Wild Horses
Montana is home to one herd of wild horses which is located in the Pryor Mountains south of Billings along the Montana-Wyoming border. There are no wild horse herds in the Dakotas.
For more than a century, the Pryor Mountains have been home to free-roaming bands of wild horses. In 1968, interested individuals and groups convinced Interior Secretary Stewart Udall to set aside 31,000 acres in the Pryor Mountains as a public range for the wild horses living there. Subsequent to the Udall's order, the passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971 allowed for expansion of the range to areas where horses were "presently found."
The Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range is unique in both its setting and for the wild horses that inhabit it. Many of the horses have primitive striping on their backs, withers, and legs and are reputed to be descendents of "colonial" Spanish horses.
The Pryor Mountains were named after Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor of the Lewis and Clark Expedition which traveled down the nearby Yellowstone River Valley in 1806. The Pryor mountain range is actually an extension of the Bighorn Mountains but is separated from the Bighorns by the Bighorn Canyon. For centuries, the Pryors were home to small bands of American Indians.
Click here for more information about the Pryor Mountain wild horses.
Adopt a Living Legend
Today, America's wild horses and burros are found in 10 western states. It is the BLM's responsibility to preserve and protect healthy herds of wild, free-roaming horses and burros as components of the public lands. The Wild Horse Annie Act of 1959 and the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 gave wild horses and burros a legal right to live on public lands without harassment. The Adopt-A-Horse or Burro Program was initiated in 1973 to meet the challenges of balancing the health of public lands with the health of the wild horses and burros.
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