Major support for Oregon FieldGuide is provided by... VINCE PATTON: Tonight on Oregon Field Guide: the "Mustangs of Oregon."

WOMAN: They'’re the true animal.

The true essence of a horse is a mustang.

Oregon is known for their quality of horses.

MAN: The federal government'’s program of aggressive removal of wild horses is completely unsustainable.

[ woman gasps and exclaims ] Right now BLM has more horses in holding than exist in the wild.

So when you think of a wild horse, think of a horse in a cage.

[ horse neighs ] The holding areas are full... We'’re at capacity.

I mean, we have essentially nowhere to go.

at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.

MAN: I think we should be feeding children rather than unwanted horses.

While the system flounders, horse lovers step up.

WOMAN: He'’s going to make somebody a really good horse.

WOMAN: That'’s part of our heritage.

And it'’s part of what we'’re proud of, and we want to keep that.

Everybody likes to see that, I think: the wild side of Oregon.

[ geese calling ] [ ♪♪ ] Good evening, and welcome to this Oregon Field Guide special.

I'’m your host, Steve Amen.

Did you know that today, there are thousands more wild horses like these being held captive than roam free on the range?

Well, that'’s just one of the many surprises we learned after a viewer had made a suggestion: do a story on teenagers who help get mustangs adopted.

Well, tonight Vince Patton does that story, but in the process, he learned there'’s a much larger crisis facing America'’s mustangs.

[ ♪♪ ] WOMAN: Your wild horses -- your mustangs, your stallions, your studs -- they'’re America'’s living legends.

They'’re the legends of the West.

This is mustang country, 32 million acres of the American West.

MAN: When we see a herd of wild horses running across the open range, it'’s the perfect symbol of liberty and freedom.

Horses have been our friends, our partners in building this country.

Yet tens of thousands of horses are raised by no one.

America'’s wild herds are all descended from domestic horses that escaped or were discarded over the last 500 years.

Congress called them living symbols of the pioneer spirit and enshrined their protection in law.

MAN: Our history as a nation is tied very closely to the horse.

There is a very deep sense that we need to protect these animals because we owe it to them.

[ geese calling ] Oregon has about 7% of the nation'’s wild horses.

We'’ve heard a couple of bands are relatively easy to see out east and south of Burns.

Across one remote valley, Oregon'’s famous Kiger herd keeps a wary distance.

These mustangs are said to show the greatest influence from the original Spanish horses brought by the conquistadors.

South of Frenchglen, the South Steens herd allows us to approach much closer.

Suddenly, we become accidental spectators to the law of the herd being brutally enforced.

WOMAN: And now Arrow'’s after him again.

Oh, my gosh.

A stallion takes off after a 3-year-old colt.

Every time he tries to wander back to the only family he has known, horses take turns driving him away -- eight times in one hour.

Arrow'’s trying to prove there'’s a pecking order.

And Arrow wants him to know, "I am the stallion of this band," and he wants to make that loud and clear.

But Cruiser'’s keeping up pretty good.

Photographer Maggie Rothauge gives the horses nicknames.

She'’s watched Cruiser for years, since he was 1 week old.

My heart'’s racing.

I kind of want to spend the night right here.

I am worried, because Cruiser'’s still a youngster, so he could be hurt.

And I know that'’s part of the wild, but it'’s not the part I want to see.

Maggie has figured out what the confused colt still doesn'’t understand: tonight we are witnessing his banishment.

His band is rejecting him.

Cruiser is too old, too much competition for female attention.

He had his teeth bared right at him, going for the bite.

That bite would take a hunk of flesh out of his hind end.

If he caught him, he would hurt him.

As the day ends, his eviction is final.

The colt will have to find some other bachelor exiles and form a new band until he can recruit females on his own.

It really surprised me when I saw him getting chased clear out of the band, and he'’s a stallion now.

[ horse neighing ] MAN: Don'’t put a lot of pressure on them right there.

Ooh, easy, son.

You'’re all right.

Far from the wild lands of southeastern Oregon, someone else is about to have an even closer encounter with a wild horse.

