In 1971 federal land management agencies were mandated by an act of Congress to manage free-roaming horses and burros within their jurisdictions. Prior to the establishment of this mandate horses and burros were hunted on public land for profit or for extermination when they competed for grass with public land ranchers. Aircraft and trucks were used to chase and rope horses were they would then be loaded and sent to a facility where they would be ground up and sold for dog food, chicken feed or fertilizer. Sometimes they would be run off cliffs. Many horses burros were simply shot. Water holes were poisoned.
In 1959 a law, known as the "Wild Horse Annie" Act, after legendary advocate Velma Johnston, forbade the practice of poisoning water holes and the use of motorized vehicles. That law was ignored and not enforced.
Velma continued her journey to gain a more substantial law to protect wild horses.
In 1971, just seven years before her death, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WFRH&B Act) became law.
Many believe the intentions of the law have largely gone as unenforced as the 1959 law.
Establishment of the law, in practice
From 1971-1976 land management agencies allowed the capture of wild horses and burros to continue, this was known as the "claiming period." In the state of Nevada alone over 17,000 wild horses were taken (sent to slaughter, shot and killed) after the Act was passed.
Many federal land management agencies fought a legal obligation to comply with the new law. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service, as an example, is not held to the mandate today. In 2013 they began the final eradication of the Sheldon herds, the most well documented herds of American cavalry mounts.
The Act states that "they land they now stand" is their "range;" managed principally but not exclusively, for their use. But that is not what has happened. Without paper trail, hearing or debate the word "range" was changed to an upper case "Range," and applied only to herds designated before the Act passed in 1971.
Wild horses, like the ones at Triple B, have become a footnote.