Budget woes threaten wild horse herds The cash-strapped BLM manages an estimated 33,000 wild horses and burros on public rangelands and cares for an additional 30,000 in short-term and long-term holding facilities around the country. It says it is facing problems on several fronts, including: - A lack of space at its corrals and pastures. - Skyrocketing hay and grain prices that have made it more expensive to feed the animals. - An economic downturn that has prompted a sharp drop in the number of adoptions. But one of its proposed solutions, cutting the herds by about 6,000 horses, isn’t sitting well with conservationists and agency critics, who say the federal government has mismanaged the Wild Horse and Burro Program so badly that it actually created the crisis....