Wild horses moving into Virginia City

As brisk air turns to cold and the winter season sets in, the problem of intruding wild horses is starting to rear its head in the Virginia Range.

The past two weeks have seen half a dozen estray horses trapped and sent for reconditioning at a nearby ranch. On Wednesday traps were put out to capture eight or nine more that have been wandering through town.

"They are moving into people's yards, tearing up scenery and they can damage vehicles," said state brand inspector John Tyson. "People feed them and its like a welfare system."

The trap, set up near the public works facility, works like a corral and is a series of panels and a hay-feeding system. Once inside, the door is shut until a horse trailer can take the culprits to the Virginia Highlands holding facility.

Before the horses are brought to the estray horse facility at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, they are given a second chance at roaming the Virginia Highlands.

"They are fed regularly for two weeks," Tyson said. "Hopefully, in the end they will have lost interest in town."

If after their release back into the wild, the horses continue to show a preference for town life, they will be captured again and sent to the NNCC facility.

Once there, they are trained or "broken" for adoption as domesticated horses. Tyson said the prison program shows promise, although adopting out that many horses is impossible and the cost of housing them is expensive.

"It's a one-shot deal," he said. Horses that are not adopted can be sent for slaughter.

Younger horses are easier to break, Tyson said.

The infiltration of horses into the residential neighborhoods is common for this time of year but wild horse populations are on the upswing, according to a study released earlier this year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service called for the removal of 225 feral horses a year for the next three years. The reduction is aimed at stabilizing the herd at approximately 550 horses.

Produced in conjunction with the Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association, the Agriculture Department's statistics suggest that herds are growing by a rate of 18 percent to 20 percent a year.

Since VRWPA was created in 1997, 200 horses have been captured.