It’s been a month since Colleen Westlake saw Lady, her adopted horse.

Lady went missing during a roundup organized by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe in early January.

The roundup was meant to target tribe-owned horses that roamed freely on and around the Pyramid Lake Paiute reservation.

Tribal officials authorized it as part of an effort to reduce the number of animals grazing on tribal land, which has been heavily damaged by fire in recent years.

But the roundup, which spilled off tribal land and into rural Palomino Valley, also swept up horses and burros that shouldn’t have been included, according to testimony from residents.

And 30 days after the roundup began, Lady’s owner and a federal judge are still looking for answers about the missing horse and whether she was shipped for slaughter.

“I’m hoping maybe they will come forth and say, 'This is where all the horses are being held,’” Westlake said. “I’ll go look for her. But I don’t know where to look for her.”

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Miranda Du issued a written order seeking more evidence on Lady’s whereabouts.

Du called for an evidentiary hearing to determine, in part, “whether there is any evidence that Lady was actually rounded up and taken from Palomino Valley or any evidence that Lady is still in Palomino Valley.”

The hearing hasn’t yet been scheduled.

MORE:Federal judge dismisses claims against tribe stemming from horse roundup

The demand for evidence on Lady’s fate was among several topics the order addressed related to the contentious roundup that began Jan. 4 and was conducted by horseback, motorcycle and helicopter.

Du dismissed claims against Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc., the company the tribe hired to gather the horses.

She also denied requests by the American Wild Horse Campaign, a nonprofit wild horse advocacy group supporting Westlake’s claims, to declare that the roundup violated federal and state law and that all the horses should be returned.

Two of the plaintiffs' requests were dropped because, Du wrote, because they, "have not shown a likelihood of success on the merits ... ."

In an earlier order, Du had ruled the tribe’s status as a sovereign government shielded it from legal claims. The earlier order also dismissed claims against the state, although claims against two Nevada Department of Agriculture employees who authorized the transfer of the horses out of state remain.

MORE:Rural Nevada residents lash out over tribal horse roundup

Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Campaign, said she’s disappointed by Du’s decision to dismiss claims against the tribal and state governments and deny requests to order the return of an estimated 270 horses taken off the range.

But she said the group will continue to press for answers on the fate of Lady and whether a more thorough brand inspection effort by Nevada Department of Agriculture employees Doug Farris and Chris Miller would have resulted in Lady’s return.

“We can show that Lady was rounded up, we hope to find out where she is,” Roy said. “Then we want to look at the actions of these two state employees; we do not believe they did their due diligence to ensure Lady was not shipped for slaughter.”

Farris and Miller declined to comment.

Although advocates say they can show that Lady was wrongly rounded up, none of the people involved have stated with certainty what happened to her after she departed the private land where she was grazing during the chaos of the roundup.

Westlake said there’s a chance Lady never reached the corrals where rounded up horses were held while they awaited brand inspection.

MORE:Judge blocks slaughter of horse named 'Lady' ensnared in roundup, but horse's fate unknown

She’s angry at Miller because, she said, he denied her requests to inspect the corralled horses herself in the time between when the horses were rounded up and when they were shipped off.

“I could have seen if she was there or not,” Westlake said. “If she wasn’t, then I guess I would have to start combing the hills to see if she lay broken somewhere.”

Sue Cattoor, of Cattoor Livestock Roundup, said she doesn’t think Lady was among the horses that were corralled and shipped to New Mexico.

“We didn’t catch all the horses, there are a lot of horses we didn’t capture,” Cattoor said. “The brand inspector inspected every single solitary captured horse and determined we didn’t capture Lady.”

Cattoor said it’s possible Lady is still on the range with other free-roaming horses.

She also said the wild horse advocates shouldn’t have filed claims against her family’s company.

“They should never have went after us for anything to do with Lady,” Cattoor said. “They are filing a lawsuit way after the horses had already gone through the proper procedure.”