Ongoing programs that manage and place America's wild horses and burros.
The Bureau of Land Management manages wild horse and burro populations on public lands across the West, gathering excess animals from overpopulated herd management areas and offering them for adoption or purchase at events nationwide throughout the year, both in person and through its online Online Corral. The BLM has placed more than 300,000 wild horses and burros into private care since 1971.
Visit the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program →Held every year on the last Wednesday and Thursday of July, Chincoteague's "Saltwater Cowboys" round up the wild ponies of Assateague Island and swim them across the channel to Chincoteague Island, Virginia, where some of the foals are auctioned to benefit the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company. The tradition dates back to 1925 and was popularized by Marguerite Henry's novel Misty of Chincoteague.
Visit the Official Pony Swim Guide →A nonprofit dedicated to protecting and managing the wild Colonial Spanish Mustangs that roam the northern Outer Banks of North Carolina, an isolated herd descended from Spanish horses believed to have arrived with early explorers.
Visit the Corolla Wild Horse Fund →The Pryor Mountains of Montana are home to one of the most genetically distinct wild horse herds in the country. The BLM-managed range is paired with a dedicated visitor center that tracks individual horses and their family bands.
Visit the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center →A California sanctuary and advocacy organization providing permanent, wild-living homes for horses removed from BLM herds and other at-risk wild and domestic horses.
Visit Return to Freedom →2026 marks the 101st year of the Chincoteague Pony Swim.