There we go.

Easy.

Easy, kid.

We'’ve come to the Willamette Valley, to Yamhill, Oregon, to watch a horse and a girl.

Alex Russell is going to gentle and train a mustang.

Alex is 12.

Look at his eye.

He'’s so cute.

She is part of a program called Teens & Oregon Mustangs.

I really like your horse.

They'’ll dedicate their summer to exposing these horses to as many things as they possibly can.

Twenty-two teenagers have precisely 98 days to train wild horses well enough to be adopted.

These horses aren'’t sure if we'’re tenderizing them to eat them.

They'’re scared, and it takes the kids a lot of time this first week just trying to convince them that they'’re not going to hurt them.

You'’re okay.

Jasper -- that'’s his name now -- has no interest in being friends.

What'’s this?

Food.

It takes 25 minutes to get close enough to grab Jasper'’s lead.

This quiet, calm dance lasts more than an hour.

Then, for a few moments, Jasper allows Alex her very first touch.

She'’s braver than I am.

[ chuckles ] After an hour and 18 minutes, he trusts her enough to allow her to remove his neck tag.

Good job.

The kids do things that you would just never expect them to be able to get done in such a short amount of time.

That was my main goal today was to get that neck tag off and touch him.

And I reached my main goal today.

- Good job.

- Thanks, Mom.

We'’ll check back throughout the summer with Alex and Jasper.

But this seems a good time to ask why Erica Fitzgerald went to the effort to start this program in 2009 to make horses adoptable.

That'’s when we learned we have opened a Pandora'’s box.

I felt compelled to do something.

We have a disaster on our hands if we don'’t do something about it.

The U.S. faces a wild horse crisis.

It can be counted in lives, money, and freedom.

Nationally, more than 49,000 formerly wild horses now live in captivity.

They will never be free again.

MAN: It absolutely can'’t go on forever.

This is not a sustainable way of managing these horses.

Rob Sharp says the way the U.S. manages wild horses has to change, and he'’s not a critic.

He'’s the one in charge of wild horses in Oregon for the Bureau of Land Management.

One of BLM'’s main short-term corrals sits just outside Burns.

Rob tells us they had to expand it in the last year to hold even more horses.

Right now the program is at capacity.

I mean, we have essentially nowhere to go with the excess horses removed from the range.

It all boils down to money, holding space, and counting heads.

How many horses are really out there?

If there are too many, are they destructive?

And can the land keep them healthy?

We absolutely do care about these animals.

We'’re passionate about the health of these animals, and we'’re passionate about the health of their habitat.

For decades, mustangs had been captured, often brutally, for slaughter for dog food and other uses.

Congress brought those private round-ups to an end by passing the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.

The habitat is marked on maps.

The horses in 179 distinct herd management areas get special protection in 10 western states.

The government has designated 19 of those zones in Oregon, mostly in the southeastern corner.

[ horse squeals ] MAN: They have 20,000 mares being bred every year.

And they'’re producing 10- to 15,000 foals every year.

And it is literally a horse factory.

SHARP: Wild horse herds, on average, we see a population growth rate of 20% annually, so we'’re looking at a given wild horse herd doubling in population every four to five years.

The law requires BLM to manage for other users as well, like people, cattle, and wildlife.

The government says the land can'’t support so many horses.

WOMAN: They'’ll eat themselves out of house and home and drink up all the water, and they could starve to death.

It'’s an awful thing to see.

It'’s an awful way to die.

And we don'’t want that.

We want healthy, viable animals.

The BLM says public land access across the West could feasibly sustain 26,000 wild horses and burros.

It currently counts 40,000.

The National Academy of Sciences investigated those claims.

Its panel said how the BLM sets management levels is "not supported by scientific information."

Those scientists also say BLM'’s head counts missed 10-50% of the herds likely out there.

Are there too many horses?

Of course not.

It'’s just a matter of the BLM'’s priorities.

Scott Beckstead directs the Oregon chapter of the Humane Society.

He thinks the BLM gives too much weight to some other animals that share the acreage: the cattle that ranchers get to graze on public land.

