This is a story about family — a small family of horses and the community that embraced these horses and stood up for them. The Deer Run herd, as they are known, is a small band of wild horses that lived outside Carson City, Nevada. They are the poster family for all wild horses who are subjected to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) reckless and inhumane management policy. The BLM arrogantly lied to the media and local community about the reasons for removing this family from their home on the range. Over tremendous community opposition, the BLM proceeded with the trapping of the horses, refusing to take simple steps to leave this family on the range where they have lived for decades.

Although heartbroken that the BLM rejected its pleas to work with the community to keep the Deer Run horses on the range, locals once again pulled together to support a plan to keep the family together by sending them to a sanctuary where they could remain free and wild for the rest of their lives.

This is the Deer Run herd’s story of adoption and transfer to a new home in California.

AWHPC is proud to have played a role in making certain that this small band will forever be kept together and live as wild horses at a private 2,000-acre sanctuary in northern California. Below is the story of how these cherished horses were put up for auction-adoption by the BLM, rescued and taken to their new forever home in California. While the BLM failed these horses horribly, the local community rallied and showed that wild horses truly “enrich the lives of the American people.”

Note: The BLM captured 11 adult horses from the Deer Run family in February 2013. Four of those horses (all fillies) are going to Colorado where they will live with their father (the original stallion of the band) and brother. The remaining 7 members of the family (plus 2 newborn foals) will live at the private California sanctuary. Five horses were transferred to the California sanctuary on Monday March 25. The remaining two mares, who gave birth in BLM’s holding pens, will move to California with their foals in April.

March 25, 2013: Video of the arrival of the first 5 members of the Deer Run herd at the sanctuary.