Urgent Alert! Wild Horses Need You to Call Congress Today to Stop Sterilized Herds
September 12, 2018Lawsuit Filed to Stop Barbaric BLM Wild Horse Experiments
September 21, 2018Wild Horses of Sand Wash Basin Need Your Help for Water Now
Thirsty wild horses running to the tank at Ranger Pond
Wild Horses of Sand Wash Basin Need Your Help With Water Today by Carol Walker
The Sand Wash Basin wild horses are a much beloved herd, and visitors come from all over the world to observe and photograph them. I observed and documented the last helicopter roundup there in 2008 but did not become a regular visitor until 2011. Since then I come 2-3 times every year. This year, there is a horrible drought and heat in this part of Colorado, and waterholes that normally do not dry up in the Basin until late August were empty in late May. Because of the extreme heat (one day it reached 114 there) and lack of rain, the grass did not grow as much as normal, and when the horses tend to stay in just a few areas to be near water and do not spread out, there is even less to eat.
Drinking at the pond at Two Bar
Enter Wild Horse Warriors of Sand Wash Basin, (Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/wildhorsewarriorsforsandwashbasin/) who already had an agreement with the BLM to work on projects to improve the range. In late June they decided to to take on hauling water to the horses who were very soon going to be in serious trouble. They requested that the BLM allow them to haul water to the horses and were initially told no “because the horses were not in bad condition yet.”
The giant water tank donated by Bethell Water, used to top off the water tanks by volunteers
As anyone who knows anything about horses will tell you, by the time a horse, wild or domestic, looks dehydrated, it is too late. With over 100 nursing mares in the herd, there were going to be some deaths soon is no one acted. We did a campaign on social media to encourage people to contact state, DC and local BLM asking them to allow the volunteers to haul the water to the horses. This was going to be at no cost or even any man hours needed from the BLM other than helping plan where to place the tanks. Finally the BLM agreed to let Wild Horse Warriors begin hauling water to the horses and they set up a plan to put the tanks on the west part of the HMA where there was the most forage to encourage the horses to move there. They began hauling water on July 5 and the thirsty horses were terrific customers. They drank and drank and drank, and Wild Horse Warrior has been using Bethell Water and their own volunteers since then to provide 3000-4000 gallons of water per day.
Meet me at the water tank
Another blow is that the water source they had been purchasing water from could no longer provide them with water. Bethell Water found another source but now instead of paying $3600 per week they will now have to pay $4000 per week. They initially had an online fundraiser, and now they only have enough funds for another two weeks. With no rain coming and the Basin still very dry, the situation is still not good for the horses.
The Sand Wash Basin wild horses need your help now.
https://www.gofundme.com/cm625-water
6 Comments
The BLM is responsible for Equine
Management. Their duty to
These Horses is to Provide the
Water they Need to survive .
Thats their Job Range Management
Rounding up Horses is –
Not Indicated !!
Herds are way below count
Healthy Herds need Diversification
Older Horses need to teach young
throughout Seasons – Survival
Techniques This is an absolute
Crime —- Greed is playing
A large part — Cattle need to Vacate
Cattlemen need to retreat back
On to their OWN land — Not Taxpayer
funded habitats . Horses Maintain
Ecosystems —- Hence Roundups
Are causing huge fires as
Horses and Donkeys eat Foliage
that burns during extreme
Hot weather & is causeing Wildfires
These Fires could have been
Circumvented
Had we not Rounded up
Thousands Of Very Necessary Equids
This needs to End
Minimum 20 year Moratorium
On Roundups Herds Will not
Maintain in these Circumstances
Wild horses need water NOT removals!!!
I am more concerned about the smaller native species that these feral horses compete with for water. They should be taken care of first. This horse population needs to be reduced to the Acceptable Management Level for that Herd Area first.
The horses are not “feral.” They are wild horses on their rightful range on our public lands. All of the wild animals are suffering because of the drought and the other wild animals are benefitting greatly by the water being hauled in. They should all be taken care of.
these horses are wild and free not ferel…let them live the way they should wild and free!!! People try to contain and “Own” too much as it is. They are beautiful!
Those innocent horses need water and need to be left alone so mother nature takes care of them.
WE DEMAND WATER FOR OUR HORSES. THE HORSES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!!
TRY GOING WITHOUT WATER.