Working With(in) The System: Inside a BLM Holding Facility 

After that first call, nothing felt linear. The video had a beginning and an end, but real life does not. Once the phones stopped ringing and the headlines moved on, Trey didn’t go back to the range, and he didn’t become “safe” just because people were in an uproar on the internet. He went into a system that is built to keep moving, even when the subject is a one-month-old foal.

Over the next weeks and then months, I lived inside a rhythm of calling, waiting, calling again, and trying to stay steady enough that someone on the other end of the line would keep talking to me. I asked questions. I tried to be reasonable. I also worked to empathize with the structure within which the BLM agents had to operate.

Little by little, they started giving me more details. In the beginning, I didn’t know how he was doing, where he was being held, or what his condition was. I was told the same phrases over and over, vague enough that they could mean almost anything. Then, because I kept calling, kept my tone calm and learned more about how things worked, the picture got clearer. 

After a time, I was told that they had separated him from the other horses. 

In their world, there are standard ways they organize horses in holding. They separate mares from geldings and stallions, boys from girls. If there are babies, they often keep the babies with the mothers. If the babies are older, they may stay with mares until they reach an age where they would be moved to a different group. But Trey was not older. Trey was a foal.

When they told me he was alone, I didn’t understand why they would do this. Horses are social beings and need to be in herds. They shared that the reason for it was so that Trey didn’t have to fight the others for food. This I understood.

In our next call, they shared, “We put him on milk pellets.” This was to ensure and encourage eating.

I didn’t know what milk pellets were and why they were typically used. So, I asked my horse friends. Milk pellets are hard, dried pellets are used when horses aren’t eating, especially babies without their mother. And what that told me was that he had stopped eating. In my mind it translated into something simple and scary: this foal is failing. 

I next asked the BLM team “Can you put a friend in with him?”

They shared that, from what they observed before putting him by himself, “He didn’t really have any friends.”

A foal doesn’t need a “friend” in the typical way humans mean it. A foal needs contact. A foal needs another living body nearby. A foal needs a nervous system that it can settle against as something warm. I knew that Trey needed a buddy. 

Earlier, when the horses were first put into the holding pens, there was a moment that got captured, two tiny bodies standing side by side in those mud-and-manure pens. Trey and a black-and-white filly. I later learned that they were not from the same herd, but they were part of the same roundup. In that photograph they looked like they were clinging to the nearest safe thing, even if the “safe thing” was simply each other.

Her name was Divine.

I sent the photo. I told them, “Here is a friend. Can you put her with him?”

“No.” They wouldn’t. 

I was floored. I was upset. Why would they refuse something that seemed easy and obvious? I went back to my horse friends for an answer. I learned that it was probably because of the trauma it could do to him. He would bond to another horse and, then, lose that beloved companion in the adoption process. Another separation. Another big loss so soon. It would be too much. 

What was the solution? If this was the reason for not putting them together, I had a decision to make. Was I all-in for him? If I was, then I needed to adopt Divine so the BLM knew that, if they agreed to put them together, they would not be torn apart.  

I pivoted back to Divine. I told them that I was going to adopt her too. I asked if they would put them together if I did. They didn’t say yes, but, they didn’t say no. It was an opening. My next job was to make sure she didn’t disappear too.

That is when I learned about auction choices. The BLM does two types of auctions:  on site, where you have to be there in person; and, online, where you register ahead of time, a day and time is set for the online bidding to open and live bidding happens until the auction closes. 

While Trey was set to be auctioned online, Divine would be auctioned on site about a month before Trey’s auction. This meant I had to travel to Utah to bid on her. I could not do it from afar. I had to fill out an application ahead of time, get approved to bid, and show up in person. 

It was like being asked to solve two problems at once while the clock kept ticking, and the clock did not care that the subjects were babies.

I went to Utah.

I went the night before so I could see the layout, see where Trey was, and try to figure out which of the many pens Divine was in. If you have never tried to spot a small filly in a pen full of larger mares, it is almost impossible. The mares block the babies from view. It is protective, and it is constant, and it is one of those moments where you realize how much social intelligence exists in these animals. Even in confinement, even in chaos, they try to keep the young ones safe.

I had Divine’s assigned BLM number, and the staff told me which pen they thought she was in. I moved along the fence line until I caught a glimpse of her and felt that jolt of recognition. “Okay. She’s there.”

Then I went to see Trey.

He was in a huge pen area by himself. A tiny little being who was alone. I knew I needed to secure Divine.

And, I did.

After winning the bidding process for Divine, I visited with the BLM agents again. I confirmed that I was the winning bidder. I stressed that I intended to have the winning bid for Trey and that they would not be separated. I assured them that I would keep them together. To their credit, they trusted me. They agreed to put them together. 

The online auction was held about a month later. Trey was among many horses up for sale. To be able to bid, I had to go through a number of additional steps to be preapproved. When the day came, I was ready. I bid and stayed online for the full time that the auction was live. 

When it ended…. I was the winning bidder. I was ecstatic. I was able to keep my promise to keep him and Divine together. 

While this felt like a monumental success, it was only the beginning.

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