Hello and Happy Tuesday! 

The October 2024 roundup of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park wild horses is over.  The park issued their reports that we have not been able to decipher because we do not know which numbers correlates to which horse.  We were able to put together our own list of numbers based on research and known birth order.  All of the numbers have been added to our list of horses on our website: https://chwha.org/the-horses-of-theodore-roosevelt-national-park/

PLEASE NOTE: Since Theodore Roosevelt National Park refuses to give us the names that match the numbers, this is only our best guess.  The park SHOULD release the names with the numbers so that the public reads the report the way they intended us to.  CHWHA has asked for this in an email to Superintendent Finley with no response.  Our lawyers sent a request for this information (and more) in our FOIA request that was sent in last week (11/8/2024).  You can read the FOIA report here:

Let’s remember – we now KNOW that this roundup was COMPLETELY unnecessary!  In a report released by Theodore Roosevelt National Park in March of 2024 – written by Blake McCann – we know that in 2022, the park had DNA on 98% of the horses!  We also KNOW that they tracked the horse’s movement so the COLLARS ARE NOT necessary! You can read the report for yourself here:

We are going to spend the next few days talking in detail about GonaCon.  We believe that giving the park the ability to hand inject the mares with GonaCon was the ONLY REASON for this roundup!  We KNOW they had all the DNA they needed and they also observed where the horses travelled because they TOLD US IN THE MARCH 2024 REPORT. 

The combination of treating EVERY MARE IN THE PARK with GonaCon along with removing just about every young horse between the age of 4 months old to 3 years old, has called into question how viable this herd actually is. 

You can read the reports the park gave us yourself on their website: https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/nature/feral-horses.htm

WHAT is GonaCon?  I have found this quick fact sheet from the Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility Control:

From this fact sheet:

“At the me of this writing, PZP-22 and GonaCon™ can produce five to seven years of infertility in free-roaming wild horses with one initial treatment and a single booster two to three years later. As such, the use of these vaccines could result in a much greater reduction in wild horse population foaling rates if repeat immunizations of the PZP-22 vaccine and/or Gona Con™ vaccine were incorporated into long-term population modeling and management plans for areas where animals are difficult to access and/or thinly dispersed.”

NOTE that these scientific findings show that ONE treatment of GonaCon with revaccination 2-3 years LATER can produce 5-7 years of infertility. 

Please keep this in mind as you look at the reports the park gave us over the next couple of days and as you see the treatment schedule they have come up with for OUR wild horses. 

GonaCon is still relatively new.  There is a lot that is not known and a lot that all of us are still waiting to see. 

I do STRONGLY SUGGEST that to understand GonaCon in the easiest way, please watch our YouTube video where we talked directly to Dr. Dan Baker who was the lead researcher from Colorado State University for the GonaCon experiment on the TRNP wild horses from 2009-2020.  You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/kdLHvgVmIuw?si=pL5hZ0U77v4NDJcc

Today, let’s talk about the mares that were released from GonaCon.  ALL FIVE – yes ONLY 5 – of them!:

2013 Mare Justice

Justice was born to Mare Pale Lady and Stallion Thunder Cloud.  She received her first dose of GonaCon in 2015 as a 2-year-old.  She received another dose in 2016.  In 2020 (note: 5 years after her first GonaCon dose) she gave birth to Mare Frosted Arrow AND was given a dose of GonaCon.  In 2021, she gave birth to Colt Cadet.  She was given GonaCon again in 2022 and 2024. 

Justice’s mother, Pale Lady, has a total of 3 offspring in the park, including Justice: 2004 Mare Little Brother’s Girl (Little Brother) whose ONLY offspring in the park is 2014 Stallion Remington. Little Brother’s Girl is the ONLY horse left in this herd that was sired by the late Stallion Little Brother.  2014 Mare Kat, Justice’s full sister, whose ONLY offspring left in the park is 2019 Mare Amargo – who has never foaled. 

Justice’s Father, the late Stallion Thunder Cloud, has a total of 6 offspring in the park, including Mare Justice:   2014 Stallion Xander (Cowgirl), 2014 Mare Kat (Pale Lady), 2019 Stallion Amite (Strawberry), 2020 Colt Boomer (Strawberry), 2020 Mare Blue Angel (Angel) – who has never foaled.

2013 Mare Eagle

Eagle was born to Mare Daisy and the late Stallion Silver.  She received her first dose of GonaCon in 2015 as a 2-year-old.  She received another dose in 2016.  Eagle also foaled in 2016 – she had a filly named Florida.  Florida was captured by the park the following year, shortly after Stallion Silver passed away.  She suffered from colic and died in the holding pens. Eagle received a dose of GonaCon again in 2019 and also gave birth to a beautiful filly named Agency in March of 2019.  Agency died unexpectedly and without explanation in July of 2019.  The late Stallion Mystery was her sire.  Eagle foaled in 2020 when she gave birth to a filly named Birdie.  Birdie has not been seen in about a year and was not brought in during the roundup.  She is presumed to be dead.  Mystery was also her sire.  Eagle was given GonaCon again in 2022 and 2024. 

