Riddle Mountain HMA Emergency Wild Horse Roundup Reports

Welcome to our roundup reporting page for the Riddle Mountain Herd Management Area in southeastern Oregon, where you will find eyewitness reports, photographs, videos, and daily totals as the Bureau of Land Management conducts an emergency helicopter roundup.

Beginning September 9, the BLM plans to remove the entire estimated population of approximately 418 wild horses from the 28,000-acre HMA. The agency says the emergency action is necessary after the Bald Mountain Fire burned through the area amid ongoing drought and destroyed roughly two-thirds of the herd's forage.

The complete temporary removal will separate family bands and place hundreds of horses into the federal holding system. Public observation is currently limited to the first two days of operations, September 9 and 10, by advance reservation and subject to operational conditions.

Our field observers will attend whenever access is provided to witness helicopter drives, monitor horse welfare, document roundup conditions, and provide the public with transparent, independent reporting.

This page will serve as a living record of the Riddle Mountain roundup. Throughout the operation, we will publish daily capture and removal totals, photographs, videos, and firsthand observations so the public can follow events as they unfold.

We hope these reports bring greater transparency to the full removal of this distinctive herd and strengthen the call for humane, science-based recovery and management that returns a genetically viable population to the range.