My name is Ainsley, and I live on the Virginia Range in Nevada. Life in the wild isn’t always easy, but one thing has always kept me strong: my family and friends.
My daughter Tahula and our dear friend Genevieve are my constant companions. The three of us have stuck together through countless foaling seasons, fierce battles between stallions, and all the wild changes life throws our way.
Photo by Deb Sutherland
Frost. Nate. Turkish. Samwise. Granite.Stallions come and go, but our bond is unbreakable.
Our sisterhood gives me the courage to navigate life on the range every day. Our family is proof that love isn’t just about romance — it’s about loyalty, friendship, and standing by the ones who matter most.
This Galentine’s Day, will you join me in celebrating the bond of sisterhood?
Allow me to introduce myself — I’m Tandin, AWHC’s Utah Conservation Operations Manager. For the last nine months, I have spent most of my time living on public lands in my travel-trailer, tracking and documenting a remote herd of wild horses that needed our help in Utah’s Cedar Mountain Herd Management Area (HMA).
This is a very special population of wild horses that was subjected to a large helicopter roundup last year. They live in an area where water availability has been an issue and the horses are very wild, difficult to find amongst mountainous terrain, and unaccustomed to human presence.
Prior to the roundup, I had come to know many of the bands that make up this beautiful herd, and it was heartbreaking to watch so many of them lose their freedom. However, it fueled my commitment to work toward a better way to protect the horses who remained on the range. And so, when the capture operation was over, I returned to the field.
Each time I go out, I hike between 5-10 miles to locate horses to identify and enter into our database. So far, I have documented and identified approximately 500 individuals. (Post-roundup, about 390 wild horses remain in the HMA.)
I’ve documented 65 bands with an average of 5.98 in each. The largest band I’ve found has 13 members.
Bachelor stallions make up 16.3% of the population.
30.3% of the horses are Pintos, 15.5% are Buckskins, and 14.2% are Bays — making this one of the most colorful herds in the West.
I have also identified every water source in the HMA and have been working with stakeholders in the area to come up with solutions to ensure water continues to flow.
This job is very personal to me. It’s been an opportunity of a lifetime to get to know and spend time with these amazing horses — watch the bands tend to their young, the bachelors spar, and the lead mares tell everyone what to do.
All of AWHC efforts in the field — from assessing the condition of wild herds and their habitat, to documenting any violations during roundup and capture operations, to implementing humane fertility control programs — helps us further our work to end the traumatic roundup and warehousing of wild horses and burros in holding facilities.
This week there are four important Action Alert deadlines for comments on mass roundup plans targeting wild horses and burros in Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado and California!
So, please take a moment to weigh in for meaningful change for wild horses and burros by taking the actions below:
Burros are incredible animals and evolving science is documenting the important role they play in the desert ecosystem. But a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan for wild burros in the Lake Mead Complex outside Las Vegas would zero out wild burros from two of three habitat areas, and leave behind a minuscule number of burros in the third. For good measure, the BLM also wants to capture and remove every wild horse living in the area. Take action to oppose this by Friday.
The BLM is targeting the famed Sand Wash Basin wild horses in Colorado for mass roundup and removals. The HMA covers roughly 157,700 acres of public land and is currently home to an estimated 935 wild horses. The BLM’s proposed plan calls for the removal of 772 wild horses, leaving a mere 163 horses in this HMA!
The Sand Wash Advocate Team (SWAT) has worked tirelessly to implement a PZP program in this HMA, yet these horses are still targeted for mass removal. The BLM’s current plan calls for continued use of PZP, but would also allow for the use of unstudied IUDs as an alternative form of population control. Submit your comments by Saturday and oppose the BLM’s plan!
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) wants taxpayers to spend as much as $18 million to fund 6-8 years of wild horse helicopter roundups in the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory in the northeast corner of California. The USFS wants to reduce the wild horse population to a fraction of its current size in order to maximize commercial livestock grazing on public lands where the horses live.
Worse, even though they’re asking you to pay for it, the Forest Service doesn’t want your comments on the plan! However, as one of a handful of designated “stakeholders,” AWHC is committed to making your voice heard in this process. Sign our petition by Friday.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is again targeting the wild horses of the Wyoming Checkerboard for a massive helicopter roundup that will remove a shocking 3,500 wild horses — or 40% of the state’s wild horse population — from 3.5 million acres of habitat in the southern part of the state.
The plan calls for drastically reducing the population to just 1,550 wild horses roaming free. Under this proposal, the BLM plans to treat and release 290 mares with PZP and use unproven IUDs. The BLM is also considering an alternative plan that calls for the surgical sterilization of 100 mares, the castratation of 100 stallions, and would skew the sex ratio of the population to 60% stallions and 40% mares. Submit your comments by Friday to oppose the BLM’s plan!
