Wild Horse

Several thousand wild horses that have been passed over for adoption by American families may be donated for use in Mexican rodeos and equestrian pageants, according to terms of a contract now under negotiation by Mexican officials and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The agreement, if approved, would represent by far the single largest adoption of the wild horses since the animals came under the protection of the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971.

When it comes to getting people to adopt wild horses, Bruce "Smoky" Stevens is not above begging on his knees, pulling cash out of his jeans and waving it around, and accusing the audience of falling asleep on the bleachers. On a small scale, Stevens is doing what the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has started to do as drought and wildfire threaten wild horses in six Western states. The agency is pushing to get more people to adopt wild horses as pets and pack animals.

DEANNE STILLMAN loves the desert. It is, she writes, "my beat and my passion," a place where city life fades away, her thoughts vanish and she hears things: "The beating of wings. The scratching of lizard. The crack of tortoise egg. The whisper of stories that want to be told." Her 2001 book, "Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave," told one of those stories, of the violent murder of two local girls who had been "sliced up" by a Marine in the desert.

A radical environmental group is claiming responsibility for firebombing a federal corral near Susanville, Calif., to protest government roundups of wild horses. The FBI said it is giving the claim "very serious consideration." The Earth Liberation Front said in a communique released by another group that it set firebombs at a Bureau of Land Management wild horse corral near the California-Nevada border. The communique was released by a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front.

Twelve small wild horses spared from death last summer during a roundup to stop a deadly equine disease are healthy and soon will be put up for adoption. The Bureau of Land Management plans an April 10 silent auction at Stillwater, Okla., for the horses, which were newborn foals when their infected mothers were euthanized last June. "The whole bunch are saved and that's good," said Glen Foreman of the BLM in Utah.

LOVELL, Wyo.--For Linda Coates-Markle, watching the young mares in the herd of wild horses that roam this region's Pryor Mountain Range can be depressing. Many are skinny and weak. Their foals, if they survive, are often sickly, perpetuating the unhealthy condition of their mothers. It is why Coates-Markle and other federal land managers believe birth control for some wild horses in the West has become necessary.

A survey championed by "Dances with Wolves" author Michael Blake concludes that the number of wild horses roaming Nevada's rangeland is about one-fourth the federal estimate. The government says that's nonsense. "We were shocked once we found out how much lower it was," Vanessa Kelling of the Public Land Resource Council said this month. "There just simply are not that many wild horses left in Nevada."

Wild horses with flaring nostrils and flashing manes are the defiant free spirits of the West. But they are invaders, too, damaging land and making it uninhabitable for native species that have evolved over thousands of years. The wild horses found in 10 western states claim diverse origins. Some are descended directly from the first modern horses brought to the New World by the Spanish conquistadors about 500 years ago.

Crouched on a rocky hillside, a group of people waited. The storm clouds rolled by, spilling large drops of rain, and still they waited, hugging jackets closer. A radio transmission crackled, and the wait was over. In the distance the horses came into view, 17 of them, running together, tails stretched out, manes flying. Two "Judas" horses waited. Domesticated and trained for their traitor roles, the "Judas" horses are held by a person who lies in the grass and hides.