Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wild Mustang pics from central Idaho

Currently the guberment spends $1 billion per year to house 40,000 wild horses to keep them from overgrazing the range. There's no legal way to dispose of them.

KC

Thanks for sharing, beautiful country.

Dogfood.

Source?

The brutally cold winters tend to keep the population in check with the Challis herd. I've seen plenty of other wild horses, ranging from northern Nevada, to Jordan Valley Oregon. These high mountain horses seem to do well, with very little interference from the outside world, which is not the case with the horses out on the Great Basin.

BTW, Jordan Valley has long been known for it's rodeo, named the "Big Loop". The main event is the roping of wild mustangs. Contestants have to throw a 20' loop, when roping the mustangs.

It can get pretty sporty.

I actually met my now wife at the Big Loop. It used to be mostly a buckaroo rodeo, with guys from the ranches bringing all the tack and leather gear they made over the winter. Eventually it became more and more commercialized, but it is still a fun time.

The western culture is still very much alive and well in that remote part of the west.

Like KC said..."can't it's illegal"....years ago they held round up's in over populated areas and sold em to slaughter houses in Canada where they were processed for animal and human consumption but those days went the same way as common sense and the DoDo bird....

That's apparent....they dang sure don't look anything like NV's inbred jug heads.....which again "was caused by overpopulation due to mismanagement"...

Funny how these horses survived so long w/o .gov interference..

How much are tags for a NR?




Clark

Cool pix, as usual, Mackay.

I've noticed that quite a few of the "wild" horses in the Owyhees are very tame and have shoes. I suspect that the herd numbers went up more than usual after 4q 2008.

Around alfalfa fields, I suspect they may be dirt cheap.

I have no doubt that the same financial issues that caused folks to turn horses out in the late 1800s/early 1900s, may happen again in the near future, as the Republic slides into the abyss.

Great pix. Tks

that black one is a pretty fine looking piece of wild horseflesh. Id like to see the feet on it, might be a good endurance horse (not that I'm into that kind of thing, but grandpa was and he had a mustang or 2, along with his Arabs)

They look like they are within range of a 30/06.

Regarding the comment that some guys who complain about the
feral horses damaging the land than ride their quads all over the same land;
I've spent a lot of time in that area (mostly to the south out of Birch Creek). If you ride a quad off the trails, you will get it trouble. It never happened to me (we were careful to follow the rules), but I've seen people lined up getting tickets before and know guys who have gotten in trouble.

My daughter loves that white stallion, but he sure is a pain when there are mares in season.....

I bet that these would make some great horses for hunters, and pretty hardy breed stock.