To say that there are too many horses when you'’ve got 40,000 wild horses versus at least 9 million livestock, the numbers just don'’t lie.

Stacy Davies strongly disagrees.

There haven'’t been cattle in here for a year and a half.

He manages one of Oregon'’s largest cattle ranches, the Roaring Springs Ranch south of Frenchglen.

He'’s also owned four formerly wild mustangs over the years.

Stacy has led us to see a spring that ought to be nestled in a lush, green meadow.

It'’s a mud hole.

It'’s actually being destroyed by horses, and it'’s a good example of what too many horses do to a landscape.

We'’re not asking for elimination of horses -- we love them as much as anyone -- but we want good management.

As we look around, two wild horses keep a careful eye on us.

Stacy says there'’s one important distinction: any cattle allowed in would graze for just a few months, which would later give grass ample time to grow back.

Some of these plants are dying.

They need the chance to set seed.

The horses are here year-round.

And so they'’re consuming forage 12 months of the year, and the same plants get bitten time after time.

And while it'’s true that livestock may be rotated in and out, the fact is 9 million livestock versus 40,000 wild horses, there'’s just a complete lack of balance there.

And we believe that the horses need to stay on the range and be managed on the range.

BLM spends $76 million a year on the wild horse program.

Most of that goes to hold and feed the thousands of horses that used to feed themselves.

They'’re very well fed.

They get very good care.

They are now all on vitamins and minerals.

To the taxpayer, it'’s a lot of money.

One horse who will not return to the range seems to be getting more accustomed to people.

[ whinnies ] We'’re back to watch Alex train Jasper.

This is only the second day they'’ve spent any time together.

Already she'’s leading him in the arena and getting close to him for longer periods.

Last year it took her a couple, three days just to, you know, get where she is right now.

[ whinnies ] You'’re just there to be his buddy.

Stay there, stay there.

Stay there until he quits fighting.

By the end of the day, their relationship has dramatically changed.

I felt like it went really good.

I think it went good.

- Got to touch him.

- Mm-hmm.

He enjoyed the scratching, didn'’t he?

Yeah, he had like -- looked like he had a little bit of a bug bite on his neck, so it was itchy.

He loved it.

We wait two months and return again.

Jasper has become an entirely different horse.

He'’s very friendly now.

He'’s kind of fond of me.

He'’s pretty neat.

He'’s very fun to work with.

Alex says she'’s devoting her entire summer to this to help the horses get adopted but concedes she knows just a little bit about BLM'’s dilemma.

I know that they'’re very overpopulated, and that'’s why we'’re trying to do this, is because there'’s a lot of them, and we try to downsize the population.

Across the West, the BLM regularly removes wild horses from the range where it says there are just too many.

However, all the forced round-ups may be having an unintended impact.

The national panel of scientists says the removals make population growth rates worse.

BECKSTEAD: The National Academy of Science has told us by aggressively removing large numbers of horses, we'’re actually encouraging them to boost their reproductive rate above what it would normally be.

However, the scientists did not weigh in on one common criticism: are the round-ups humane?

BLM has been gathering all the horses since the mid-'’70s.

I mean, our methods today, in my opinion, are considered state-of-the-art.

The BLM hires helicopter cowboys to round up herds deemed too large.

Helicopter drive trapping is by far about the most humane means of trapping both for the personnel doing it and also for the wild horses themselves.

BECKSTEAD: The Humane Society had observers watch the helicopters.

We have observed inhumane handling of animals.

We have observed animals being harmed and even killed.

BLM says choppers are the only way to find and move horses spread out over hundreds of thousands of acres.

Contractors earn several hundred dollars for every horse they drive into a trap.

[ man whooping ] I saw a baby die and nobody do a damn thing.

That'’s a problem.

It changed me forever.

The law says they'’re supposed to be protected from capture, branding, harassment, and death.

And in many instances, that'’s exactly what the BLM is doing.

Laura Leigh has become one of the nation'’s biggest thorns in the BLM'’s side.

She lives in Nevada, where most of the nation'’s wild horses roam.

