Federal government thins the herds of wild horses in Colorado

A trailer of wild mustangs is transported to a temporary holding facility during the federal Bureau of Land Management's wild mustang roundup in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area in Rio Blanco County, Colo., on Aug. 5. McKenzie Lange/CPR News hide caption

A helicopter swooped through the bright blue sky, as a pilot scanned the high desert below for wild horses running through the dusty sagebrush, about an hour's drive west of Meeker, Colorado. A small group of reporters and horse lovers watched from the cover of wizened trees, about a mile from a pen that would trap the horses.

Horse advocate Robyn Smith spotted the first group of the day. Through her high-powered camera lens, she watched about half a dozen horses of various colors galloping together.

"It makes me happy they're living their best life," said Smith, a retired architect who has traveled across the West to photograph wild horses. "And it's just such a beautiful thing to see when you're just wild and free like that."

But she knew what would come next. Soon the helicopter was hovering above the horses, including a baby. They ran away from the loud buzz and toward the pen, just out of view.

Wild mustangs are herded toward a capture pen by helicopter during the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's wild mustang roundup in the Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area in Rio Blanco County, Colo., on Aug. 5. McKenzie Lange/CPR News hide caption

Scenes like this are common across the American West. The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the U.S. Interior Department, oversees both wild horses and the public rangeland they call home across 10 Western states. When the agency determines there are more horses than the land can support, it removes a set number. For this gathering event in rural Colorado, about 1,000 are slated for capture. Most of the gathered horses will end up in controversial long-term holding facilities that some horse advocates equate with prisons.

As Smith watched the horses gather in the pen, she clicked her camera's shutter in rapid fire and started to cry.