The wild horses of the west are being managed by the federal government with 71 million tax dollars. Some people believe that the herds are growing too large and that the horses are over populating the western public lands, taking up resources that could be used for cattle, wildlife and recreation use. But extra feral horses can't be shot or slaughtered and few are adopted. So thousands are shipped to the Midwest for safekeeping on large ranches. KMUW's Aileen LeBlanc visited a herd of wild mustangs in the Flint Hills near Cassoday.
It’s not hard to see in your mind the Indians that lived in these hills thousands of years ago - long before there were horses or white men. With the exception of a few widely spaced fences and one interstate which runs through it, the Flint Hills of Kansas carry their history right on the surface.
The horses here are all breeds and all colours. On a windy day they wait patiently for a truck to unroll a big round bale of brome hay for breakfast.
Please listen to the link above for the full story.
This story originally aired on Morning Edition on Feb. 11, 2014.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please check out coverage of the western wild horses from our partner on this story:
![Two-dozen Retuerta horses, the second of two batches, are released into the Campanarios de Azaba Biological Reserve in western Spain. The animals' DNA closely resembles that of the ancient wild horses that once roamed this area before the Romans began domesticating them more than 2,000 years ago. <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]-->](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4f36f5d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2608x1725+232+0/resize/260x172!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2014%2F01%2F08%2Fhorses5_wide-23e4fdb32e4df10b87f11f32acd5f7074539a4b5.jpg)