Terry Woosley, wild horse and burro program leader for the BLM in Winnemucca, said he’s gotten used to the fact “both sides feel they are getting shorted.”

“We don’t try to fudge the numbers. We report what we count,” Woosley said. “As long as both sides are unhappy, you are probably right in the middle.”

The BLM removed about 7,000 horses from the range in the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30, about 4,000 from Nevada, 1,200 from Utah, 700 from Wyoming and 500 from California, where they also removed 742 burros.

"More than 1.7 million acres of range — an area bigger than Delaware — burned in Nevada in 1999. The result has been less forage."

The horses that are not adopted each year remain in a holding facility like the corals that hold 2,000 at Palomino Valley north of Reno until they find good homes. Older horses are harder to find homes for, but most horses 5 years of age or younger are adopted, especially the colorful ones, Woosley said.

“Put a flashy paint job on any of those horses and they go right now,” he said.

Bellak adopted a horse from the BLM several years ago and recently returned to northern Nevada to find its original home.

“The animals are amazing,” she said. “My mustang has turned out to be a champion show horse. But I’ve always said if I could have left her there to live peacefully, I never would have adopted her.”