A wild-horse refuge in northwest Colorado has expanded from its original 22,450-acre property to roughly 30,000 acres, giving rescued mustangs a vast, contiguous landscape in which to roam. The expansion is real, but it is not a brand-new project: the Wild Animal Sanctuary announced the initial land purchase near Craig in January 2023.
The nonprofit says the Wild Horse Refuge now covers about 46.8 square miles and is home to more than 230 mustangs. A July 2026 report put the population at about 300 horses after adjoining parcels increased the holding to nearly 30,000 acres.
A refuge created after federal roundups
The sanctuary created the refuge in response to Bureau of Land Management removals from Colorado’s Sand Wash Basin and Piceance-East Douglas herd management areas. The original property was a former cattle ranch with rolling hills, canyons, native grasses, sagebrush and juniper, with Lay Creek crossing part of the land.
The refuge is located close to the areas where many of the horses once lived—about 30 miles from Sand Wash Basin and less than 40 miles from the Piceance-East Douglas area, according to the organization. Its aim is to provide a permanent home for mustangs removed from public rangelands rather than keep them indefinitely in smaller holding facilities.
Space for horses to behave like horses
The refuge says its resident mustangs are not confined to paddocks, stock pens or small fenced pastures. Instead, they move across the larger property, graze and form social groups in an environment intended to preserve more of their natural behavior.
That does not mean the broader debate over wild-horse management is settled. Federal managers, advocates, scientists and ranching communities continue to disagree over population targets, removals, fertility control and the condition of public rangelands. Colorado’s four federal herd management areas together cover about 400,000 acres, according to the BLM.
What the Wild Horse Refuge offers is one concrete outcome for animals already removed from those lands: a large protected home where they can live in herds with far more room than a conventional holding facility can provide.
Sources
- The Wild Horse Refuge: mustangs and current refuge facts
- The Wild Animal Sanctuary: January 2023 acquisition announcement
- Bureau of Land Management: Colorado herd management areas
