Meredith Bridges
English 112- Argument Research Paper
April 4, 2019
The Wild Horse Issue
Once there was a time when there were no horses in North America. Then, in the fourteen-hundreds,
Spanish explorers came and brought with them horses in the holds of their vast ships. When they landed
in America, some of these horses broke free of their masters. They escaped into the wild and they
survived, multiplying into herds that gradually came to roam all over the United States, where they
became known as a symbol of freedom of spirit. Yet over the years, as towns and industries grew and
spread across North America, the wild horses gradually began to lose their place in this country. Many
people think of wild horses with a romantic light, picturing bands of horses running loose across wide
open spaces, wild, free and dangerous. However, what many people don't understand is that in today's
fast-moving world of growth and industry, these horses are in danger of losing their freedom and their
very lives, and they need help.
The facts are that wild herds today are dwindling, and instead of roaming where they please their
territory is confined to certain areas such as wildlife reserves. It is only the people who genuinely care for
these horses that keep them alive and running loose even in those places, which is why it is so important
that people today see and understand the horses’ plight. In today’s USA the numbers of wild horses are
limited; people who love horses and dream of seeing a wild herd galloping free along a beach or across a
plain must travel to the places where the remaining herds can be found: in Western states such as
Wyoming and Montana and among the islands of the Eastern coast. An example of one of the best places
to see ‘wild ponies’ is a little island off the coast of Virginia called Chincoteague. It's close neighbor,
Assateague Island, is a wildlife refuge for herds of wild Chincoteague ponies. Every summer, people
come to the islands from all over to watch the roundup of wild ponies on Assateague. The horses are
made to swim the small channel from their island to Chincoteague and are directed to a large fairground
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of holding pens, where they are sorted and in the following days adopted by the people who have come to
see and support them. It is mainly the foals and very young horses who are adopted, and the adult ponies
who are not are sent back to Assateague (Chincoteague Ponies). In this way, their population is kept from
overrunning the island. This is an example of a humane way that wild horse populations are managed
today. However, not all free-roaming horses are so fortunate as to be a part of such a program that cares
for their welfare.
Today’s industry-dominated world doesn’t make a place for wild horses. “Regardless of the (wild
horse’s) mythic appeal, once the horse failed to serve a monetary purpose, it became threatened” (Maile).
In western states, the land on which the horses used to roam where they pleased is now being taken up by
enormous ranches that continue to grow and prosper, requiring more and more space to function. This
keeps crowding the wild horses back, forcing them to make room for the huge cattle ranches with their
own herds of livestock. There simply isn’t enough space for both, and so the wild herds end up competing
for grazing space with the livestock, who have the unfair advantage of human owners on their side who
have no desire to share their cattle’s land with the horses.
“Kirkpatrick, who has spent more man 30 years studying the animals, said the wild horse has been
despised ever since white men came west- blamed for everything that can and does go wrong on these
grasslands. So in the mid- 1800s, when stockmen released up to 40 million cattle on the plains, where
horses had lived for centuries without destroying the grazing, at most two million mustangs were held
responsible for the suddenly depleted range” (Fuller).
Indeed, not only do the animals suffer from lack of grazing space, but so does their land. “Population
levels and grazing patterns of wild free-roaming horses limit management options, potentially leading to
rangeland and riparian degradation” (Kaweck). Not only are the horses running out of space to live on,
but the remaining land that they do have is being destroyed by too many animals trying to live off limited
resources. As a result, the wild herds, in search of food and space, wander into the towns and cities
around them and interfere with the lives of the people living there, and that is when the horses get hurt.
Horses are killed trying to cross the roads that cut through the territory they are used to owning, and some
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herds are hunted by individuals who refuse to share their land with them. These people either make quick
ends of the horses with guns or they herd them up, cram them into trucks and sell them to meat factories.
Their opinion is that there is no room for free roaming horses in today’s world. To some extent, they are
correct; there is literally no more room for the horses in the wild, because in today’s USA very few places
exist that are not inhabited by people, and ‘wild places’ are mainly nature reserves. However, the way this
problem should be dealt with is not by brutally ending the wild horses’ lives. People are responsible for
bringing the horses to this country and allowing them to multiply in the wild, and it is cruel that people
should also be the reason for their destruction.
Some horses are fortunate. There are organizations, mainly the Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
that try to protect the horses.
“Management has typically been achieved by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) by rounding up
each herd about every 4 years and removing selected animals from the range to attain herd-specific
population goals known as appropriate management levels (AMLs). Under 2003 BLM policies and
guidelines, young horses (age 0-5 yr), which have a higher probability of being adopted, are removed first
to achieve the AML. If necessary, older horses (≥10 yr) compose a second tier of removals, followed by
horses aged 6-9 (tier 3). All young horses and most middle-aged horses that have been removed enter a
pool from which private adoptions are encouraged. All other horses removed to achieve population goals
are maintained in long-term holding facilities for the remainder of their natural lives” (Bartholomew).
