Wild horses hold a special place in the mythos of the American West, with images of free-roaming herds of mustangs grazing on vast public rangelands. But for some communities in New Mexico, the reality tragically differs.
Dehydrated and emaciated horses wander into towns such as Placitas, just north of Albuquerque, looking for food and water, often straying onto home gardens or private ranches. Their rangelands have been cleared out because of overgrazing and severe drought. Some residents step up when they can, some feeding as many as 20 wild horses with hay they buy themselves. Other residents don’t want the mustangs on their property, and feral horses have been involved in several recent car collisions.
While the public often thinks all wild horses live on federal lands maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, hundreds of thousands of wild horses roam private, state and tribal lands throughout the West.
