and the abondoned domestic horses are left to figure out how to survive and most don't.
 
There are many stories from the late 1800s about how the wild bunch outlaws, the Swayze brothers and others, made a living rounding up wild horses, breaking them and selling them. They had a vested interest in maintaining a robust genetics in the animals they worked with.  They also remved a certain number of animals from the range each year, thus keeping the populations in check.
 
The Home Ranch in North Western Utah has been famous for their quarter horses that are raised wild in the desert areas around their ranch. People say there is nothing like a Home Ranch horse for being sure footing in rough country. They still to this day use some top blood line stallions to breed their mares. The foals are born in the wild and run with their dams until they are weaned, Some are sold as weanlings, some hang around until they are yearlings or two year olds.  And I suspect a few get loose and run with the mustangs of that area.

Its beautiful pic's really too good.
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Earl Nunes

I too adopted one about two months ago and what you said in your post was exactly the way I feel about her. I couldn't have found another horse anywhere for $25 who would be nearly this amazing. She is SO intelligent and trully appreciates me, as well. Your's is beautiful!