It’s GO TIME AGAIN. 911 for baby supplies. We are already getting calls to be on stand by for the orphaned and new born foals.
As we never had a break all year, our baby supplies have dwindled and these are the lifesaving supplies we need. Thankfully Chilly Pepper has folks stepping up to help with the care of these orphaned babies, as well as pregnant mares, stallions and any other horses we can save from slaughter. CHILLY PEPPER is still incurring all expenses for our babies and horses.
OUR current emergency is being prepared for that phone call. These babies need IMMEDIATE care to have a chance at surviving in this harsh world.Many of these babies will come from Mares that have been shipped to slaughter. Others will be orphaned by deaths caused by vehicles and then there are the ones who are injured or too ill to survive alone.
Thankfully we have 3 other locations where folks will step up and help us do the actual care for these babies. TEAMWORK IS THE REASON FOR THE DREAM WORKING!
(The MOST BABIES we have gotten at once was (70 BABIES IN 2 DAYS). This was from ONE trapper in 2 days.) So we have to be ready at all locations.
These are the absolute basics we use with every neonatal foal. We need more panels, shavings, meds, and the list goes on. The above is the bare minimum to be prepared for the normal neonatal babies we can expect at the beginning of the year.
These are the life saving supplies that we HAVE TO HAVE to provide the best possible chance for these babies to survive.
We also need baby wipes, vaseline, Biosponge, vet wrap, gauze, scalpels, needles, syringes, baby blankets, gloves, and the list goes on. Saving these babies is not cheap, but it is the least we can do for them, especially the ones whose Mom’s have been shipped to slaughter.
PLEASE HELP US TODAY!
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KEEP HELPING US SAVE MORE LIVES, YOU CAN GO TO:
WIN (WILD HORSES IN NEED) is a 501c3 IRS EIN 55-0882407_
If there are ever funds left over from the cost of the rescue itself, the monies are used to feed, vet, care for and provide shelter and proper fencing for the animals once they are saved.
These precious little stallions need your help asap!!It is that time of year when folks start to “downsize”, as winter quickly approaches, and we know all know what happens to the unwanted.
These 2 teeny tinies need a safe place to land, and we are it. Both are pretty much unhandled and are little stud colts.
Please help us get them today!! We will have to pay bail, vetting, for health certs and transportation to get them home. Let’s make their holiday season happy and full of love.
The last rescue was successful, although we barely squeaked by.
Thankfully someone stepped up for the large pony and the Arabian. We were able to bail out the older TB mare, as well as help save 2 stallions. Thank you everyone who stepped up. We realize it is the beginning of the holiday seasons, and we so appreciate everyone who still is stepping up and saving lives. God bless you!!
If you want to donate directly to our vet, here is the information.
Zimmerman Veterinary 1 775-623-0981 and let them know it is for “Palomino – Chilly Pepper – Miracle Mustang”.
PLEASE LET’S “GIT ‘ER DONE” ONCE MORE and save these precious lives!!!
Below, the mare who’s life you saved and one of the stallions. PTL, the mare was adopted in WA and did not have to make the trip all the way to NV. Gorgeous little stud man is heading to an amazing home in MT!
Now let’s save the teeny tinies :)
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KEEP HELPING US SAVE MORE LIVES, YOU CAN GO TO:
WIN (WILD HORSES IN NEED) is a 501c3 IRS EIN 55-0882407_
If there are ever funds left over from the cost of the rescue itself, the monies are used to feed, vet, care for and provide shelter and proper fencing for the animals once they are saved.
Another 911, Received an emergency call for the horses shown above, a couple hours ago. We have until Friday to save them. There are two stallions and a yearling who all need to be gelded. Stallions have so much less of a chance to find homes, but we can “git ‘er done”, with Your help!(Sometimes it is a bummer being the ones who can “do stallions”, but these lives matter!)
All four need saved, and we need your help to have their Coggins drawn, get their Health Certs etc. and be able to transport them to safety.
As usual, we need immediate help to save these beautiful souls. The good news is that we can save them, and the great news is that 3 of them already have a safe place to land, once we rescue and vet them. The gelding needs some serious hoof care, and then we can work on placing him also.
But the timing is critical and it is urgent as there is no leniency on the deadline.
THANK YOU for saving Sinbad. (aka Hero) (Shown above left)
Great news!! He is on his new Mama. They are with our friends Bev Boshart and her group, and Mama and Baby are loving each other. Mama needs some serious groceries as well, and both are getting everything they need and the best care possible. We so appreciate Bev taking on this little one. This is the 2nd Mama and baby this year, that they have matched up with a little magic from the vet.
