Wild horses running on a plain. Words read: Tales from the Trails. Your "mane" source for wild horse and burro stories

The Tales from the Trails blog pulls together wild horse and burro stories from across the Bureau of Land Management. These are stories about our work to manage and protect wild horse and burro herds on public lands, how animals are cared for in our off-range holding facilities and where they end up after they've been adopted to a good home. 

With kindness and patience, a wild horse or burro may be trained for many uses.  Wild horses have become champions in dressage, jumping, barrel racing, endurance riding, and pleasure riding, while burros excel in driving, packing, riding, guarding, and serving as companion animals.  Both wild horses and wild burros are known for their sure-footedness, strength, intelligence, and endurance. Contact the BLM or visit an event or facility near you to learn more about how you can bring home your own wild horse or burro. 

Send us your story!

If you're a proud partner to a wild horse or burro, we want to hear from you! Tell us about your trek "from wild to mild," a competition you won, or just tell us about why you're proud of your wild horse or burro.

Send your written stories and photos to wildhorse@blm.gov with the subject line MY WILD HORSE (or BURRO) STORY. For best results, stories should include your and your horse or burro's name, location (state) and at least one good photograph of the animal, you with the animal, or some other activity you'd like to convey. Please include at least one photograph depicting the freeze mark. Stories should be 300-500 words in length.

Horses in a trap

Bait-trapping to keep wild horse and burro herds healthy

One of the ways the BLM manages this fast-paced herd growth is through bait-trap gathers. These types of gathers normally consist of setting up one or more pens on public lands and baiting horses or burros to enter the pen with food, water or some other treat, such as salt.
Three horses in a field

Living in Nirvana

Looking around the beautiful ranches these herds now called home was stirring. In the native habitat where wild horses live near us the predominant foliage is sagebrush...[but] the horses that have been relocated to off-range pastures were truly living in nirvana, with thick grass, plentiful water, and readily available natural shelter in abundance.
Man looking at corral.

Checking in on SHANGRI-LA

Preston assesses horses in the holding pastures to assign a score measuring their body condition, identifying them by their color, markings, and the identification number they carry on their hip, experience that he gained on the job under the supervision of the veteran PIs who trained him.