Adoption is the main way that the wild horses are saved, and for the horses considered unfit for adoption
(old or problematic horses), there are some ranches, such as Drummond Ranch in Oklahoma, that work
with the BLM and take in herds of wild horses to let them live the remainder of their lives roaming in
their pastureland. This system, though helpful, is not infallible. There are so many horses and not enough
homes for them, and sometimes the animals’ welfare is not the BLM’s main concern.
“In 1971, Congress passed a law that outlawed the killing or mistreatment of wild horses and their
cousin, the burro, or donkey... Today, there is concern that many wild horses and burros are again at risk.
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In December, the U.S. Congress passed an amendment to the 1971 law that had protected them. Now,
wild horses and burros that are older than 10 or have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption three times,
can be sold instead of adopted” (Smith).
Sometimes the BLM will sell horses to any available buyer because their facilities can become so
overfilled that they will find any way they can to get rid of horses no one wants to adopt. This means that
whole herds can be sold to companies who make them into horsemeat (Born of dreams, Smith, Maile).
The only way to rescue these horses is if people take pity on them and find a way to give them places to
live in peace. If more people would understand and decide to give the horses a chance to live by taking
the time to find a way to get them safe homes, wild horses, as a whole, might have a better chance of
survival. The problem is that not everyone knows or cares about the problem (Born of dreams).
Most people might, when they think of wild horses, picture a herd of huge horses galloping into a fiery
sunset with hooves thundering, manes and tails flying, and their neighs ringing wildly through the air, free
and wild and dangerous. Since movies and books tend to romanticize the subject of wild horses, this
fantastic image is amplified, and wild horses are generally thought of as beautiful yet crazy and
dangerous, but what people don’t realize is that a ‘wild horse’ could be any horse. They are just horses
that haven’t been raised to know human domestication, and many can be trained and grow used to and
even affectionate of human masters in a surprisingly short amount of time. Facilities that hold them for
adoption often have programs that give the horses basic training in a short period of time to prepare them
for adoption. “After a horse is entered in the program, he'll get three to four months of training before he's
released for adoption. "By that time, they're able to lope circles, they've been on two to three trail rides,
you can take a slicker on and off, and open gates," said Guy McEnulty” (Moors). The horses can become
adapted to domestication very quickly and are more like the trained horses that can be seen in barns and
pastures than many people realize.
“But (the wild horses) looked peaceful, not like the frantic herd of mustangs on a sage-soaked ridgetop
portrayed as wild horses in the movies. Still, I pictured them running free across the high mesa, manes
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flaring, nostrils smoking, their rich colors showing in the canted sunlight, trampling down the plants and
wildflowers, the ground resounding under their beating hooves” (Jenz).
Ever since horses became an important part of life in the USA, wild horses have been seen as a symbol
of beauty and freedom. What many don’t know that wild horses are in danger of being overwhelmed by
today’s industrial society, and if they are going to survive, they need people to know and care about them
enough to help them. These horses are a part of our country, and it is cruel to let them die from lack of
space and food or being killed by individuals who are against them. If the wild horses are going to live,
they need people to open their arms to them and give them homes and places of safety to live where they
cannot get in the way of the towns and industries that keep on growing to take over the land where they
once roamed.
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Works Cited
Bartholow, J. (2007). Economic benefit of fertility control in wild horse populations. Journal of Wildlife
Management, 71(8), 2811-2819. Retrieved from
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/234212436?acc
ountid=10163
Born of dreams: Saving wild horses and burros. (1997, Nov). The Animals' Agenda, 17, 29-31. Retrieved
from
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/215885129?acc
ountid=10163
“Chincoteague Ponies.” Chincoteague Ponies, www.chincoteague.com/ponies.html.
Fuller, A. (2009, 02). MUSTANGS. National Geographic, 215, 100-102,104-108,110-117. Retrieved
from
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/200962900?acc
ountid=10163
Jenz, T. (2001). Last of the wild horses. Michigan Quarterly Review, 40(1), 61-70. Retrieved from
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/232319468?acc
ountid=10163
Kaweck, M. M., Severson, J. P., & Launchbaugh, K. L. (2018, 04). Impacts of wild horses, cattle, and
wildlife on riparian areas in idaho. Rangelands, 40, 45-52.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2018.03.001 Retrieved from
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2126861723?ac
countid=10163
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Maile, B. (2011). The wild ones. River Teeth, 13(1), 137-155,158. Retrieved from
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/914724719?acc
ountid=10163
Moors, D. (2006, 02). The mustang difference. Horse & Rider, 45, 64-71. Retrieved from
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/224953458?acc
ountid=10163
Smith, S. (2005, Feb 28). Running...wild. Scholastic News, 73, 4-5. Retrieved from
https://login.proxy039.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/212786584?acc
ountid=10163
