Wild mustangs find new home at Vestring Ranch
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
More than 6,000 wild mustangs that formerly grazed the valleys of Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming have a new home in the Flint Hills of Kansas.
Several years ago, Vestring Ranch signed a five-year contract with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to run at least 2,000 of the mustangs on its grassland south of Cassoday.
Vestring Ranch, operated by Robert "Bob" Vestring of Burns and his three sons, Louis, Rob, and Steve, was the first in Kansas to have such a contract. Two adjoining ranches now run another 4,000 head.
Bob Vestring said the only other contract for wild horses is in an area around Bartlesville, Okla., where wild mustangs have been kept for at least 15 years.
Every fall, the herds are rounded up and mares are separated from their colts before being returned to pasture.
At the Vestring Ranch headquarters, the horses are gathered in sturdy pens. They pass through a long alleyway, where mares pass through a squeeze chute for any necessary treatment, and colts are turned aside into a separate pen.
Later, the colts are run through the chute and given an identifying number and shots. They then are shipped to the Kansas correctional facility at Hutchinson, where they are gentled and trained by inmates, then adopted out to private individuals.
There are no studs (males) among the mares. After their colts are weaned, they cease to reproduce.
According to Christine Tincher, public affairs officer for the regional BLM office at Moore, Okla., the program was established after Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, putting the animals under the protection of BLM and the U.S. Forest Service.
Tincher said BLM's job is to protect and care for land resources in the west and to balance the interests of ranchers, wildlife, businesses, and recreation.
According to Tincher, western ranchers were unhappy with all the wild horses on BLM land. The management program is a way of controlling the numbers.
Rod Coleman, a BLM agent out of El Dorado, said there are 38,000-40,000 head of Mustangs in western states, more than the land can sustain.
Coleman was on hand Sept. 10 at the Vestring Ranch to supervise and assist as the Vestrings gathered a herd of horses and processed them.
It was a noisy, dusty scene as the wild animals milled around in their pens. As mares and colts were separated, the colts' whinnying cries filled the air, and the mares neighed shrilly in return.
It would be several days before the roundup would be finished.
Bob Vestring said the ranch went through a lot of red tape before the first horses were delivered. Various government agencies with an interest in the land analyzed the property. Information was collected regarding stocking rates, soil type, and so forth.
"We had to make sure there was enough land to take care of the horses," Tincher said. She noted that a little more grass is allowed for the horses than would be for cattle.
The mustangs on Vestring Ranch run in several pastures on almost 15,000 contiguous acres, at a rate of 7.3 acres per head. They remain there until they die. Other wild horses are brought in from time to time to replace those that have died.
The ranch also has a cow herd and a yearling steer program. The Vestrings put up 1,100 tons of brome hay each year to feed the livestock.
According to Tincher, the horses shipped to Kansas and Oklahoma live longer than those on the western range due to a milder climate and abundant forage. She said a mustang's average life span is 15 years, but some horses in Oklahoma are 15-18 years old and still are doing well.
