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Training, Color Key To Increasing Mustang Adoptions

The number of wild horses on Western rangelands continues to exceed the stocking rate the land can sustain, says the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Adoption remains a key strategy to regulating wild horse populations.

Dr. Jill Stowe, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Kentucky, created two studies to determine how much demand is present for Mustangs among people who choose to adopt horses. She learned that there is more demand for horses that have had some training, and more demand for pinto and dilute-colored horses.

For the first study, Stowe partnered with Dr. Kathryn Bender, professor of environmental economics at the Allegheny College Center for Business and Economics. The duo sought to determine what equine characteristics were most desired by adopters and what adopters were willing to pay for a wild horse. They used data from BLM online auctions held between November 2012 and November 2014.

They found that older horses, those that were born in captivity, and those which had spent a longer time in captivity were less likely to be adopted. They also found that horses with more uncommon coat patterns were more likely to be adopted than horses with a common coat color like bay or chestnut. Adopters were also willing to pay about 40 percent more for the horse if it was a pinto, and 20 percent more for a diluted coat than a solid-colored coat.

Additionally, people purchasing horses that had some halter training or under-saddle training were willing to pay 55 percent more for the horse. These findings could assist the BLM in determining which horses it selects for adoption and training.

Stowe completed the second study with undergraduate student Hannah White. The team created a study based on the assumption that current horse owners are the most-likely group of people to adopt a wild horse. They disseminated the survey via social media and received 2,250 usable responses. Of those, fewer than 10 percent had never adopted a wild horse and wouldn't consider adopting one in the future.

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They found that previous adopters were willing to pay more for a horse than those who had not adopted before. People who owned five or fewer horses were also willing to pay more to adopt a Mustang. The average response indicated they were willing to pay $125 for an “ideal” untrained horse, just under $300 for a halter-trained horse, and $415 for a horse that had been started under saddle.

Both studies indicated that training, especially under-saddle training, is key to driving Mustang adoptions.

Australian Wildlife Officials Propose Culling 10,000 Wild Horses; Some Scientists Prefer Total Elimination

Australian wildlife officials have proposed a plan to rehome or kill 10,000 wild horses in an attempt to limit their numbers. An aerial survey conducted in 2019 located 25,000 wild horses; many of these live in the alpine region of the country, which is home to many species of endangered flora and fauna.

The Kosciuszko National Park is under particular threat from the horses, which are considered to be an invasive species that cause extensive ecosystem damage. There are currently 14,000 wild horses in the park, and a plan drafted by National Parks and Wildlife Service in New South Wales suggests thinning the population to a more-sustainable 3,000 horses.

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Scientists from the Australian Academy of Science argue that this plan doesn't go far enough to protect the park from equine impact. They suggest that the number of wild horses be more significantly reduced, if not eliminated entirely.

Though wildlife officials prefer to rehome the wild horses, only 1,000 horses have been rehomed since 2002. The proposed plan will allow trained experts to shoot the horses from helicopters to thin the population.

New Mexico State University To Study New Method Of Mustang Population Control

Throughout the United States, wild horses still roam through the wide-open spaces. While they may be wild and free, they come at a cost to taxpayers, as much as $1 billion from 2019 to 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

That's an opportunity for Wildlife Protection Management, Inc., or WPM, to be a leader in helping the government with humane ways to control population growth and keep the horses, and other wildlife, healthy. Thanks to a $256,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, WPM will work with New Mexico State University faculty to manage the data they've been collecting.

Roch Hart, WPM's CEO, used NMSU's entrepreneur and business incubator Arrowhead Center services to work through the NSF grant application process. WPM had already grown by using several of the Arrowhead Center programs.

Hart first attended the six-week AgSprint, a cohort-based business accelerator that deepened his understanding of the market and future customer needs. He then participated in Arrowhead's Technology Incubator to build the WPM's first vaccine-delivery prototype. The prototype, attached to an alfalfa feeding station, remotely implants radio-frequency identification, or RFID, chips, vaccines and contraceptives into horses.

“We have been highly successful with the RFID. Better than we had hoped,” Hart said. “If we could cut costs by not having to implant every horse with a chip, then we could cut costs considerably. For that, facial recognition technology was the next avenue to explore. New Mexico Small Business Assistance helped us go in that direction first, which helped us to move forward with the NSF grant.”

Hart also used Arrowhead Center's NM Federal and State Technology, or NM FAST, partnership program that provides help to businesses seeking federal funding through the Small Business Innovation Research grants.

“Hart has seen a lot of growth through using the range of programs at Arrowhead Center,” said Del Mackey, senior economic development officer at Arrowhead Center. “The AgSprint program helped him define the need for the tech. NMSBA helped him take it in a new direction, and the NSF SBIR Phase I grant will help him validate the feasibility of using facial recognition alongside the RFID for the identification of not only wild horses but also feral pigs and deer.”

“We do hope to take this technology for horses to other species and scale that technology up. This grant certainly helps that traction,” Hart said.

More traction for WPM will come through the collaboration with NMSU's College of Engineering Associate Professor Laura Boucheron. With the support of a graduate student, Boucheron will spend a year dissecting WPM's data and creating an effective method of animal recognition through videos and images.

“While they have RFID chips, the horses might have recognizable patterns on their faces or flanks or even scars that we can use to build an algorithm that detects individual animals,” Boucheron said. “The ultimate goal is to recognize individual animals based on videos or images and match them up with their RFID identification.”

Boucheron said the collaboration with WPM through Arrowhead Center allows her research to see different applications for her work and help with the inception of entrepreneurial activities.

“What we do can have a direct impact on a problem with the horse population,” she said. “It's something that has quite the real-world applicability.”

Read more at New Mexico State University.

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BLM Announces First Wild Horse Adoption Of 2021

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Rock Springs Wild Horse Holding Facility will kick off BLM Wyoming's 2021 adoption schedule with an event Feb.19 and 20, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The BLM will offer approximately 80 wild horses during this adoption, including mares and geldings, in age from yearlings to five-years old. The horses were gathered in 2020 from the Lost Creek, Green Mountain, Crooks Mountain, Antelope Hills and Stewart Creek herd management areas.

The offered horses will be available for adoption on a first-come, first-served basis. Any person wishing to adopt a wild horse must fill out an application, be able to conform to the BLM's minimum adoption requirements and have their application approved by the BLM. BLM specialists will be on hand to answer questions and assist with the adoption applications.

“Wyoming wild horses make great companions and trail animals,” said Supervisory Wild Horse Specialist Jake Benson. “We want to see them all adopted into good homes.”

To reach the holding facility from I-80, take Elk Street Exit 104 and go north one mile, then turn right onto Lionkol Road and follow for a half-mile.

In response to COVID-19, visitors will be asked to follow CDC guidelines including keeping six feet apart while standing in line during the application process, wearing masks and respecting each other's space.

To learn more about BLM Wyoming's wild horse adoption program or the Rock Springs Wild Horse Holding Facility, click here.

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