[hooves clacking] [wind whooshing] [horse neighing] [stable clattering] [bright music continuing] [audience cheering] [hooves clacking] [triumphant music] - [George] Without the horse, the American West of fact and fiction would've never existed.

The Wild West of Cowboys and Indians of cattle drives and wagon trains, of Wyatt Earp and Hopalong Cassidy, none of that would've existed without the horse.

Hi, I'm George Page for "Nature," and this is Tim, a gentle far cry from his wild relatives still roaming the back lands out here in the west.

He's about as wild as my pet dog, Jenny, but genetically he's exactly the same.

Equus caballus as the wild horses we'll focus on in Wolfgang Bayer's film.

America's Wild Horses remain the subject of tremendous controversy, and until 1971, there was the real possibility they would be slaughtered out of existence.

But people like Wild Horse Annie, Joan Blue and Hope Ryden among many others, helped rally the people and the United States Congress to save the wild horses.

Ryden's book, "America's Last Wild Horses" had a major impact when it was published in 1970.

In the prologue she wrote, "When I first saw wild horses sweeping across a mountain slope, tails and mane streaming, screaming with an exuberance, never heard in any pasture my whole view of modern America brightened."

As you get to know America's wild horses, I think you too will be charmed by them.

But unfortunately, their future is still the subject of great controversy.

[bright music] [bright music continuing] [horse neighing] [bright music continuing] [horse whinnying] The wild horse, free and untamed.

To many, a living symbol of the American West to others, a pathetic and costly pest.

[horses snorting] Though the majority of America's wild horses live in semi desert wastelands, they can be found from the windswept Rocky mountains to the Sandstrewn Islands off the Atlantic coast.

Belonging to no one, not a part of our native wildlife, the wild horse has become ensnarled in a conflict of human values.

The controversy begins with the very origin of the modern horse.

Although it's not considered a native of modern North America, it did in fact evolve on this continent.

Archeologists have discovered fossil evidence that the modern horse evolved here in the American West a million years ago.

At Pyramid Lake in the Nevada desert, digs have disclosed bones of the horses evolutionary fore bearers dating back 50 million years.

The horse flourished across the Americas and during the Ice Age migrated to Asia over the bearing land bridge.

With a retreat of the ice sheets, the land bridge disappeared beneath the sea separating the horse populations on both continents.

About 8,000 years ago, the horse suddenly vanished from this continent.

We may never know for sure why.

The descendants of those prehistoric horses, however, thrived in Asia and Europe.

The most primitive horse alive today is Przewalski's wild horse.

An endangered species so rare that few, if any, still roam its native range in Mongolia.

Breeding herds have been established by the New York, San Diego and national zoos.

[horse neighing] When the Spanish conquistadors came to the new world in force during the 16th century, they brought with them the sturdy barb horse, reintroducing the animal to its native land and to Native Americans.

[Native American chanting] Before the horse, the American Indian used dogs and their own backs for whatever transport they needed, but the advent of the horse improved the lifestyle of the plains of Indians dramatically.

They became the masters of the Buffalo Rangers.

They could now accumulate material wealth and the horse itself became a measure of the new prosperity.

They were not only food and transport, but a symbol of courage and daring, a tool of war.

[Native American chanting] Though they may have numbered in the millions, by the time America began opening up the west during the 1800s, they were steadily reduced by the encroachment of civilization.

Still, the wild horse found places to survive, A constant infusion of new blood from escaped domestic horses bolstered the blood lines of the wild horse.

[wind whooshing] [hooves clacking] Today, in the high country of Montana, a herd of wild Mustangs running free.

[bright music] [hooves clacking] [bright music continuing] [bright music continuing] [bright music continuing] [bright music continuing] [bright music fading] Here, in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Refuge winter is harsh.

[wind howling] The horses crash out a meager subsistence from beneath the snow.

The lean season limits the number of horses that can feed on these wind blown ridges of the rocky mountains.

[wind whistling] [birds chirping] With winter's passage, the mountains turn green with life and the horses suddenly find themselves in paradise.

