White Mountain Horse Gather: Additional Information
The White Mountain Horse Gather happened in mid-November, 2007 a few miles northwest of Rock Springs, WY. The BLM hadn't run a mustang gather at that HMA (Horse Management Area) in at least four years and the horses had populated the area far beyond the prescribed 250 horse limit. The White Mountain HMA covers 382,686 acres and the Little Colorado HMA covers another 593,926 acres.

A helicopter was used to gently drive the horses toward a set of corrals. The corrals were at the end of a wide canyon, with a jute fence set up to funnel the horses into them. As the copter pilot neared to within a couple of miles of the area, he radioed ahead. The crew jumped into action. A "Judas" horse was led to the end of the jute fence and other cowboys hid low in the sage. As the horses neared the area, the Judas horse was released to lead the rest of the wild horses into the corrals.

The helecopter pilot was adept at prodding groups of a dozen to thirty horses towards the pens. Some would stray off as they neared the pens, but he'd immediately head off to push them back to the waiting corrals.

Once in the first corral, the horses were quickly run through a chute where they were aged, sexed, and sorted into a variety of holding corrals. Veterinarians and officials oversaw the gather and kept everything official. As the corrals filled, waiting trucks backed up to the loading chute. Roughly 100 at a time were shipped to BLM corrals in Canyon City, CO.

The gather was a wonderful experience for me. The crew and officials were friendly and very accomodating. In fact, they let me stand on the trailers to get better views! In the end, the gather captured around 725 horses from the two HMA areas, releasing 63 healthy mustangs back to the wild.