Fitness
Did You Know There’s a Place Where Wild Horses Run Free Again?
The Wild Horse Refuge offers a second chance for Colorado’s Wild Mustangs
The Wild Horse Refuge
Imagine this – a stretch of prairie lies in northwestern Colorado where the land seems to roll on endlessly beneath a wide, brilliant sky. Green grass bends with the wind and, if you pause long enough, past the rustle and the distant calls of birds, you might hear it — hoofbeats moving across the horizon.
You spot a band of wild horses, their coats shifting between gray, white, and deep brown as they move across the open land. They’re not domestic horses. They are wild Colorado Mustangs — descendants of horses that have lived on this landscape for generations, part of the fabric of the American West for hundreds of years, and maybe even longer.
Creating Space for the Wild
Today, Mustangs continue to roam this land with a kind of freedom that was almost lost. Pat Craig and his team at The Wild Animal Sanctuary make this possible.
If you’re a wildlife fan, you may have heard of Craig’s earlier work that led to the founding of The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado. It’s the oldest and largest sanctuary of its kind in the country. What began as a small rescue effort is now a 40,000-acre network of facilities across Colorado, providing lifelong care for more than 1,000 rescued lions, tigers, bears, wolves, horses, and other wildlife. That large-scale rescue and land-based rehabilitation was the foundation for something new: a place designed specifically for wild horses.
Through land development and changing use patterns, the range for Mustangs has steadily narrowed. So large-scale roundups are sometimes conducted to manage population levels within Herd Management Areas. In 2021, nearly 700 Mustangs from Colorado’s Sand Wash Basin were removed from the wild and placed into holding facilities while long-term outcomes were determined.
Freedom, Restored
How do you preserve something wild within a system built to control it? One way is The Wild Horse Refuge. Instead of indefinite holding, this sanctuary was designed to offer long-term, land-based freedom.
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Can you believe over 280 rescued Mustangs, many from the 2021 Sand Wash Basin roundup, now call The Wild Horse Refuge home? These majestic animals have transitioned into a free-range environment spanning 30,000 acres near Craig, Colorado, where they can move, graze, and organize socially without confinement.
As you can imagine, horses that have spent time in holding facilities don’t immediately settle into open land. They are cautious at first, trying to navigate land without boundaries again. But gradually, their movement becomes more fluid. Social groups form naturally. The rhythm of life starts to return to something instinctive.
Protecting Their Future
Of course, this sanctuary isn’t set-it-and-forget-it. Thousands of acres require ongoing stewardship, veterinary care, and a commitment to keeping human interference intentionally limited. It requires constant coordination behind the scenes.
That’s where you come in. Public support is part of the model to keep Wild Mustangs safe and secure, yet free. For some of us, that can mean learning more about wild horse management in the West and maybe even visiting the Refuge. It could also mean contributing to land conservation efforts or symbolically supporting a Mustang through programs that help fund ongoing care – purchasing an acre or more or “adopting” a horse for a month, a quarter, a year.
The intent behind this effort makes it appealing to all of us animal lovers. Create a viable home for horses that would otherwise enter long-term holding systems with limited prospects for release. So, what does it take to keep something wild connected to the land it came from? The Wild Horse Refuge offers practical solutions you can participate in.
Learn more about The Wild Horse Refuge, visit the Refuge’s website at WildHorseRefuge.org today!
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