Located on the Montana Wyoming border, the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Refuge was the first such sanctuary set aside specifically for wild horses by the governor.

[horse snorting] [birds chirping] Horses just ate for 11 months and dropped their foals in the spring.

Foals stand within an hour of birth and only a few hours later can keep up with their mothers.

The Pryor Mountains provide only enough forage for about 120 horses.

Since the population is closely monitored and some of the horses are rounded up each year to control the population, there seems to be little danger of the refuge being overgrazed.

[birds chirping] Wildlife such as big horn sheep also roam the range.

Conservationists and hunters were concerned that there would not be enough forage for both the horses and the wildlife, but so far it hasn't been a problem.

The horses on the refuge comprise only a tiny percentage of the nation's approximately 50,000 wild horses.

Most of them live here in the wide dry spaces of the great Western deserts.

For over a century, this area has been used as marginal grazing land.

Unfortunately, overgrazing by cattle has led to the degradation of much of his fragile arid range land, but wild horses can survive in this desert-like landscape long after it fails to support cattle.

[horses neighing] The lives of all the animals living in these semi deserts, including today's wild mustangs, are governed by the availability of water.

Small springs, some natural, some manmade make survival possible for roving bands of desert horses.

[water burbling] Wild horses must travel widely to find enough forage in the scrubland, but they must always return to water, sometimes traveling many miles each day to do so.

[bird tweeting] Horses are extremely social animals and wild horses roam in small bands.

Each one controlled by a dominant stallion.

The mayors in the group accept his protection and he jealously guards them from all interlopers.

[hooves clacking] [horse whinnying] Several bands may use one water hole, which becomes the focus of social interaction between the bands.

The stallions allow only one band to drink at a time observing a first come first serve rule.

Horses share the range with native wildlife, such as the pronghorn antelope, but when the range is not overgrazed, they don't seem to compete because they prefer different food plants.

The wild horse can usually afford only one trip a day to the water hole where they drink their fill of the precious liquid.

[horses neighing] The stallion establishes his dominance by threatening displays.

Although the fighting between males is mostly displayed in extreme cases, the battles can be deadly.

Usually death has a less glamorous cause.

A collision with a truck led to the death of this stallion.

His group of mares seems puzzled, lost.

Had their stallion been killed by a rival, the victor would've immediately taken charge of the band, but with no leader, they will scatter and be absorbed into other bands.

Very little inbreeding occurs within a band as the young females reach sexual maturity at about two years of age, they wander away from their natal bands and are readily accepted into another group.

When on the move, the stallion follows his harem to protect them and keep them moving.

A mayor picks out the actual trail, but it's the stallion which decides when and where to move.

Since man eliminated the wolf here, America's wild horses have had almost nothing to fear from predators.

But as the dry season burns on, even manmade water sources can run dry and the desert claims it's toll.

[somber music] [somber music continuing] [somber music continuing] The most dependable sources of water are wells created by ranchers for their cattle.

The Western range land is largely publicly owned, but for a minimal fee, ranchers can lease the public land for their livestock.

Today more than 4 million cattle and sheep graze these lands far too many to keep this habitat productive.

Joe Fellini runs 2000 head of cattle on a 400,000 acre family ranch in Nevada, consisting mostly of land leased from the government.

He spends much of his time making water available for his livestock.

- If you don't have the water, you don't control the land here.

You have to have a sufficient amount of water.

There couldn't be any existence of horses or cattle, either one.

If you don't have the water, you don't have a ranch.

Department of Interior has a map of 1860 of this country and it shows that there's a desert wasteland of no water, no grass or no timber.

It took my family over 100 years to find and develop the water, that cost of over a million dollars.

It come to the point where we was paying more to water horses than water our cattle.

- [George] The Fellini family's lease was signed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1923, and Joe Fellini's father built the first pipelines on the ranch using wooden slats wrapped with steel wire.

Today, the water system consists of more than 200 wells, reservoirs, springs, troughs, and ditches, as well as 75 miles of pipe.

