Fertility Control Update
By the Numbers
Total Mares Treated: 1,787
Foal birth reduction January through June 2022 (encompassing peak foaling season)
compared to the same time period in 2020: 61.4%
Is It Possible To Treat the Really Wild Mares?
Don’t tell the volunteer darters on the AWHC Fertility Control Team that the horses are all easy and they can’t dart the really wild ones. These darters are very creative when treating mares who like to make life interesting.
We know some like to say that really wild mares cannot be darted, but our team would disagree with that, and they love a good challenge. They just use different strategies and are tenacious!
In speaking with the volunteer darters, here are several of the many creative strategies they employ to make sure they get the mares darted:
- In some of the most remote places we have teams scope out the horses’ use of the area, they use hunting blinds and sit and wait as horses come in. It takes patience and understanding of the horses’ behavior and patterns.
- Other darters have challenging mares who manage to stay just far away so that they are not darted. Those darters have used team strategies such as one person hiking out to the other side of the band gaining the horses’ attention so that the mare is darted by the volunteer on the other side.
- There are also “natural” blinds used such as trees, bushes, rocks and even the occasional off road vehicle.
- Often times it takes multiple trips into a remote area just to desensitize the horses to the vehicles and learn their behaviors. Patience, persistence, low energy, and information gathering all pay off in dividends.
We are so blessed with such committed volunteers who manage to create ways to make sure the mares are darted. There are a handful of the easier mares who are more acclimated to humans but the large majority are wild horses and the darters have to use their creativity to get those mares treated.
Above, Debbi Engelke uses the vehicle block the horses’ view of her.
Below, Chuck Staton in a hunting blind checking the database, and the view of the horses outside.
