There's a couple hundred 5 miles from my house on the salt river, they have their own facebook page and even a calendar. Horsetards got the governor to make them protected. They destroy the environment and are out of control.
Those folks don't know chit about horses and why they are there now. They claim they are descended from 400 years ago. They weren't there in the 60s and 70s, I fished/hunted/frog gigged/tramped around that whole area growing up... no horses unless it was the rancher's horses with the cattle. My brother managed the restaurant up at the lake in the late 70s, FS had a roundup of wild domestics and caught 2 burros.
First horses I saw there was about 2008. People were taking them out and abandoning them as they couldn't sell them or give them away. They couldn't feed them because of the economy bust or their places were going to foreclosure. Dad boards a few horses for friends and the place next door is a commercial operation for boarding with arena and all. We were constantly offered free horses.
Now every time I drive that road I see large herds all over. Their fan club will be parked, they wear orange safely vests, look ridicules, ooohing and uhhhing.
There's over a thousand up in the mountains where I hunt, both state and reservation, also started about 15 years ago, 2 herds in my camp a month ago.
They are destroying the areas and pushing wildlife out.
Kent
it is my understanding that domesticated horses when turned loose in the wilds, i.e. desert, don't know how to survive, and will die in some cases a slow death. that area up near payson, people are finding dead horses that have been shot.
