BLM Wild Horse Holding Facilities: Types, Costs, and Sale Limits

The Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse holding facilities are a nationwide network of government-run corrals, contracted private pastures, and prison partnerships that housed 58,274 wild horses and burros as of March 2026 at an annual cost above $100 million.1Bureau of Land Management. Wild Horse and Burro Program Data Animals removed from public rangelands enter this off-range system for processing, adoption preparation, or lifetime care, and the system now consumes roughly two-thirds of the entire Wild Horse and Burro Program’s budget.

How Horses Get Into Holding

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 directs the BLM to manage herds so public lands maintain a “thriving natural ecological balance.” When a herd exceeds the “appropriate management level” set for its area, the agency removes the excess.2Bureau of Land Management. Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act History Removals, called gathers, use helicopters and sometimes bait or water traps. The BLM’s tentative fiscal year 2026 schedule planned to gather 14,517 animals and remove nearly 14,000 of them from the range.3Bureau of Land Management. FY2026 National Wild Horse and Burro Gather and Fertility Control Schedule

Animals not adopted or sold enter the holding system. Many stay there for life. As of March 2026, the agency estimated 85,466 wild horses and burros still lived on public rangelands, while the off-range population sat at 58,274.1Bureau of Land Management. Wild Horse and Burro Program Data

The Three Types of Facilities

Off-range holding operates on three tiers, each with a different purpose and cost.

Short-Term Off-Range Corrals

Corrals are the first stop after a gather. Staff handle veterinary exams, vaccinations, and sex segregation, and prepare animals for adoption or sale. Care runs about $5 per animal per day, driven by purchased hay and veterinary services.4PERC. From Range to Ranch As of March 2026, corrals held 20,930 animals.1Bureau of Land Management. Wild Horse and Burro Program Data

Corrals operate in more than a dozen locations across the West, including several partnerships with state correctional facilities:

In April 2026, the BLM began soliciting proposals for one or more new corrals east of the Mississippi River, citing that more than a third of nationwide adoptions occur in eastern states. Each planned facility would hold up to 400 animals, and solicitations cover six regions across 31 states.8Bureau of Land Management. BLM Seeks Proposals for New Wild Horse and Burro Off-Range Corrals in Eastern US

Long-Term Off-Range Pastures

Animals that aren’t placed from corrals move to long-term pastures, private ranchland under contract with the BLM where horses typically live out their lives. These sites cost about $2 per animal per day because grazing replaces most infrastructure.4PERC. From Range to Ranch Pastures hold the largest share of the off-range population: 36,122 animals as of March 2026.1Bureau of Land Management. Wild Horse and Burro Program Data

As of October 2023, the BLM had 38 off-range pasture contracts covering roughly 39,000 horses. Sites range from 450 to 46,000 acres, average 20,000 acres, and are located across Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and Washington.9Bureau of Land Management. Off-Range Pasture FAQ Contractors supply land, forage, water, minerals, and fencing, and must segregate animals by sex to prevent reproduction. The BLM conducts on-site inspections and requires compliance with its Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program standards.

Publicly identified contractors include J.R. Simplot Co. in Bruneau, Idaho (about 1,600 horses on roughly 100 acres); Robson Ranch in Catoosa, Oklahoma (about 2,000 horses on 9,000 acres); and Kerry and Nannette Despain’s ranch in Axtell, Utah (about 1,500 horses on 800 acres).10E&E News. BLM Contractors Unpaid but Animals Are Fine for Now Most contractors come from the ranching and cattle industries, which some advocacy groups have flagged as a potential conflict of interest.

Public Off-Range Pastures

Four smaller “public” pastures are open for tours, educational visits, and on-site adoptions. They are family-owned or reservation-based operations: Deerwood Ranch near Laramie, Wyoming (350 horses on 4,700 acres); Mowdy Ranch in Coalgate, Oklahoma (350 horses on 3,500 acres); Svaty Ranch in Ellsworth, Kansas (225 horses on more than 1,700 acres); and Wind River Ranch in Lander, Wyoming (225 horses on the Wind River Indian Reservation).11Bureau of Land Management. Public Off-Range Pastures Together they held 1,222 horses as of March 2026.1Bureau of Land Management. Wild Horse and Burro Program Data

