Shunned Colt is Fenced from his Buddy.

Driving from Colorado through Nevada on Higway 50, “The Loneliest Highway” I spotted what I first thought was a ranch horse grazing on the south side of the road. Then I saw a band of wild horses. I had to turn around. A story unfolded there, told here in pictures.

Co-incidentally, and specifically to this point, Dr. Kirkpatrick in his recent interview stated, “Public grazing isn’t the problem: only 1-3% of America’s beef cattle, for example, are grazed on public land. The problem is that we no longer have any free-roaming wild horses in this country: they are blocked by fencelines and man-made barriers. The horses cannot migrate to avoid natural challenges, like blizzards or drought.” Case in point. For full article with Dr. Kirkpatrick on PZP immunocontraceptive, click here.

The colt is watching a band of wild horses on the right who locked onto me the minute I raised my binoculars. Skittish, the second time I glassed them, they dropped into a draw leaving only dust. This yearling stayed up near the road, next to the fence, watching them disappear into the distance.

At first I thought he was muddy. Closer inspection with binoculars revealed that he was very beaten up, unusual for such a youngster.

Here he goes back to the fence where a good looking bachelor stallion grazes on the other side.

This guy was grazing in a depression that holds seasonal water, now grass.

Turns out all the horses are supposed to be on the side where the bay stud is.

The colt keeps looking off into the distance too where his band disappeared.

Back and forth. Back and forth.

Perplexed.

The older bachelor moves south, still on the east side of the fence line.

The yearling moves off along the fence line, pacing the older stud.

Clearly known by the older stud, they continued like that, with the fence between them, until they dropped out of site.

Seems that the problems that wild horses and burros face are endless.

More to come…