Oregon Public Broadcasting

As part of managing wild horse populations in Oregon, every year the Bureau of Land Management rounds up a dozens of wild horses and auctions them off to the public. 

But people haven’t been adopting as many horses as they used to. 

That means the unadopted horses end up in  long-term holding facilities throughout the west and Midwest.  Just last year, the BLM spent $27 million to care and feed wild horses in holding facilities.

As more and more horses end up in these facilities and the cost of feed continues to climb, public land managers are seeking different solutions for how to deal with them including birth control and more round-ups.

Pete Springer recently traveled to southeast Oregon to see some wild horses and produced this audio slideshow