Protecting Montana’s Wild Horses, Forever

By Brian D’Ambrosio

Living remnants of the untamed past, wild horses are the bloodline of our American strength of character. Concentrated primarily on vast expanses in the American West, these symbols of free spirit even now rove and forage in large numbers. Most of the U.S.’s estimated 100,000 wild horses, however, have been pushed from their natural habitat and only survive on public lands or in facilities known as holding pens. When the teams get too sizeable on roaming or free-range ground, they are gathered and relocated to four main pens, all located in the West or Pacific Northwest.

These long-term holding facilities were constructed with the intent of managing and controlling the amount of wild horses on public lands. But these facilities have since grown intensely overcrowded, often similar feedlots, and from there many of the animals are shipped to their deaths in foreign slaughterhouses each year. Solutions have been evasive, and wild horses are caught in the middle of an emotional, divisive fight with long-term ecological consequences.

Jim Jones, founder of Montana’s Wild Horse Sanctuary and Guest Ranch, plans to play his own small part in the resettlement of approximately 200 head of wild horses from these holding pens. His plan is straightforward: relocate a number of wild horses and care for them on a 16,000-acre eco-sanctuary in Big Sky Country.

“I have had a longtime passion for horses and it dates as far back as I can remember,” said Jim Jones, of Helena, MT. “Growing up, I had this great animal collection of toy Breyer horses and growing up in New Berlin, Wisconsin, I was lucky to have access to horses. Even now I’ll just sit with my horse when I’m stressed and when the world is getting to me.”

But it was only after a vacation and trip to Montana in the late 1970s that Jones came to fully appreciate the freedom, the intelligence, and the grittiness of the mustang. Within a few years of that initial visit, Jones attached himself to the horse industry, attending clinics, studying the animals at clinics, forming friendships with like-minded folks, and eventually working with undomesticated mustangs in the Pryor Mountains, south of Billings.

“I fell in love with wild horses. I became more and more educated as to what kind of an animal a wild horse is. They have to be naturally hearty, sturdy, and extremely smart, because they have to protect themselves.”

It didn’t take long for Jones to conclude that the U.S. has a love-hate relationship with its wild horses or that too many misconceptions abound related to their prowess and plight.

“These are not scrub animals,” said Jones. “These are intelligent, hearty, exceptional animals that can do a lot of things. There is a lot of bad publicity surrounding them. The false information out there tells us that they can’t be used for anything, which is the complete opposite of what is true.”

Jones said that much of the problem stems from how the government deals with them. Most of the U.S.’s wild horses (and burros) are present, according to National Geographic magazine, “on 179 different BLM Herd Management Areas (HMA), covering 31.6 million acres in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming.” Faced with the issue of overpopulation, the government has considered reenacting a decades-old policy of reducing the amount of these animals, placing the lives of thousands of wild horses at risk.

“The Bureau of Land Management rounds them up in these huge areas and route them along by building these chutes, and using helicopters to flesh them out. This is extremely stressful for the horses. I understand why they do it this way, the time frame and the expenses involved. I’m sympathetic to the BLM. But there are alternatives.”

These pens by nature strip the animals of their first instincts. Locked in an opinionated political battle, some people want to see them contained, while others such as Jones view the pens as antithetical to all that’s natural and wild.

“The wild horses are feeding off the public land that the ranchers have their cattle on,” explained Jones. “But the wild horses belong there and have a right to be there. There are two sides and then the extreme. Once they are placed in the pens, they are supposed to live there for the rest of their lives. These pens were designed to hold 20,000 horses, but reports say that a total of 50,000 are being held in each pen. Each pen looks like a feedlot, and the horses basically look like they’re in prison. You can see it in their eyes, they’ve given up.”

Some of the land where wild horses are amassed doesn’t even meet their ecological requirements, explained Jones. “Most wild horses live in areas that are not high-producing when it comes to feed, mostly living on semiarid and rocky terrain. There is not a lot of feed or sage to it. You’ve got 100,000 horses in the country that are free roaming, and that’s hard on the land.”

There are three things that wild horses need: food, water, and obviously breathing space. Jones said that the 16,000 acres of exceptionally lush land along Highway 141, north of Avon, fit such requirements. Careful considerations must be taken to ensure that the wild horses do not overgraze the land and are naturally able to find sustenance.

“When I was looking for property to use as a sanctuary, I visualized the horses out there. The whole valley is beautiful, green, and fantastic. I was there in the winter and the grass was still high and there was a lot of natural feed. The land has to be healthy, and the horses must be able thrive year-round and be able to survive a winter. I don’t want to put a lot of stress on the land or the animals.”

The Montana Wild Horse Sanctuary and Guest Ranch will include an educational visitor’s center, a guest ranch, and tours of the animals. Jones plans to purchase these mustangs directly from the federal Bureau of Land Management; the agency rounds up thousands of wild horses for adoption or sale, but scores of them end up in long-term holding facilities. If all unfolds closely in sync with his vision, the horses will be relocated to the sanctuary (which is actively seeking funding) about mid-June.

Jones describes the scenario brilliantly: visitors witness the beauty of wild mustangs up close and in person and fully experience one of the utmost American icons. In Jones’s estimate, it’s the very least that he — and that we as a society — can do to preserve one of the strong bonds in the animal kingdom. Indeed, Jones said that anything less would be a cruel betrayal of the animals that helped us construct the character of our country and persistently serve humanity.

“Horses are a prey animal and humans are considered a predator. You will not find too many predator-prey relationships, and horses become our partner for life. Horses love their human partner, and they’d die to protect them. It’s unconditional love between the two.”

The average horse has a surprisingly lengthy lifespan, somewhere between 30 and 35 years of age. If the Montana Wild Horse Sanctuary and Guest Ranch can provide refuge for 200 wild horses that once faced uncertain and, on occasion, ominous futures, that’s a great deal of life preserved. “At the sanctuary, we can turn again and give them a life again. They would have a place for the rest of their lives. We can let them be horses again.”