Me and my partner were doing Boundary Peak (NV) earlier this summer and we came across a group of what we believed wild horses in the Boundary Peak Wilderness. It was at the upper end of the meadow you hike through at the beginnig of the Trail Canyon Route. It was group of 6 or 7 horses with one stallion, a foal and another pregnant horse. Unfortunately, my pictures came out blurry so I can't post them here but I was wondering if anybody knew anything about wild horses in that area.

I've been to that area three times, and saw wild horses on two of those occasions. Beautiful horses.

I saw them a few years back too. The locals told me that wild horses are common to that area of Nevada.

Beautiful animals indeed! I am still mad my pictures did not come out nice. Maybe it is time to switch to a digital camera after all. It is still very cool to have seen them.

Was talking to a BLM worker near lone pine this weekend and he mentioned seeing over fifty at a time east of mono somewhere.

While the horses are beautiful, it's good to remember they are not a native species, and they compete with elk, antelope, deer and even bighorns. Since they are not hunted, but are often the subject of relief efforts, they have something of an unfair advantage over native species. (No, I don't hunt.)

I've seen a lot of beautiful horses out here, but most seem a bit close to starving. There is little question that the native elk herds in the Spring Mountains have suffered.

and on another trip:



They are really beautiful and not too scared.

Geez, I did not know that it was such an issue.

mstender wrote:Geez, I did not know that it was such an issue.

To those of us who live and work on the land, the horses do little more than destroy a lot of the high elevation environments at great cost to the taxpayer, and at the expense of native game.

To the detached populace, including the voices most hearkened to by the BLM, they have more "rights" than humans.

The horses are most certainly not held to the same standard as other invasive species.

"bbbbbbbut they are sooooo beautiful!!!! *gush*"

See em all the time around my neck of the woods... Glass Mountain has it's share.

truchas wrote:Don't know if this is true or not because it lacks a citation, but this is what Wikipedia says:

"However, Ancient DNA studies have shown that the wild ancestors (Equus ferus ferus) of all modern domestic horses originated on the North American continent."

If you feel inclined, this website is dedicated to the preservation of these animals.

Horses did originate on the North American continent, but were essentially extinct by ~10000 years before present. In fact, there were also elephants on the NA continent till perhaps 5000 years ago.

Haha - talk about reaching.....anything in there about Cheatgrass DNA? No.

The really funny part is - these animals are nowhere near needing "assistance" or "preservation". They breed faster than the BLM can contrive to get rid of them without howls of anguish. Think of the feral horse as a really, really large rodent.

Good restraint, truchas!

I have to agree with a lot of ScottyS' comments... I just try a lighter touch.

truchas wrote:

ScottyS wrote:Haha - talk about reaching.....anything in there about Cheatgrass DNA? No.

The really funny part is - these animals are nowhere near needing "assistance" or "preservation". They breed faster than the BLM can contrive to get rid of them without howls of anguish. Think of the feral horse as a really, really large rodent.

Why do you hate horse copulation?

Heh, I'd encourage it if they'd let us eat 'em. Horse meat is good.

and they're rounding them up:


http://www.capitalpress.com/content/AP-NV-horse-roundup-122909

Not Boundary, but Nevada.