Total holding capacity across all off-range facilities is 78,751 animals, leaving roughly 20,000 open spaces.1Bureau of Land Management. Wild Horse and Burro Program Data

What Holding Costs

Off-range holding has been the largest single expense in the Wild Horse and Burro Program for more than two decades, and it keeps climbing. Holding costs totaled about $43 million in fiscal 2012. By fiscal 2023 the figure hit $108.5 million, or 69 percent of program expenditures. Fiscal 2024 came in at $101 million, or 66 percent.1Bureau of Land Management. Wild Horse and Burro Program Data

The BLM estimates each animal moved into private care through adoption saves taxpayers between $22,500 and $29,000 in lifetime holding costs.4PERC. From Range to Ranch Government auditors have flagged the trend for years. A 2008 Government Accountability Office report documented holding costs tripling in seven years, from $7 million in 2000 to $21 million in 2007.12U.S. Government Accountability Office. Effective Long-Term Options Needed To Manage Unadoptable Wild Horses A 2010 Interior Department Inspector General inspection noted the off-range population had grown from roughly 22,000 in 2004 to 37,800 in 2010.13U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General. Wild Horse and Burro Program Inspection Report It stands at 58,274 today.

Welfare Conditions Inside Holding

Conditions in holding have drawn steady criticism. The most documented incident occurred at Cañon City, Colorado, in April 2022. After 445 horses arrived from the West Douglas Herd Area, a staffing shortage delayed required vaccinations. An equine influenza outbreak killed 146 horses, including 24 foals. A BLM internal assessment concluded the facility lacked sufficient employees for timely processing. Around the same time, the Wheatland facility in Wyoming had an outbreak of strangles, a highly contagious bacterial disease.5Animal Welfare Institute. After the Roundup: The Fate of Wild Horses in Government Holding Facilities

Advocacy groups have also raised broader structural complaints. Sex segregation isolates younger animals from natural social groups. Hard ground in pens requires regular hoof trimming that wouldn’t be needed on natural terrain. Fencing prevents horses from seeking shelter during storms. Foals in confined spaces have been observed chewing other horses’ tails out of boredom, removing a key defense against flies.

The newer Winnemucca facility in Nevada, operated by contractor JS Livestock, has drawn particular attention. Friends of Animals called the facility, designed to hold up to 4,000 horses on fewer than 100 acres, an “industrial feedlot” and challenged it in court over alleged inhumane conditions and NEPA violations. The BLM said the facility was designed with expert input and includes improved drainage, at least 750 square feet per animal, and extra feeding stations for timid horses. A federal district court sided with the BLM in 2024, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed in January 2026, finding the agency had taken the required “hard look” at environmental consequences.14U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Friends of Animals v. BLM, No. 24-5786

In December 2020, the BLM established the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program through a Permanent Instruction Memorandum. The policy sets standards for facility design, capture and handling, transportation, and post-capture care, and requires annual training for staff, contractors, and partners involved in gathers and facility management.15Bureau of Land Management. Wild Horse and Burro Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program

Why Fewer Animals Are Leaving Holding

The BLM’s primary tool for moving animals out of holding was the Adoption Incentive Program, launched in 2019, which paid $1,000 to anyone adopting an untrained wild horse or burro. The program was controversial from the start. Advocates alleged it created a “pipeline to slaughter,” with adopters collecting the payment and then selling titled animals to kill buyers bound for Mexico or Canada. The BLM said it found “no credible evidence” that adopted animals had been sent to foreign slaughterhouses, though internal documents acknowledged potential for “fraud, abuse, and neglect.”16E&E News. Judge Upends BLMs Pay-to-Adopt Wild Horse Program17American Wild Horse Conservation. Federal Court Overturns BLMs Controversial Cash Incentive Adoption Program

On March 3, 2025, Senior Judge William J. Martinez of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado ruled in American Wild Horse Campaign v. Burgum (Civil Action No. 21-cv-2146-WJM) that the BLM had violated both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to subject the program to proper notice-and-comment rulemaking and environmental analysis. The court vacated the 2022 instruction memorandum that had governed the program and remanded it to the BLM.18FindLaw. American Wild Horse Campaign v. Burgum, Civil Action No. 21-cv-2146-WJM The ruling effectively shut down the incentive, and the BLM has confirmed no replacement exists.19Bureau of Land Management. Adoption Incentive Program