Eagle’s mother, Daisy, has a total of 2 offspring in the park, including Eagle: 2010 Mare Lakota.  According to the park’s records, by the number system we have, Lakota has never foaled.  We do know that Lakota did foal in 2013 and has not foaled since.  Lakota is Eagle’s full sister.

Eagle’s father, the late Stallion Silver, has a total of 4 offspring still in the park, including Eagle: 2010 Mare Lakota (Daisy), 2013 Mare Faith (Esprit) – who has had 3 beautiful foals and the only one remaining is Mare Belle who is with her in Trooper’s band, 2014 Mare Dixie (Firefly) who has had one documented foal – Moana in 2017. Moana was captured and sold in 2018.

2014 Mare Taylor

Taylor was born to Mare Spotted Blue and the late Stallion Copper (who is Mare Pale Lady’s Full brother).  She received her first dose of GonaCon in 2015 as a 1-year-old.  She received another dose in 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2024.  Taylor foaled in 2016, 2017, and 2020.  All of her foals were captured and sold. 

Taylor is her mother, Spotted Blue’s, ONLY offspring that still remains in the park today.  According to the park’s records, Spotted Blue was one of the original mares that were given GonaCon in 2009 and again in 2013 that STILL has not returned to fertility.  The park shows that she had 5 foals in her life, including Taylor.

Taylor’s father, the late Stallion Copper, has a total of 5 offspring still in the park, including Mare Taylor: 2014 Mare Penny (Angel) who has no offspring in the park, and who, according to the park’s records, has not foaled since 2017, 2014 Mare Paisley (Strawberry) who has never foaled, 2020 Stallion Bart (Democracy) who is currently a bachelor stallion, and 2020 Mare Belle, currently in Stallion Trooper’s band who has never foaled. 

2014 Mare Skipper – pay attention – THIS one is quite interesting!

Skipper was born to Mare Dolly and the late Stallion Cocoa.  She received her first dose of GonaCon in 2015 as a 1-year-old.  She got another dose in 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2024.  Skipper foaled in 2017.  That foal was captured and sold.  In 2019, she gave birth to Stallion Arey (Brutus), who is still in the park. 

Now remember: Dolly SPECIFICALLY was the subject of conversations that we had with the park about possible mares that would be taken out of the park because she is a non-responder to GonaCon. 

Skipper’s mother, Mare Dolly, has 7 offspring that are still in the park, including Skipper: 2013 Mare Democracy (Cocoa), Skippers full sister –  who currently has 4 offspring in the park: 2020 Stallion Bart (Copper), 2021 Colt Winchester (Remington), 2022 Filly Willow (Remington), and 2024 Colt Dillinger (Remington).  2019 Stallion Anzar (Flax), 2020 Stallion Bokel (Flax), 2021 Mare Starlet (Flax), 2022 Filly Summer (Flax), and 2024 Colt Casey (Cagney).

So if Dolly has SO MANY children in the park that – as we were told by Finley and McCann – she is skewing the genetics the “wrong” way, HOW can Dolly’s daughter be taken off GonaCon – as the park states on their reports: “These animals were selected based on their genetic diversity regardless of most recent GonaCon administration.”

I know what you are thinking – maybe it’s because of her father!

Let’s see…

Skipper’s father is the late Stallion Cocoa.  Cocoa currently has 7 offspring still in the park, including Skipper: 2006 Mare Escape (Busy Blue)  – Escape’s ONLY offspring in the park is Ollie Jr, 2007 Mare Maddie (Busy Blue) – Maddie has NO offspring in the park, 2010 Mare Maiden (Busy Blue) who has had 6 foals, according to the park’s records and ONLY Stallion Knight is still in the park, 2013 Stallion Trooper who has no known offspring, 2013 Mare Democracy who has 4 offspring (see above), and 2013 Mare Mischief (Maggie) who has no offspring in the park. 

It does not appear that her father’s genes were the reason and IF the Dolly/Cocoa combination was best for genetic diversity as the park has stated, then Skipper’s full sister Democracy has enough direct offspring for this oversaturated line.

Last but not least:

2020 Mare Belle

Belle was born to Mare Faith and the late Stallion Copper. 

Belle is her mother Mare Faith’s ONLY offspring that is still in the park. 

Belle’s father, Stallion Copper, has the same 5 offspring that was listed above in her half sister Mare Taylor’s part of this blog. 

Remember: “These animals were selected based on their genetic diversity regardless of most recent GonaCon administration.”

3 out of 5 of the mares taken off GonaCon are directly related through Mare Pale Lady and her full brother Copper. 

I am not a scientist or a geneticist, but common sense tells me that IF we ONLY got 5 horses to be taken off GonaCon, wouldn’t it have been good if they could have been from 5 different blood lines? 

Were these really the best decisions for genetic diversity? 

Also, remember that we were told that 2017 Mare Perdita and 2017 Mare Aurora were not removed from the park because of their “special” mitochondrial DNA.  Why weren’t either of these mares taken off GonaCon?  While we can understand that Perdita has had a significant number of foals, Aurora has only had one and both her and her foal have both been repeatedly treated with GonaCon. 

Again, I am not a scientist or geneticist, but from looking this plain data, we think it is fair to question how the park made these determinations.

We will have more on GonaCon tomorrow, so be sure to check back!

Thank you for your support and have a great day!

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