The harsh winter of 2022 – 2023 was hard on wildlife, including the wild horses in Moffat County’s Sand Wash Basin. A BLM report released last week shares that in August, the Little Snake Field Office conducted an aerial survey of the wild horses and estimated that the population is 344 horses with around 60 living outside of the Herd Management Area. Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin reported approximately 75 horses died due to harsh winter conditions. In 2021, the Sand Wash Basin Gather removed 684 excess horses which allowed the range to recover after overutilization of food and water resources. Officials are just grateful it wasn’t more lost last winter. “We are lucky we ended up with the numbers we did,” shares Northwest District Specialist Tyrell Turner. “Had we not conducted the gather in 2021, we could’ve saw double or even triple the amount of loss due to weather conditions. Our goal is to have sustainable populations that have enough resources to survive drought or abnormal weather conditions without major losses to the population.” The Sand Wash Basin HMA is located 45 miles west of Craig.