She has sued BLM, winning temporary restraining orders and injunctions in federal court.

Laura and fellow advocates stake out round-ups.

Their photos and videos can be disturbing.

They post them online to haunt the BLM with every bloody injury and questionable incident.

WOMAN: Yeah, we have an injury.

[ shutter clicking ] WOMAN: Oh, my gosh.

He'’s really trying to get out of there.

WOMAN: I don'’t blame him.

In Oregon in 2010, horse advocates witnessed two incidents during a round-up that infuriate them.

The helicopter pilot flies incredibly low.

It'’s hard to tell if his skids actually hit a horse or come so close the mustang has to duck away.

[ woman gasps and exclaims ] MAN: Good God!

Once the horses are captured, they'’re stricken with fear.

They'’ve never been caged in their lives.

Naturally, they do everything they can to escape.

[ woman gasps ] - WOMAN: Oh!

Oh, my God!

- WOMAN: What?

WOMAN: He just went up over the fence.

That horse injures its leg.

Another meets a far worse fate.

One blue mare hits the fence so hard she staggers and crumples to the ground.

Contractors promptly move a trailer in, which blocks the observers'’ view.

Later, the BLM said the mare had to be euthanized.

It had broken its neck.

Some degree of serious injury or mortality, you know, should be expected in the handling of wild horses, even domestic horses.

I mean, accidents happen.

The fact that we do see less than 1% handling-related mortality is, in my opinion, outstanding given the nature of these animals.

We met one man who'’s definitely not a BLM critic, yet he is troubled by helicopter round-ups.

Well, that'’s probably the worst, as far as I'’m concerned.

The little colts, sometimes they run them too far.

Okay.

Larry Osborne gets paid to gather wild horses for the government.

He uses passive traps baited with some tasty hay.

Well, I can say one thing honestly.

The way we catch them is the most humane way.

The horses take one step too far, and they close themselves in.

I think it works pretty good, myself.

It'’s a slower and less stressful way to catch horses.

But when it comes time to truck them to Burns, we see that calm vanish in a burst of fear.

You'’re going to break your neck.

WOMAN: Come on, boys.

Come on!

These three horses did not injure themselves, but we learned that at other times during this same operation, two other horses broke their necks the same way -- running into a bait trap panel.

They had to be put down.

We asked to see the reports and learned that stats show the death rate in Oregon is virtually the same for bait traps and helicopter round-ups.

In both types of trapping, nearly 1% of horses die.

Once they'’re in the corrals, the horses seem to calm down, but even there they face substantial risks.

Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show 199 horses died in captivity in the Oregon BLM corral in the last four years.

13 of them died or were put down for broken necks, 41 more for being in poor condition or unknown causes.

Maggie and Farrel Rothauge were there in person watching that day when the horse died and the close call with the helicopter.

They say it was horrible.

Everyone was shaken up.

MAN: And sometimes there are incidences that happen, there are accidents that happen.

Am I bothered by it?

Yes.

It'’s rare to see one get hurt.

They disagree with the critics.

They believe the BLM is right to limit the number of horses roaming free.

They have to be managed in order for the balance to take place.

Oh, there'’s a nice pose, yes.

[ shutter clicking ] Maggie and Farrel make half a dozen trips each year to photograph the South Steens herd.

These guys are used to us.

[ shutter clicking ] There are a lot of horses out here that recognize us now.

It was a lifelong dream of mine to be in the middle of a herd of wild horses, and that'’s a dream come true.

[ neighing ] Maggie and Farrel have carried their personal commitment much farther.

I'’m very concerned, and that'’s why we'’ve taken it upon ourselves to really try to promote adoption.

They'’ve adopted seven wild horses.

Can you back up?

This is Gunnar.

He'’s a 5-year-old South Steens gelding.

We adopted him when he was just 2 years old.

Then we realized that this horse had a mother at the corrals, and we went back over and we got her.

So ultimately, what can be done?

I like the two roans.

These days, BLM relies almost exclusively on offering captured horses for adoption.

I want to get a little red roan and name it Captain America.

