Sand Wash Basin HMA Wild Horse Roundup Reports

Welcome to our roundup reporting page for the Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area in northwestern Colorado, where you will find eyewitness reports, photographs, videos, and daily updates as the Bureau of Land Management carries out a helicopter roundup.

The operation began on September 19 after being delayed by two days. The BLM estimates that 505 wild horses live in and around the 157,730-acre HMA, while the agency’s established Appropriate Management Level is just 163 to 362 horses.

The BLM plans to gather approximately 300 wild horses, permanently remove about 245, and return 55 to the range. Twenty-two of the returned horses are expected to receive fertility control treatment. Horses selected for removal will be transported to the Rock Springs Wild Horse Holding Facility in Wyoming before being placed into the federal adoption and sales system.

The roundup will disrupt established family bands and permanently remove nearly half of the estimated herd from the landscape. 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 Sand Wash Basin roundup. Throughout the operation, we will publish daily capture, removal, release, fertility-control, and mortality totals, along with photographs, videos, and firsthand observations from the field.

We hope these reports bring greater transparency to the removal and strengthen the call for humane, science-based management that protects wild horses and prioritizes keeping viable herds free on the range.

September 21. 2026

Animals Gathered: 82 (39 Stallions, 34 Mares, and 9 Foals)

Animals Shipped: 0 (0 Stallions, 0 Mares, and 0 Foals)

Animals Treated with Fertility Control: (0 Stallions, 0 Mares)

Animals Released: 0 (0 Stallions, 0 Mares, and 0 Foals)

Deaths: 0

- Sudden / Acute: 0

- Pre-existing / Chronic: 0

September 20, 2026

Animals Gathered:

No operations due to rainy weather creating poor conditions. Daily activities are listed as “reconnaissance only”.

September 19, 2026

Animals Gathered: 11 (5 Stallions, 3 Mares, and 3 Foals)

Observation was not allowed due to rainy weather creating poor road conditions, per BLM.