The Issues
Return to Freedom currently provides a safe haven to more than 500 wild horses and burros. With roundups ongoing, it is vital that we provide a place where freedom, genetic diversity and natural lifestyle are preserved.
Find out about wild horses in America … where they come from and where they’re going. Every year, hundreds of young people all across America write Return to Freedom with questions about wild horses. From this page, you can read the most commonly-asked questions — and answers — about wild horses, their origins and how they live in America today.Eohippus slowly evolved into Mesohippus, the size of an average collie. Mesohippus had three toes and eventually became an inhabitant of the prairie. Its shape changed as its habitat changed: it grew taller, its teeth and middle toe grew longer and eventually became a hoof. The evolution continued until Equus caballus — the horse as we know it today — was formed.
The reintroduction of the horses into the Americas began in 1519 when Cortez came from Spain. As more and more settlers from Spain and other European countries came, they brought horses with them and returned these animals to their native land after a 10,000-year journey around the world.
Today, when most people use the word “mustangs,” they are probably referring to all wild horses in North America. However, there are specific kinds of mustangs, and they have their own unique breeds.
At Return to Freedom, we have a number of horses that have been proven to be direct descendants of the Spanish stock that came to this country over 400 years ago. You can read more about them in our Conservation section, rare breeds.
Here at Return to Freedom, we allow wild horses to live as they would if they were running free. Through the years, we have watched our horses carefully and offer insights into how wild horses behave. We invite you to read more.
Horses are able to live in the wild because that is how nature intended them to live. Many people think that horses were bred in captivity, much like dogs and cats. But in fact, horses breed and exist naturally as wild animals, like wolves or tigers do.
Wild horses also roam on 11 western states that include Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, Oregon, California, Colorado, Idaho, Arizona, Montana, North Dakota and New Mexico.
For the most part, wild horses in the United States live on public lands. Those are lands that are owned by U.S. citizens and paid for by Americans’ tax dollars. Most public lands are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
But, the BLM does publish estimates of the number of wild horses and burros that roam on public lands that it manages. As of February of 2007, the BLM estimated that there were 28,500 wild horses and burros on lands that they managed. It is likely that there are fewer than 25,000 horses and fewer than 5000 burros left on 34 million acres of public land managed by the BLM. That’s one horse for every 1360 acres!
In that year the American government set aside 80 million acres as wild horse territory where herds could run free. Unfortunately, over the years, the amount of land set aside for wild horses has been reduced, so that today less than 40 million acres remain. And many of those acres do not offer the kinds of grazing lands that horses need.
As a result, the number of wild horses roaming free in America continues to decline. Just a few years ago, there were approximately 48,000 wild horses in America. According to the BLM, in 2002 only about 34,500 remained. By the year 2005, the government has stated that it wants to reduce the population further to about 26,900 horses.
At Return to Freedom, we feel that wild horses need to be protected. And we feel it is just as important that bonded herds be able to stay together when they are moved off public lands.
Imagine how you would feel if you were separated from your family and others that you love. Well, the same is true for wild horses. For this reason, when we take wild horses from public lands, we make sure that entire herds are relocated as a group. When we take one horse — we take the entire family. And, we may be the only sanctuary in the country that does this.
What can you do to help?
Currently we have more than 500 horses at our Sanctuary. And we have to make sure they are all fed and cared for. Also, in order to save even more horses, we need more land.
Please consider how you, your class or youth group can sponsor a horse that lives here. Your help could mean so much!