Another reason to celebrate. Remember poor Obsidian? Well, here he is today. He now has his permanent home, and he is thriving there. He still has serious emotional issues, but is improving every day. He is comfortable where he is living and starting to interact a bit more on his own. Physically he is thriving. Every day this beautiful boy is healing and enjoying his life, and it is all “THANKS TO YOU”!
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KEEP HELPING US SAVE MORE LIVES, YOU CAN GO TO:
WIN (WILD HORSES IN NEED) is a 501c3 IRS EIN 55-0882407_
If there are ever funds left over from the cost of the rescue itself, the monies are used to feed, vet, care for and provide shelter and proper fencing for the animals once they are saved.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering a plan to roundup and remove 600 wild horses from our public lands in the North Lander Complex in Wyoming. The agency is also proposing several controversial and dangerous alternatives for creating “limited-reproducing herds” that include vasectomizing and gelding stallions; adjusting sex ratios; surgically removing the ovaries of mares (“spaying”), segregating the horses into single-sex herds; and utilizing the controversial fertility control drug GonaCon in combination with one of the previously mentioned treatments. This plan, which once again reflects the BLM’s preferential treatment of privately-owned livestock, will devastate the wild horse population in the North Lander Complex.
The Senate and House Appropriations Committees have passed Fiscal Year 2019 Interior Appropriations legislation, which includes funding for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program. The Senate bill protects wild horses from mass killing, slaughter and sterilization, while the House version would authorize and funds mass sterilization of horses on the range. The full House and Senate must still vote on these bills, and then they must go to a conference committee, which will resolve differences and negotiate a final spending bill. This means that we must keep the pressure on throughout the summer and into the fall. Learn more by clicking below.
In February 2017, foals Trey and Divine were captured in a traumatic helicopter roundup in the Cedar Mountain HMA in Utah. AWHC staff members were on the ground filming, and documented Trey, a tiny colt, and his mother being relentlessly chased by the helicopter. They were ultimately separated. Their story could have ended there, but thanks to AWHC operations and legal consultant, Jenn Suarez, the story of these two little beauties has a happy ending. We could all use some good news right now, so please watch and share this heartwarming story!
Quick update!The ALABAMA 5 are the horses we picked up in Alabama, shown above. As is clear, they need a lot of special care. They will be coming to Chilly Pepper for some TLC, and I am so happy to report it will not be on our dime.
ONGOING NEWS…..
We appreciate everyone who has donated to help save the Mares & Foals and the Stallions and the 4 orphans. We are getting close to where we need to be for those kids. We will be picking up the orphans, mares and foals and stallions on Monday.
Again, most all of them will have places to go which will keep them off our long term books. For now they will be expensive, but only for a short time PTL!
HOWEVER, I received another call, THIS TIME from my primary contact in Yakima. Once again WE ARE IN EMERGENCY MODE. There will be more horses, and there could be A LOT MORE! to save when we are up there picking up the group we just started fundraising for.
What will happen is we will get called after they bring in the horses. I will have to stand in front of all the horses and decide WHICH LIVES WE SAVE. ALL THE OTHERS will SHIP STRAIGHT TO SLAUGHTER.
This situation is beyond tough. It is so far out of our control. The only thing we will be able to do is save as many orphans as we can, depending on if we can keep raising more funds. Then there will be weanlings, and it is pretty much guaranteed that there will be a bunch of very pregnant mares.
I wish I had the answer to this. All I know is that we will do every single thing we can to save as many lives as we can, but it will simply come down to how much money we can raise to save these lives. It is not just purchasing them, it is vetting and feeding and transporting and delivering them to their new homes.
I know we cannot save them all, but we need a miracle, and we will save as many as we can.
It’s not fair that I have to look in the eyes of these beautiful horses and basically say “you have to die, because I do not have enough money to save you.” Yet God is putting this in front of us, so we simply will do our best. Please pray hard for this situation and donate if you can.
I WILL POST PHOTOS AS SOON AS I SEE THE HORSES.
Again, THANK YOU to all of you who donated to save the orphans etc.
If you want to help You can go to You Caring – to help us keep saving lives..
It’s GO TIME AGAIN. 911 for baby supplies. We are already getting calls to be on stand by for the orphaned and new born foals.
Another 911, Received an emergency call for the horses shown above, a couple hours ago. We have until Friday to save them. There are two stallions and a yearling who all need to be gelded. Stallions have so much less of a chance to find homes, but we can “git ‘er done”, with Your help!(Sometimes it is a bummer being the ones who can “do stallions”, but these lives matter!)
