March 19, 2016 UnBranded is a 2015 Documentary that recorded an epic 3,000-mile journey through the most pristine back-country of the American West. Four friends rode horseback on adopted wild mustangs from the US Bureau of Land Management, border to border, from Mexico to Canada. Chosen to inspire more adoptions from the 50,000 mustangs and burros in holding facilities across the United States. This journey, calling attention to the necessity of properly managing horse populations on the range, showed these animals as their riders’ transport, nemeses, and eventual trusted companions as men and mustangs traversed the immense landscapes of Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.
Ben Masters was a key component of the UnBranded documentary and has been very proactive in his efforts to bring a more focused light to wild mustang. He shares these words, “Is fertility control part of the answer to solving the Wild Horse population growth dilemma?” TJ Holmes believes so. TJ spends a month every spring darting mares with PZP, a fertility control vaccine that works for one year, on the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area in SW Colorado. She has drastically reduced the population growth and as a result, horses are removed much less frequently when they surpass the Appropriate Management Level.
I’m honored to team up with National Geographic Adventure to explore Wild Horse Management and possible solutions to a very complex issue. We’ll be releasing a series of blogs and a short film exploring the subject. I don’t have an exact release date but most likely it will be sometime this summer.”
NW Equine will be keeping an eye out for the release of this documentary.