In West Virginia and surrounding states, many thousands of horses are turned out onto former and active mine sites or just into the mountains.

Through the winter, many will die or come near death. Some weather through. Some are born feral, but the bulk are friendly, domestic horses managed by horse traders - denied basic feeding, farrier care or vetting and used to often fill the overseas meat market.

This is not a problem only found in West Virginia. It is found in VA, Ky and Ohio, as well.

We've tried to raise awareness, documenting herds, doing video and trying to work on change with the mine companies, land owners and at the Legislative level.

We we began covering this situation, it was unheard on on the national level, and it was denied HEAVILY across WV, Ky and Ohio.

It has finally come to light in a way no one can deny, anymore.

We are still trying hard to find a long term solution to solve this problem most people nationwide has no idea exists.

Essentially, Horses are being turned out in herds across former and active mine sites in West Virginia where they are suffering from far too little food, no vet or farrier care and horrible (generally, no) management.

Sometimes, they are turned out by those who cannot afford them, but generally, they are being purchased cheaply locally or at auction and put on these mine sites because the horse traders lack space to hold them.

They are generally kept in herds of 9-15 mares with a stallion. The mares breed yearly, usually keeping very poor condition in the state of West Virginia (Those in the lusher lands of Kentucky sometimes look relatively good in the spring and summer months) through pregnancy, birth and lactation.

The breeding is indiscriminate with the exception that these traders will shoot orotherwise kill/remove/auction/sell the colts or stallions they do not wish in the herds.
This is a problem so massive, it will require firm local control of the horses being brought in and out, as well as many organizations nationwide, legislative changes at the state level and cooperation of the land corporations and mines.

We are talking about thousands of horses, despite the denials we still hear on the matter (though the denials come far less often these days)

Sadly, the citizens in communities with large feral horse populations regard the horses highly, despite the fact some of the horses are in poor shape and starve through winter, they resent most efforts to remove the horses. Some claim ownership but often have no way to give needed care, some just enjoy riding ATVs out to see the herd, though the conditions are poor, the local communities do not seem to always realize this.

Currently, no rescue organization is legally allowed to go onto these lands and just round up the horses in the state of West Virginia.

Horses are killed and injured via gun shots and on the roadways. They starve through the winter and they continue to breed and inbreed year after year, all while allowing unethical traders / dealers to purchase at auction, turn out and manage horses they feed into the auction pipeline (and undoubtedly the slaughter pipeline, by default).

We are hoping to keep pushing legal changes to levy heavy fines on those found dumping, claiming or managing horses on these lands at the state level. For horses abandoned on these sites, we would like to see a gelding program where colts and stallion are re-released in the short term, while mares and foals are rescued, as groups are able.

The numbers are too great to control in just a few years’ time, but this is a problem we can and must solve, as the suffering and potential long term harm to the equines is too great to ignore.

There are rare occasions we are asked to help when horses come into towns or populated areas by the local law enforcement teams.

The HOP horse known as Rudy who was recently adopted is one such example.
You can see some footage we shot and a presentation we did in Huntington, WV (following some huge meetings with corporate land companies) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsZEGRwJP7M

http://www.wvhorserescue.org/mine.html