[cow mooing] By closing a water hole with fencing, Fellini can force his cattle to move from an overgrazed area to fresh forage at another water hole.

But wild horses are not as easily discouraged and kick their way through the fences, which also keep other wildlife from the water.

The Bureau of Land Management or BLM has set a maximum limit on the number of horses that can roam Fellini's Ranch, but it also estimates that three times as many are actually there.

But the law, which prohibits any killing of horses, also prohibits rounding up the wild horses for commercial sale.

The ranchers like Joe Fellini, the range is meant for raising beef.

The wild horse is considered a pest, a pest which competes with his cattle for valuable forage and precious water.

Fellini says that he spends a $120,000 a year bringing water to the desert and that a large portion of it goes to watering horses.

But the land that Fellini leases belongs to all Americans, and by law it must be managed to reflect our wishes.

And one wish the people have made very clear through congressional action is that wild horses do have a place on the range.

[water burbling] But the more water Fellini pumps for his cattle, the more wild horses converge on his ranch.

It seems to be a never ending cycle with no solution.

[intense music] [intense music continuing] The Bureau of Land Management, which has responsibility for the horses on public lands insists that the population of horses in the wild has tripled since 1971.

However, this figure is hotly contested.

Most biologists believe it reflects improvements in census taking techniques, and they point out that the reproductive rate of horses make such a rapid increase almost impossible.

But the BLM persists and has decided that the best way to solve the rancher's problems/\ is to round up and remove about two thirds of the wild horses on public lands.

[cowboys yelling] [chopper whirring] [horses snorting] Even under the stress of capture, the horses' instincts are strong.

When bands are thrown together like this, the stallions try to keep strange males away from their mares.

[horses neighing] Injuries can result.

As soon as possible the mares and stallions are separated.

[horse neighing] [cowboy yelling] These roundups are taking place all over the west.

Not too long ago, wild horses captured like this would've been sold to the slaughterhouse, a practice that some feared would threaten their very survival.

[hooves clacking] The debate came to a head when Velma Johnston known as Wild Horse Annie and others lobbied for a law to protect the horses on public lands.

In 1971, the law was passed.

Given total protection, horse populations did rise, but the controversy about their numbers is as hot as ever.

- The horses in the Western ranges pose a potential threat to wildlife because the horse populations have been given absolute protection since 1971.

And in the absence of natural predators, those populations have increased, doubled, and even more substantially increased in the past.

Therefore, to avoid competition with wildlife degradation of range, it's essential that the horses be removed through the roundup process.

[hooves clacking] [cowboys yelling] - [George] And so the roundup continues.

In 1986, almost 9,000 horses were removed.

[hooves clacking] [chopper whirring] Protection groups such as the American Horse Protection Association disagree with the VLM policy.

- The question that the Bureau of Land Management has never answered is how 50,000 wild horses can contribute to so much overgrazing when there are 4 million cattle and sheep on the public lands and a million and a half big game animals.

50,000 wild horses are an insignificant proportion of total consumption, and there is no way that their numbers need to be reduced by two thirds to solve overgrazing problems on the public lands.

But by removing wild horses so fast, over the past two years, 31,000 horses in two years, BLM has created its own crisis, a crisis that's left it with 10,000 horses in holding corrals.

- [George] The future for 1000s of horses pinned up in giant holding facilities like this one in Lovelock, Nevada is bleak.

Here, they wait either to be transferred to private care or more likely to spend the rest of their lives locked in these pens.

The administration and management of such a facility is an expensive undertaking.

It costs about $75 per horse per month to maintain the 10,000 or so captive animals, about 9 million a year.

In order to relieve the taxpayer of this burden, the BLM is currently considering a proposal to destroy all horses not placed into private care within 90 days.

Veterinary care of so many animals is a huge job.

Wild horses do not make good patients.

They must be tranquilized before they can be treated.

[horse thudding] Although it does not harm the horse, the drug acts quickly.

Horses hooves grow continuously and are not worn down by the soft earth in the pens.

They must be trimmed regularly.

