Salt River horse herd to be drastically cut, per new state contract

A year-long saga over who will manage Arizona’s beloved Salt River wild horses has ended. The horses will remain under the care of the nonprofit Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, which has looked after and controlled the population of the horses since 2018.

However, for the first time since 2017, when lawmakers passed legislation barring the horses from being removed from the Lower Salt River without the state’s say-so, horses will now be removed from the herd and placed in sanctuaries around the area. Simone Netherlands, who runs the group that has managed the horses for the past eight years, said her organization will trim the herd “through gradual relocations to pre-vetted sanctuaries, including its own Prescott sanctuary, rather than large-scale roundups.”

The Arizona Department of Agriculture, which awards contracts to manage the horses, has mandated that the herd be reduced to 120 animals. Netherlands said the herd today is down to 274 horses from 450 when her group began managing the population. The group has previously trimmed the herd through a fertility program that ensured natural horse deaths outnumbered births every year. That program will continue, but Netherlands said she expects the group will also remove 25 horses a year to sanctuaries.

Netherlands has vocally opposed removing horses, but said the group agreed to some removals to prevent a rival management group from winning the contract. That group, the Wild Horse Transition Team, has been roiled by internal disagreements. It is headed by a U.S. Forest Service contractor whom Netherlands distrusts.

“After many years of protection, agreeing to removals was incredibly difficult,” Netherlands said in a press release. “But considering the alternative contractor, we determined the herd would be worse off without us. For their ultimate safety, we felt we needed to compromise.”

Netherlands said her group operates on donations and does not receive money from the state. She said the group’s contract has a five-year term, although the state’s procurement database shows that the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group’s new contract is for only one year, taking effect on Feb. 17 and ending on the same date in 2027. In an email to Phoenix New Times, Netherlands clarified that the contract automatically renews each year for five years, though the Department of Agriculture can choose to cancel it after any given year. The Department of Agriculture did not immediately respond to a request for information.

In her press release, Netherlands said her group “is actively seeking land or leases closer to the Salt River to relocate horses while keeping family bands intact and the public able to view them.” She noted that the city of Scottsdale shot down a proposal to relocate some horses to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, which the city manages. That’s partly because some experts and environmental groups argue that the horses, which are not native to the area, have a deleterious effect on the ecosystem.

“We care about each and every Salt River wild horse, and we know the public does too,” Netherlands said. “We thank the AZDA for making the right decision and entrusting us with their continued humane management.”