(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - [Jess] As cattle ranchers, horses mean something to us that they'll never mean to anybody else.

These animals represent a deep connection with who we are as a person.

They represent who we are as agriculturalists, and people that are out west still living this life, working with their hands, moving cattle like they did when they first came across US.

(gentle music) We're here on the Wind River Wild Horse Sanctuary.

Our goal is mainly to advocate for wild horses.

And educate people on the issues surrounding them, and then the kind of things that they can do to learn more and help out.

On the surface, we are a public off-range pasture.

So we have a contract with the Bureau of Land Management, where we take care of these guys throughout the year.

And with that, we like to utilize it as an opportunity to educate people on what the issues are.

(pleasant music) (horses galloping) So when we talk about wild horses, mustangs, feral horses, free-roaming horses, it's all different nomenclature to represent the same thing.

Horses that are born out in the wild and is surviving out there off of the resources, just like everything else is.

To us, it doesn't really matter what we call 'em, we just wanna make sure that we're all on the same page in terms of moving forward and allowing ourselves to find solutions to the issues that are surrounding them.

Wild horses are kind of looked at as the mutts of the horse world.

So they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colors.

These guys can exist in the deserts of Nevada with very little feed, very little water.

Or they can come to Wyoming, and they can grow really thick coat and exist in the negative 30 degree snowstorms.

So what makes them so cool is also what is causing them to be a little bit of a detriment to the environment, is they're so adaptable.

They're just able to kind of thrive in any environment they're thrust into.

We keep 'em as wild as we can.

So we don't train these horses, we don't put 'em in the barns.

When it gets really cold, we don't put blankets on 'em.

They just exist out here as natural as we can.

(pleasant music) - The Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971 was the act that was passed to manage the wild horses and burros on the public lands.

That set up our guidelines of how we would manage these animals.

Managing wild horses on the range is a emotional and controversial subject.

Wild horses reproduce at a rate of 20% every year.

And with that, they can double their population number in four years.

You know, they compete out there with other users, with wildlife, domestic livestock, and the recreation uses.

So keeping them at their appropriate management level is the best for the animals and for the range, to keep both the animals healthy and the range healthy.

- Everything else out there is managed.

Typically it's managed by natural predators, and then hunting.

Neither one of those factors come into play when we talk about wild horses, because we don't see those actively happening on a large scale.

As a result, the Bureau of Land Management comes in, manages the population in a couple different ways.

Typically it's through capture and then adopting them out, or coming into facilities like ours.

And now, they're also using hormone treatment to kind of curb that population growth.

Our goal is not to take every wild horse away from the wild.

Our goal is just to manage that population to make sure there's enough room for everybody.

(gentle music) - Certainly, economically, agriculture's a big, important part of Wyoming and part of where I grew up.

And how I had made my living as a younger man, and also as a veterinarian.

So being a rancher, we would like to utilize the public range, and we'd like to go out there and graze that and certainly return.

But we need to leave it in such a condition that when we come back, it's sustainable and can be reused.

(gentle music) - In Wyoming, we have two wild horse public off-range pastures that we have under contract.

And those facilities receive the horses from our holding facilities, and they give them a place to live out their rest of their life.

- Here on the sanctuary, we've got two types of horses.

We've got long-term horses that are no longer available for adoption, and that's these guys.

They're gonna spend the rest of their life here on the wild horse sanctuary.

Our short-term horses are also known as our adoptable horses.

So they're ones that the BLM sends into us.

They've already been pre-processed by them, so they have their identification numbers, they have their vaccine protocols.

And they have all their paperwork kind of done in terms of being able to move and being able to find a home.

Typically those horses are anywhere from a year old to about six years of age.

Just because people like to have younger horses, they get more time with them.

They're a little bit more malleable.

And there's so many young horses that need homes, that there's plenty for people to have.

- Wind River Public Off-Range Pasture has been a really successful place for us to adopt and place animals through because of their connection to the local Lander area and Riverton area, and the reservation.

- Here in Wyoming, we have the reservation.

So we adopt out to a lot of young Native Americans, a lot of Native American farmers and ranchers that want a workhorse, something that they can put into part of their working string.

And then have a connection with them as well.

We adopt out to some outfitters that will then utilize them in their packing strings as they go into the mountains.

We also adopt out to people that just kind of want to have, what I'd call, a pasture pet.

As long as you have the space and the requirements are met, you can come and get one.

And as long as you're approved, we arrange a pickup date, make sure all the paperwork is followed up.

And then you take your horse home.

If you're able to train a horse and do it yourself, or find the means to do it, a wild horse is a great option.

They can do whatever a domestic horse can do.

they can do whatever a registered horse can do, as long as you take the time you're willing to train 'em and do your part as an owner.

- You know, the overall, when you get that animal home, the experience you're gonna have is amazing.

(gentle music) - So my family raises cattle.

We're kind of cattle ranchers by trade.

And through that, we're then kind of bridging the gap with the wild horse controversy, and being part of that solution.

Oftentimes people get confused of, "Oh, you're cattle ranchers and you run a wild horse sanctuary."

"Aren't those two things that are generally opposing of each other?"

And it's true, a lot of times that narrative is pushed that cattle ranchers hate wild horses, wild horse advocates hate cattle ranchers.

We think that we should work together.

Everybody here is team horse.

So cattle ranchers use horses every day.

So using the cattle rancher as kind of a scapegoat, it's kind of a false narrative.

They wanna manage, so we can utilize those resources too.

But they love the horse, and they want the horse to be a part of the American history that so deeply is connected to them.

- Being involved with the BLM came more as a contract as a contract became available, and we wanted to work and try and be part of the solution, instead of always being the adversary.

And certainly enjoy the horses, although we cannot leave them in this present situation and let 'em destroy the range or themselves.

And the other things that need to happen out there.

- I think there's a lot to be said for the love and passion that we have for agriculture.

And being able to cultivate that in the FFA was something that I didn't quite understand while I was doing it, but I do now.

At the end of the day, it's a love for working with your hands, working with the land, and animals that feeds the soul.

I started at the FFA as a freshman in high school in Lander, Wyoming.

And kind of progressed from there all the way to be Wyoming FFA State Officer, and then I was a national FFA officer candidate for two years for the state of Wyoming.

I'm the youngest in my family.

My older siblings were all members, my father was a member and past state officer.

- The FFA was very good to me.

We was fortunate to have, you know, someone that was very active and insisted that we be involved.

The biggest thing I think that really did it for me was being able to come to a reasoning.

Why do other people think the way they do?

There's some adversarial things against some of the things we're doing in agriculture.

But you learn to do your research and find out what other people are thinking and why, and be prepared.

(pleasant music) - You know, the Wind River Sanctuary has moved a lot of horses in the last couple years through adoptions.

And they've been very helpful with that.

It's a great place to go take a tour.

Their connection with the reservation and the kiosks that they have out there are very educational outreach.

They do great tours for the public to view the horses that have been removed and didn't find a home.

They have a great place for those horses to live out their life.

Even though they're a small percentage of the program, these public off-range pastures, they have an impact because they're tied to their local communities.

And they're unique.

(pleasant music) - So we're a small drop in the big bucket.

We've got 250 horses here at the wild horse sanctuary, and there's just a lot of work to be done.

And that's just kind of, part of our job is to advocate for that, bring more eyes, more friends.

More logical thoughts and solutions to the public, and to the BLM to allow us to kind of overcome this problem as we move forward with wild horses in the wild.

(pleasant music) (pleasant music continues)