What’s the Difference Between Wild Horses on Federal Lands and Those on Nevada’s Virginia Range?
A lot of people don’t know this—but there’s a big difference.
Virginia Range horses are not on federal land.
They roam mostly on private property. That means they aren't managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees wild horses on public lands. Instead, the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA) is responsible for these horses, because in the eyes of the law, they’re considered livestock, not protected wild horses.
Here’s why:
Until the 1980s, the BLM did manage the Virginia Range horses. But managing horses on mostly private land proved too difficult. So, the BLM rounded up as many as they could and officially designated the Virginia Range as a “Wild Horse Free Area.” Legally, that meant the BLM no longer had any authority or responsibility for the horses remaining there.
But horses did remain—just without federal protection. When the BLM gave up management, the status of those horses changed. They were no longer considered wild under the 1971 Free-Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act. Instead, they were reclassified as feral livestock—under the jurisdiction of the State of Nevada, specifically the Department of Agriculture.
That’s when things got complicated.
The NDA, citing overpopulation, began rounding up horses and sending them to livestock auctions. Advocates stepped in and, through public pressure and action, outbid kill buyers and rescued the horses.
In 2013, the NDA entered into a cooperative agreement with the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) to help manage the Virginia Range horses. Then, in 2016, AWHPC proposed an amendment to focus management efforts on fertility control. The state never signed off on it—but AWHPC moved forward with administering birth control anyway. As a result, the NDA terminated the agreement. Due to delays in the legislative session, it took over a year for the termination to become official.
In 2019, two key agreements were signed:
A non-exclusive fertility control agreement with AWHPC.
A cooperative agreement with Wild Horse Connection, focused on public safety, fencing, and adoption efforts.
Today, Wild Horse Connection continues to work under that cooperative agreement to help manage the Virginia Range horses. American Wild Horse campaign manages the Fertility agreement.
And here’s an ironic fact:
These are the very horses that Wild Horse Annie—the woman whose campaign led to the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act—fought so hard to protect. Yet, they’re not protected under the very law she helped pass.