In 2010, four men traveled almost 3,000 miles through the parts of the American West that are still wild. They filmed their 6-month journey which began in Arizona and traversed Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Their mode of transportation — wild mustangs. They wanted to use their journey to inspire change in current wild horse population management methods.

The Making of and Reason for Unbranded

According to Ben Masters, the idea for Unbranded came into existence while he and a friend were “drinking cheap tequila and eating greasy enchiladas.” This Texas A&M boy started putting his plan into action. Eventually, he was joined by Jonny Fitzsimons, Thomas Glover, and Ben Thamer. A couple of the men had spent time working on a guest ranch or guiding elk hunters in Wyoming.

A previous trip Masters took, when he used mustangs to supplement quarter horses, showed him mustangs were the right horses for their 3,000-mile journey. A principle reason for their trip was to emphasize the much-needed change in current wild mustang management policy in the U.S.

I wanted to show people that mustangs aren’t the worthless beasts that are currently wasting away in holding pens but are excellent, usable stock, especially in the backcountry… they’re living symbols of the American West. Mustang management is also in dire need of policy change, and currently the only method of population control is adoption.

-Ben Masters

The movie can be rented or bought through online retailers. A book with more in-depth details about the journey and the events leading to it is also available. Those items and many others are available for purchase on their website.

The Problem

Wild horses and burros are all over the West. The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 requires the Bureau of Land Management to conduct an annual population inventory of wild horses and burros roaming western BLM-managed lands. As you can see in the table below, from March 1, 2015, Wyoming is not the only state with wild horses. In fact, there are a few states with larger wild horse and burro populations, the largest population is in Nevada.

As shown in the table above, Wyoming with its estimated 3,760 wild horses is only slightly above its Appropriate Management Level (AML) of 3,725. However, several states are well above their AML levels. How can these populations be kept at healthy levels?

Many wildlife populations are managed through hunting or with the help of natural predators. However, last I checked, horse meat is eaten in Brazil and a few other places, but it’s not a popular item in the U.S. On top of that, for the most part, wild horses and burros have no natural predators to help control their populations. Taking those two factors into account along with the fact that herd sizes can double about every four years, populations get out of hand quickly.

According to the most recent data, AML population levels are exceeded by about 31,000 animals.

Adoption as a Solution

Each year wild horses and burros are rounded up for sale or adoption by the BLM. The project is an effort to keep populations at manageable levels because of an amendment added to the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The tables below show the number of wild horses and burros sold or adopted nationally from 2012-2014. In 2015, Wyoming adopted 181 animals (horses and burros).

When you compare the adoptions and sold tables directly above with the populations level table listed earlier and acknowledge herd sizes can almost double every four years, the current methods of population control don’t seem to be the answer.

Each year thousands of animals are rounded up for sale or adoption, the majority are not sold or adopted. Unadopted or unsold wild horses and burros are fed and cared for in either short-term corrals or long-term pastures.

The past four years the BLM has spent an average of $72.9 million annually to monitor, maintain and make possible the sale or adoption of these animals. For the last four years, the off-range holding cost to maintain unadopted animals accounts for about $45 million each year of the overall cost.

In 2013, 43,000 horses were in captivity waiting to be adopted. In December of 2015, more than 47,000 wild horses and burros were in holding facilities according to the BLM’s website. With wild and captive populations growing, current measures appear to be neither cost effective or able to adequately control increasing populations.

Alternative solutions

A fertility control vaccine known as porcine zona pellucida (PZP) is another currently permissible option of population control. This method is presently used in some locations. However, a report released by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in June of 2013 stated there currently are no highly effective, easily delivered, and affordable fertility-control methods available to manage wild horse and burro population growth.

There are currently two ways to apply the PZP vaccine. One is a hand-injected formulation effective for 22 months. The second is a ground darted injection effective for up to a year. Several reasons make both of these methods currently unfeasible options for effective population control.

Other forms of population control have or are currently being tested to gauge their viability. Some of these treatments include tubal ligation and hysteroscopically-guided oviduct papilla laser ablation and others. The procedures and methods vary.

Presently, facts and figures show no viable solution to overpopulation. The problem will only increase if changes are not made to the current population control measures. If not managed effectively, increasing wild horse and burros populations will start to take a toll on their own populations as well as other wild animal populations.

The images in this article were provided by Ottilia H. Markusz Photography. You can see more beautiful images like these by checking out the Ottilia H. Markusz Photography Facebook page.