Mustangs in California

​Wild horses are being slaughtered as I write this, for food, for rodeo use, for personal use, for many reasons, most not in favor of the wild horse.  Over 40 years ago I sat at a rodeo and watched as mustangs were let out of the holding pen with a rider and the mustang, scared for its very life, jumped and twisted to get rid of the thing on its back.  The crowd thought it was great fun to watch as this poor animal fought for its life.  One of the mustangs actually broke its ankle doing this, it was put in a holding pen and most likely shot when the crowd left.  I viewed it in the holding pen.  That was the last rodeo I ever went to, it was brutal for me to watch.  These animals are a thing of beauty and grace, they form family units and lifelong friends in their herd, and we treat them with cruelty and brutality. This is still going on today all over the world. 
 
The herd I photographed is probably the White Mountain herd (it’s difficult to discern from the map and it does say the White Mountain Herd is east of Benton and the horses I photographed were west of Benton) and is a part of the White Mountain Wild Horse Territory.  There is another nearby herd called the Montgomery Pass Wild Horse Territory herd but that seems to be on the west side of Hwy. 395 and near Mono Lake.  The White Mountain herd has been there, documented, since the 1870s.  The origin of the herd is unknown but could be from free-roaming ranch horses.  The herd is managed by the U.S. Forest Service and maybe in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management.  Herds in the U.S. are managed by the U.S. Forest Service but they may coordinate with other organizations since herds are widespread in some cases. The U.S. Forest Service lists 34 herds, in California, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah.  Most of the herds are in Nevada.  
 
The horses I photographed were all healthy and fat and seemed to be thriving.  I do know that there was approval to remove some mustangs from the Montgomery Pass Wild Horse Territory this year from the area around Mono Lake, these horses could have been part of the original White Mountain Herd at some point but had strayed off to form their own small groups in other locations.  The notice on this roundup included the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and was conducted this year.  The management organizations determine what number of horses can be maintained in a specific area and then set the herd limits at that number, rounding up the rest over time to who knows what fate.