Performed by experienced farriers, this is no more painful than clipping your own nails [horse snorting] In the few moments it takes to complete the job, the drug has worn off, the horse is unharmed.

[hooves clacking] Each week, more and more horses arrive at the holding pens.

[horses neighing] Studies undertaken by the National Academy of Sciences agree with claims made by horse sympathizers that the 4 million cattle on the range which provide only 3% of our beef, do far more damage than the wild horses.

Meanwhile, as the debate continues, foals are born to mares that were pregnant when captured.

The foals will be easily adopted out, but to most horses, the holding facility carries a life sentence.

[horses neighing] To try to get some of the animals out of the holding pens and into private care, the government has instituted the "Adopt a Horse" program.

Because it controls most of the vast public lands which are home to the wild horse, the Bureau of Land Management is in effect the world's largest horse breeder, but the rate at which the BLM is removing wild horses from the range far outstrips the rate at which they can find homes for all these animals.

Although potential adoptees are trucked to auditoriums throughout the country, only 9,000 of the 18,000 horses removed from the range in fiscal year 1985 found private homes.

- I really like you.

- Whoa.

- [George] Anyone can adopt a horse for $125 and a signed guarantee that they will treat the animal well and not sell it for at least a year.

- [Administrator] $125.

- Okay, $125, okay.

- [Administrator] Okay, I've got to find the man.

[horse neighing] - [George] After carrying for their adopted horses for a year, the owners may sell the animals and some of the fiercest end up in show business.

[soft music] This is one place where a little wild blood is an advantage to a horse.

Although it's considered inhumane by many.

the Bucking Bronco event of the Cheyenne Days Rodeo recalls the Old West in Cowboys Tamed Wild Mustang.

[soft music] [soft music continuing] [soft music continuing] [soft music continuing] A crowd favorite in the rodeo is the wild horse race where a team of cowboys tries to rope, saddle and ride an unbroken Mustang across the finish line.

[announcer mumbling] [crowd cheering] This is one event usually won by the horse.

[birds chirping] One innovative program to make unadopted horses more attractive is underway at the Colorado State Prison.

[truck whirring] Unadopted wild horses are turned over to selected inmates for training under the supervision of Dr. Ron Zeiglets.

[horses neighing] - [Attendee] Okay, that's enough, that's enough.

- [George] Escape seems to be on the mind of at least one horse.

[horses snorting] [metal clanking] Specially selected prisoners work with the wild horses, getting them accustomed to humans and breaking them to bridal and saddle, thus increasing their adoptability.

[horse wriggling] - [Trainee] The adoption process could be quite successful if the horses are Tame to begin with.

We just really are trying to get the idea across to the horse that we're going to do the things that we're doing but we're not out to hurt 'em.

When we first get a hand on the horse, there's in fact that accomplishment, but I think we appreciated that early on.

Now I think we really feel some communication with the horse and some trust that transfers back and forth, and that seems to be a real special feeling.

Maybe a rope, see someone when you put the rope on, that'll excite them.

- [George] It takes a month of hard work, patience and skill to halter break a horse.

- Okay, let up on that rope.

- I'll do like a straight back to see if he'll be there.

If you pull on that, get a little closer all the time.

- Dr. Zeigletz is the founder of the National Organization for Wild American Horses, one of the best known wild horse preservation groups in the country.

He thinks this prison could accommodate five or 600 horses a year.

And if other prisons join the program, they can achieve significant progress toward making the horses more adoptable.

Zeiglets' ultimate goal is to help both prisoners and horses.

[horses neighing] But despite programs like these, the large holding facilities are still full of horses.

Concerned individuals from around the country have donated money to a privately funded wild horse sanctuary.

A BLM official signs over a truckload of horses that had previously been considered unadoptable.

A lucky few are driven one more time through the now familiar shoot onto a truck.

[horses neighing] [truck whirring] Their long journey takes them far from their former desert home to a peaceful valley at the foot of Mount Lassen in Northern California.

[enclosure clacking] [hooves clacking] Jen and Diane Clap run their 5,500 acre wild horse sanctuary on funds from people who sponsor a horse with a monthly payment of $38, half what it costs to keep a horse at government facilities.

