Steens Mountain is home to a unique type of wild horse, the Kiger Mustang. We came across several of them on the other side of our loop drive from French Glen to the summit of the Mountain (previous post here).
Kiger wild horses possess many characteristics of the original Spanish Mustang, the horse that helped settle the American West. At one time, it was thought to be extinct on the range. Since the Kiger Mustangs are one of the best remaining examples of the Spanish Mustang, their preservation is extremely important.
The Steens Mountain herd roams over 127,000 acres of rugged, high desert country. Pinto, sorrel, bay, palomino, brown, black, red roan, and dun colors may be seen on the 159-304 horses who occupy this territory. They range in size from 14.2-16 hands high, 900-1,000 pounds and rely on a diet of native bunchgrasses within sagebrush and juniper cover. Perennial streams, natural ponds and springs are common water sources. (Information source: BLM website).
We watched these beautiful animals from the car so that they were not disturbed.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for wild horse herds throughout the United States (and for balancing their needs with other needs for the public lands). According to their website: "Our overall goal is for the range to achieve or maintain a thriving natural ecological balance. Heavy to severe wild horse grazing jeopardizes the health of rangelands, wetlands, wildlife habitats, and ultimately animal health and condition."
The BLM holds gathers of wild horses and one is planned for the South Steens in August of this year. According to the link above, they plan to remove 100 horses, which will be offered for sale. (There is more information about this on the link above.)
I read that the Kiger Mustangs bring the highest sale prices of any wild horses that the BLM rounds up and sells. As with much of what the BLM does, there is some controversy about these 'gathers'. The BLM makes some of these public lands available to ranchers for cattle grazing. Quite a few people believe that if cattle grazing were on public lands were discontinued, there would be enough range land and water to supply the horses without resorting to thinning the herds.
What I know for sure is that these are beautiful animals and we were very happy to end our sightseeing day by seeing so many of them in their natural surroundings.
LINKING THIS POST to SATURDAY CRITTERS (thank you Eileen); to SEASONS (thanks to Jesh); and to NATURE NOTES (thank you Michelle)
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