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Whether one prefers to call them wild horses, feral horses or estrays, the State of Nevada is responsible for the largest herd of free-roaming horses in North America. The Virginia Range, that comprises nearly all of Storey County, is home to the Virginia Range or "Comstock" herd. Since this herd does not inhabit Federal lands, their management falls under the jurisdiction of the Nevada Department of Agriculture.
Unlike the BLM Wild Horse & Burro Program, the Nevada Dept. of Agriculture (or NDA) has limited funds with which to operate a horse program. It basically runs a fairly sophisticated horse pound at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center and the responsibility for placing horses lies with a matrix of state approved non-profit adoption groups. The groups have 60 days to place the horses with approved adopters or the animals risk being sold without protection or shipped to the livestock sale in Fallon. Usually the adoption groups get the animals placed, however it often can be a struggle. Urban sprawl is steadily encroaching on traditional wild horse habitat and animals are being displaced. More horses are finding their way into populated areas, sometimes lured there by misguided residents who illegally feed the wild bands, where they stray onto busy highways. (Click here to view a companion story.) |
Adoption representatives looking over some weanlings
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Horses crossing US-50 at morning rush hour. (Can you spot the gray horse on the center line?)
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to see individual descriptions and close-up photos of horses assigned to LRTC.
KBR Horse Net