[hooves clacking] - My husband and I were capturing horses for the forest service several years ago, and at the end of our first contract, they had to destroy some of the horses that couldn't be adopted.

And that first year, it was 12 horses that were destroyed.

The following year, there were over 80 horses that were gonna be destroyed.

These were two and three year old mares, and we reasoned that it was just unacceptable for that to happen to those horses.

So we decided to take all those horses ourselves.

- [George] The Claps take photographs and make an inventory of each horse's identifying features to send to the animal sponsor.

[gentle music] - [Diane] It's really thrilling when the gates open and the horses are able to go out and just graze and and be content again, doing what horses do naturally.

[gentle music continuing] [horses whinnying] [gentle music continuing] [gentle music continuing] [horses snorting] [gentle music continuing] - [George] In Eastern Oregon, a different approach is being taken.

These wild horses exhibit what is thought to be the typical coloration of primitive undomesticated wild horses.

How these genetic traits suddenly reemerged thousands of years later is a fascinating evolutionary puzzle.

Ron Harding of the Bureau of Land Management first noticed the special horses in a roundup in 1977.

He decided to try to improve the bloodline in Oregon's wild horses by returning animals with these traits to the wild where hopefully they would interbreed with other wild stock.

With a better lineage he hoped horses on the range would be worth more and more adoptable.

He's been proved right.

These beautiful Oregon horses are adopted quickly, though Harding returns the very best to the wild herd.

These horses bear the typical markings of the primeval wild horse, the zebra striped legs, tufted black pointed ears, and the dark dorsal stripe.

All tags and collars are removed from the horses.

They can be permanently identified by the freeze brand on their upper neck.

[gate whining] They're then driven out into the wild hills of eastern Oregon where they will once again run free.

[triumphant music] [hooves clacking] [triumphant music continuing] [hooves clacking] In northeastern Wyoming, a long-term breeding project is still ongoing.

In 1921, Bob Brislaw began searching the country for remnants of the original Spanish horses.

Although Spanish blood and wild horses is very rare, he managed to find some promising horses in wild herds, Indian tribal herds, and with private breeders, he brought them back to his own ranch.

This was the land where the horse first evolved.

The land, the horse was bred for the grasslands of the American plains.

[birds chirping] His son, Emmett continues the work of breeding the true Spanish Mustang.

[horse neighing] To Emmett Brislaw, raising Mustangs is much more than a business.

- [Emett] It's a great feeling when you saddle up and ride out there and look at 'em, especially in the spring when grasses are growing and seeing all them colts, you wonder how then, what color colts you're gonna have, and birds are singing and the colts are playing and dream about what they're gonna do and how they're gonna turn out.

We're running about 10 or 11 stud bunches, I think now.

So we get quite a few colts.

They seem to breed pretty good running natural that way.

- [George] In 1957, the Brislawns' founded the Spanish Mustang Registry, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the descendants of the pure Spanish Mustang in America.

They do no selective breeding, allowing the horses to choose their own sexual partners.

So far, around 1000 Spanish mustangs have been registered with the organization.

Breeding Spanish Mustangs has become more and more profitable as horse owners recognize the worth of the hardy breed.

Cowbirds also appreciate their worth hitching a ride on the horse's backs, they take advantage of the feast of insects kicked up by the horse's passage.

[birds chirping] The Spanish Mustang recalls its ancestral, barbed stock, small but sturdy with a short back.

Like it's Arabian ancestors, it lacks one vertebra.

[horse whinnying] The Mustang long castigate as an inferior mut of a horse is showing its value, both as a working horse and as a piece of living history.

- [Bob] I think the future is pretty good for the Mustang.

We put a lot of time in preserving them, and now we've kind of gotta get out and use them a little bit and show what they can do.

And a lot of people need to know what they can do, 'cause a few old timers, but they're gone.

[hooves clacking] [horses neighing] [hooves clacking] [horse neighing] - [George] The cooperation of man and horse as a team, centuries old, but as satisfying as ever.