[ auctioneering ] I'’ll take 4.25 from your man standing if you want to do it.

Last call!

MAN: Buyer number one!

- Buyer number one, good job!

- Woo-hoo, all right!

Despite national promotions, some that promise big cash prizes for the best trained horse, on average, 70% of the horses get rejected.

Three strikeouts like that, and they'’re shipped to the Midwest.

There, BLM rents large pastures.

49,000 horses and burros are warehoused there to live out their lives in captivity.

They'’re just horses that nobody wants waiting to die.

Rancher Stacy Davies says it'’s time to break the cycle.

We have a product that nobody wants, we have this huge herd producing more in conflict with many natural resource uses.

To allow these herds to just grow exponentially and shun the responsibility of management is just unacceptable.

The BLM has tried birth control.

They give injections to some mares during round-ups, then they turn the treated horses back out on the range.

However, the contraception, called PZP, wears off.

MAN: It'’s not permanent.

To give the birth control shots again, they would have to round up horses year after year.

There is one alternative almost no one wants to talk about: slaughter.

DAVIES: Those horses get the very best hay, they get the very best health care, and there is just no value in feeding horses nobody wants.

And there is value in selling them.

Allow slaughter in the U.S.

Ensure that it'’s humane, work with those plants to do everything as humanely as we can, but allow harvest and use of the natural resource: horses.

A private slaughterhouse in New Mexico is primed and ready to process horse meat.

The BLM says it has the legal authority to euthanize unwanted horses or sell them to slaughter, but has a policy against both options.

It'’s the position of the Humane Society of the United States that slaughtering horses can never be humane.

To take that animal, run it through a sale, pack it onto a trailer, and truck it hundreds of miles to a slaughter plant, that is not humane euthanasia.

The government'’s corrals and pastures are nearly full.

Virtually the only outlet for the captured horses is adoption.

[ man whistles ] Three hundred, three hundred, get at him at three?

But BLM records show the adoption marketis drying up.

Back in 1999, they adopted out all the horses they gathered that year, plus more captured earlier.

Now only 30% find homes.

One adoption event tries to help improve that.

It'’s now August.

ALEX: Today is day 98.

Ninety-eight days since Alex met Jasper.

- Don'’t be nervous.

- Okay.

ANNOUNCER: Up next is Alex Russell with Jasper.

- Good luck.

- Thank you.

It all boils down to this competition at the Yamhill County Fairground.

Alex leads Jasper through an obstacle course without a hitch.

ALEX: I love the fact that I can adopt out a once-wild horse.

And it'’s the thrill of having 98 days to train and gentle a wild horse, but then you don'’t think it'’s possible until you do it.

Alex has a couple of surprises planned to show off just how gentle the horse has become.

She takes Jasper through a horse wash. To cap it off, Alex pulls out a larger-than-life and very noisy hair dryer.

He seems completely unfazed.

To think, just 98 days ago, Alex could not even pet this animal.

[ cheering and applause ] [ applause ] ANNOUNCER: Hip number 11, Alex Russell with Jasper!

[ cheering and applause ] Out of 22 teens and their horses, Alex wins fourth place.

ALEX: I'’m so proud of him.

He did so good.

She gets to keep a coveted winner'’s belt buckle, but not Jasper.

He and the other mustangs are up for auction.

It'’s a major bonus that there are 22 horses now that are going to not have to live their life out in the corrals, that are going to have an opportunity to be loved and to have a great life.

Take a good look now!

Hip 500... Alex has trained Jasper so well he sells for even more than the grand champion does.

Sold right there, $1,025!

Woo, meant to be!

Buyer number 25!

ALEX: Even though I'’m training one horse, I feel like I am still making a difference.

It might not be a very big dent out of the enormous population of wild horses right now, but it helps better the life of that horse.

[ cheering and applause ] I couldn'’t have asked for anything better.

The teen trainers have helped 123 horses find new homes.

49,000 more still need them.

The law enacted to protect them declared mustangs an integral part of the land where they were found.

Forty years later, a majority of wild horses are no longer free as Congress and the American people envisioned.

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