The Bureau of Land Management has a new plan to manage the wild horse herd roaming the Pryor Mountain Range.
The herd currently numbers about 200 horses. The BLM's 10-year management plan sets a target herd size of 107 to 120 animals — a range the agency says will keep both the horses and the surrounding rangeland healthy.
(WATCH: BLM unveils 10-year plan for Pryor Mountain wild horses)
"We have to look at the horses out there, we have to look at the range conditions on the ground, and determine is what we're doing effective and do we need to make changes," BLM's Nate Arave said.
To bring the herd to that target, the BLM will relocate some horses using bait and trap methods.
"We use, you know, an automated gate, which, you know, doesn't have a human being associated with, but, you know, someone flips the button when we've got a camera or something that sees the horses that are in the pen and it shuts them in," Arave said.
Horses captured through that process are transported to a nearby holding facility.
"We take the horses from, directly from the range to Britton Springs, which is our proximal offsite holdings facility here in, it's actually in Wyoming, but it's within our field office boundary," Arave said.
For long-term population control, the BLM is partnering with Zoo Montana on a fertility control program.
"We use fertility control through darting contraceptive," Arave said.
"It's a program that allows us to control, you know, the population and the reproduction rate of the horses," Arave said.
Community reaction to the plan has been mixed, though Arave said most people understand the need for management.
"It's kind of been a mixed feedback, but I think people understand that we do have to have a management plan," Arave said.
The Pryor Mountain wild horses draw visitors from around the world. Tour guide Steve Cerroni has been taking visitors up the mountain for 15 years.
"We've had people this year from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy," Cerroni said.
Among those visitors was Meg Joyce, who traveled from Pennsylvania to see the horses.
"We both love horses, and like I said, he's a farrier, and so I thought this would be a perfect, I'll say, end to our trip out here," Joyce said.
For Cerroni, the appeal of the horses is something he finds difficult to put into words — even after years of witnessing it firsthand.
"It's hard to say what makes them special," Cerroni said.
And the experience of guiding others to see them has not lost its luster.
"What's probably your favorite part about doing these tours and seeing these wild horses? How much time do you have?" Cerroni said.