[waves crashing] In total contrast to the wide ranging Western Mustang, there are the ponies of Assateague Island off the coasts of Virginia and Maryland.

No one is precisely sure how a herd of wild horses came to this island.

Some say a Spanish ship carrying horses sank offshore.

Others think escaped domestic animals started the herd 300 years ago.

Whatever the case, the Assateague pony is a true American wild horse and acts accordingly.

[hooves thudding] [seagulls squawking] [horse whinnying] In centuries of living on a tiny sand island, small body size has been selected as an adaptive advantage.

The ponies have grown accustomed to a meager diet of salt water, marsh grass, and are able to drink brackish water.

The cattle egret and the ponies live in close harmony.

In summer, the horses are plagued by hordes of biting flies, which become easy pickings for the birds.

But typically they employ the ponies in the same way the Cowbird uses the horses out west as beaters, which stir up insects as they graze.

But in the hottest summer months, the insects make life unbearable for the horses.

They can even open sores in their hides.

To escape, the ponies take refuge and the cool Atlantic waters.

[seagulls squawking] [hooves thudding] In the early morning hours of late July, the ponies become part of an annual roundup.

[soft music] [soft music continuing] The roundup was started in the late 18th century to protect crops grown on the island.

Today, Assateague is a national seashore and the roundup serves to keep the population of the herd at around 150.

The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company owns the horses.

Suddenly East coast firemen become cowboys.

[whip cracking] [whip cracking] [cowboys yelling] The ponies, which are used to the annual routine plunge into the water with little hesitation.

A huge herd of tourists has also learned to congregate at the same time.

[crowd chattering] On the other side, the horses parade through the town streets to the option area.

- [Bidder] Two quarter, two quarter, I got two quarter two and half two.

What do you think?

Two and a quarter, two and a half, sir.

You're trying to give me two and a half?

I got two and a quarter, two and a half.

Two and a quarter, two and a half.

We're doing a $50 bid.

I got two and a quarter, make it two and a half.

Two and a quarter.

- [George] Bulls are auctioned off at a going price of around $225.

So the price occasionally climbs to over 1000.

- [Bidder] Two and a half, two and a quarter.

Two and a half, anybody?

Two and a half, two and a quarter.

Two and a half, two and a quarter.

We have $50 middle.

$179, $250 bid take him.

He said, "Yes."

He said, "I don't know."

Two and a quarter, two and a half, two and a quarter.

75, 275.

I got two and half, down in the gas.

two and half 75.

Anybody wanna get in?

Two and half, 75?

And we have [clicks] you got him right now, hot dog.

- [George] The proceeds go to the support of one of the hottest and certainly one of the most fortunate volunteer fire departments in the country.

What child wouldn't want to be both a fireman and a cowboy?

[bidder bidding] However, for real cowboys out west, the wild horse question is still a thorny and troubling problem.

[Native American chanting] The American Indian and the wild horse have faced much the same problem.

The encroaching settlers determined that there was no room for either of them on a range that should be dedicated to raising cattle.

Both Indian and horse survived, but just barely.

[Native American chanting] As the white man appropriated the west for his own use, he forced the Plains Indians to give up their nomadic lifestyle, which owed so much to the wild horse and confined them to reservations.

In an ironic twist of fate, the same government that once discouraged the Indian's horse defendant culture is now seeking their help in resolving the dilemma of the wild horse.

The Cheyenne River Sioux tribe in South Dakota now takes unadopted wild horses and turns them loose on the reservation grasslands.

[hooves clacking] Though the partnership of the Indians and the horse was historically relatively brief, it symbolizes a great many things.

[soft music] Man's ability to coexist with nature if he so chooses.

The beauty of mutual understanding and respect and the wild joy of running free.

[soft music continuing] [soft music continuing] [soft music continuing] [triumphant music] [triumphant music continuing] [triumphant music continuing] [triumphant music continuing] [triumphant music continuing] [triumphant music continuing] [triumphant music continuing] [triumphant music continuing] [water burbling] [bright music]