Wild horses find pasture in Oklahoma

In the late 1980s, John Hughes' family cattle operation was struggling. One morning, he opened up the newspaper and found a story about a South Dakota rancher who had landed a U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contract to keep unadopted wild horses on his land. Hughes asked the bureau about doing the same and soon received a two-inch stack of application papers in the mail. “For a country boy, it was something,” he said. Hughes became the second contractor to handle wild horses for the government. He and his son, Robert, both animal science grads from Oklahoma State University, used the homeland around Bartlesville and leased additional thousands of acres so they could incorporate the horses into their cattle business. The Hughes family runs about 4,300 wild horses — all geldings or castrated males — on about 10,000 acres in three northeastern Oklahoma counties. They raise fescue-Bermuda hay and also feed alfalfa to the mustangs in the winter. They currently have no cattle. The horses are treated as if they are in the wild. No vaccinations, hoof care or veterinary care. A sick or severely injured horse is shot if it doesn't improve. The West Nile virus hit Hughes' ranch horses a few years ago, and he worried the disease would wipe out the wild horse herd. One did get sick, staggered and fell down. When Hughes drove out to check him, the gelding jumped up and galloped away. And he's still alive...more