To maintain healthy forage or water supplies in the Spring Mountains, some wild horses and/or burros may need to be removed from time to time. The Spring Mountain Alliance wishes to keep removals to a minimum by volunteer application of PZP contraceptives in breeding-age mares. However, if removals are still necessary, then the Alliance would minimize the trauma to wild family herds and minimize the costs to American taxpayers by:
- Having volunteers carefully bait-capture individual bands in temporary pens.
- Remove some young horses ideally between the ages of 2 to 4. These horses are most adoptable because they are easier to train and to develop bonds with their human adopters.
- The remaining bands would be released back into the wild after mares are treated with PZP.
- The Alliance will promote local adoption in the Las Vegas area so the young horses and American taxpayers are spared long transport distances.
Locally adopted horses may still be ridden in their home range in the Spring Mountains. Mustangs are sure-footed and wise on back-country trail rides but they can also successfully compete in equestrian events across the Vegas Valley thereby interesting other riders in future adoptions.
Adopters interviewed by the Alliance consistently state that mustangs are smarter and more aware of their environment than domestic horses they have known – their survival depended on that. Mustangs become very attached to their adopters perhaps because in the wild, they learned the value of group protection. Again and again, adopters rave about their sense of humor and mischief.