
Starting today, the above photo will be in a gallery for the month of August as part of the Cloud Foundation Art Exhibit & Fundraiser. It is not my most popular photo, but I’m really proud of it and glad that it made it into the gallery. It’s my kind of photo, you see – plain bay mares in the Great Divide Basin casually strolling towards water on a serene Sunday morning.
Yet all I can think about is that while that print is hanging around on a wall, those mares may finds themselves galloping across that range in terror, chased down with a helicopter, taken away from their home, and separated from their family band forever.

Adobe Town Roundup, November 2013
A couple weeks ago the BLM released their roundup schedule for the rest of the year. There was no small amount of hullabaloo over three specific herds – Adobe Town, Salt Wells, and Divide Basin. For while the rest of the schedule was fairly tame (for BLM standards) and primarily consisted of smaller removals of horses that were outside the boundaries of the established herd management area, the planned removal numbers for the Red Desert herds were downright shocking. The numbers on the chart read that the BLM was going to zero out Divide Basin and Salt Wells, and take over 1/3 of the remaining Adobe Town horses.
The plan looks a little something like this:
WY |
BLM |
Adobe Town HMA |
w/ Salt Wells |
8/20/14 |
8/24/14 |
177 |
177 |
Horses |
WY State Office |
WY |
BLM |
Salt Wells HMA |
w/ Adobe Town |
8/24/14 |
8/28/14 |
228 |
228 |
Horses |
WY State Office |
WY |
BLM |
Divide Basin HMA |
|
8/28/14 |
9/10/14 |
541 |
541 |
Horses |
WY State Office |
Reading these numbers, it felt a little like the world was crashing down, like I was stuck on a calving glacier just waiting for my feet to fall out from under me so I could hit the icy punch of the water while the ice crashed down on my head.
And yet, how much worse is it for the horses? They don’t even see it coming. The horses are busy living their lives as best they know how. They will be busy storing up fat for winter and then suddenly BAM! Running for their lives, permanently separated from their families, spending the rest of their lives in government holding. If they are lucky the horses removed won’t be euthanized or slaughtered by an organization that was ordered to protect them, but who now is looking for easy escapes for a problem that they themselves created. It’s sick.
If you are me, the only way to combat that sickness is to dive into the numbers and type out a few feelings. Let’s break all of this information down in a comprehensive way. This roundup is a little more confusing than others, after all, which is exactly why it must be stopped and stopped quickly.

Divide Basin Bachelor
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