The program had produced nearly 30,000 adoptions since 2020, including 5,166 in 2024. The BLM estimated it saved about $66 million in avoided holding costs. Without it, the agency faces a slower outflow from facilities that are already near capacity.16E&E News. Judge Upends BLMs Pay-to-Adopt Wild Horse Program

What the Law Allows and Blocks on Sale

The 1971 Act originally prohibited the sale or transfer of wild horses and burros or their remains for processing into commercial products. In 2004, Congress passed the “Burns rider” as part of the FY 2005 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which requires that animals over 10 years old, or those offered unsuccessfully for adoption three times, “must be sold without limitation,” removing the earlier commercial-sale prohibition.20GovInfo. House Report 110-93

Congress has countered that authority in practice through annual appropriations language prohibiting the use of federal funds to sell or slaughter wild horses and burros, and the BLM maintains a formal policy against sending animals to slaughter.21Bureau of Land Management. Sales Program Since 2005, however, the BLM has sold more than 5,900 animals under Burns rider authority, and advocacy groups warn the sale pipeline creates ongoing risk.22Return to Freedom. Wild Horse and Burro Facts

The Budget Fight Ahead

The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposed cutting the Wild Horse and Burro Program from $143 million to roughly $107 million, a 25 percent reduction, as part of a broader $500-million-plus cut to the BLM.23E&E News. Trump Budget Could Open the Door to Selling Wild Horses for Slaughter More consequentially, the proposal omitted the long-standing appropriations language prohibiting the slaughter of wild horses and burros. Advocacy groups said the omission would open the door to disposing of the roughly 64,000 animals in government holding. The budget incorporated Project 2025 language characterizing herd growth as an “existential threat to public lands” and calling for Congress to permit the BLM to “dispose humanely of these animals.”24Nevada Current. Trumps Budget a Bullet to the Head of Americas Wild Horses Say Animal Activists

In response, Representative Dina Titus of Nevada and 82 members of Congress urged the House Appropriations Committee to require the BLM spend at least 10 percent of the program’s budget on fertility control. Titus also formed a Wild Horse Congressional Caucus.

Fertility Control and the Underlying Cycle

The core problem with the holding system is that it addresses a symptom, not the cause. Wild horse herds can grow 15 to 20 percent annually, and a 2013 National Research Council study concluded that removal-focused management may actually accelerate reproduction by reducing competition among remaining animals. The study found that the program “has not used scientifically rigorous methods” to estimate populations or model management effects.25National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward

Fertility control vaccines offer an alternative. PZP (porcine zona pellucida) is a non-hormonal immunocontraceptive effective for one to two years and can be delivered by dart gun at close range. GonaCon-Equine, newer, may last five to six years with a booster. For large, remote herds, the BLM must gather animals, treat them, and release them back.26Bureau of Land Management. Top 5 Things to Know About Wild Horse and Burro Fertility Control

According to congressional testimony, less than 4 percent of the program’s budget goes to fertility control, compared to roughly two-thirds for holding.24Nevada Current. Trumps Budget a Bullet to the Head of Americas Wild Horses Say Animal Activists Some field projects have shown what expanded use can do: at Spring Creek Basin in Colorado, no horses have been removed since 2011 under a PZP-based partnership, and at McCullough Peaks in Wyoming, zero population growth was achieved within three years.27Return to Freedom. PZP Fertility Control Scaling those results to roughly 180 Herd Management Areas across the West is the open question.

Government watchdogs have flagged the holding trajectory for nearly three decades, with reports in 1997, 2008, and 2010 each calling for expanded fertility control, reduced gathering, and cost-effective alternatives to indefinite holding.28GovInfo. Audit Report on Management of Herd Levels, Wild Horse and Burro Program12U.S. Government Accountability Office. Effective Long-Term Options Needed To Manage Unadoptable Wild Horses13U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General. Wild Horse and Burro Program Inspection Report Each set of recommendations has been only partially implemented. In the meantime, the holding population grew from 22,000 in 2004 to 37,800 in 2010 to 58,274 in 2026, and the annual bill rose from $43 million to over $100 million.