Concerns about the condition of wild horses moved to a private ranch in Albany County won't deter the Bureau of Land Management from pursuing more such arrangements, a state BLM official says.

But a wild horse advocate said such "sanctuaries" aren't the answer to dealing with what federal officials see as overpopulated horse herds in Wyoming and elsewhere the West.

In 2005, the BLM entered a long-term agreement with an organization called Wild Horses Wyoming to move 100 wild geldings from Nevada and California to the Sheep Mountain Ranch in the Centennial Valley. The organization was paid $180,000 - $1,800 for each horse - to keep the horses for the rest of their lives on the 23,000-acre ranch, with the BLM retaining ownership of the animals.

Later, Wild Horses Wyoming paid $50 each to "adopt" more than 200 wild horses - most of them older mares - and brought the animals to the ranch. Wild Horses Wyoming owns those animals, but part of the sales deal was an agreement not to send them to slaughter.

Marty Griffith, a Wyoming BLM deputy director, said the Sheep Mountain Ranch is the largest of four ranches in the state where captured wild horses have been placed in private land to spend the rest of their lives. The BLM has hailed such arrangements as a way to avoid sending wild horses to slaughter - a prospect that horrifies wild horse advocates - yet reduce what the agency sees as overpopulated wild horse herds on public rangeland in the West.

Complaints about the condition of the horses on the Sheep Mountain Ranch have now drawn the attention of federal, state and local officials.

Bryan Broderson, a Laramie real estate agent who grew up around horses, said the animals are obviously in poor condition and is calling for government action to help them. He said the horses entered the winter in poor condition because the land was parched and overgrazed, and winter weather has made the situation worse.

But Sean Mater of Wild Horses Wyoming this week disputed that assessment.

"The horses are in great shape," he said Tuesday. "I was just there. They all looked great. There were no dead horses out there. The range was in good shape going into the fall.

"There's horses out there that are 30-plus years old. They don't look like a 5-year-old horse, but that doesn't mean that they look bad."

Mater, a real estate developer in Fort Collins, Colo., said some supplemental feeding of the horses has begun, though he didn't provide details.

He also declined to discuss exactly who is responsible for the animals. Ron Hawkins of Laramie, who worked with Mater to obtain the first group of wild horses for Wild Horses Wyoming, said Tuesday he was no longer involved in the management of the horses.

Griffith said he understands the ranch is being sold to Brooks Realty, and that Mater will lease the property from the new owner. The BLM has received assurances that the ranch's new owner is committed to allowing Wild Horses Wyoming to uphold its commitment to the BLM.

"We're confident they'll be able to continue to take care of those horses," Griffith said.

He said he asked Mater to begin feeding hay to the horses because the animals are in "a little less than a fully open-range situation" and because it's possible that snow is covering forage they might otherwise be able to reach. He has arranged for a team of veterinarians to visit the ranch to assess the animals' condition on Monday.

But Griffith and Alan Shepherd, the Wyoming BLM horse program leader who visited the ranch less than a month ago, said they don't think the horses are suffering any more than they would be on open range this winter.

"It's just that some of them are really old," Griffith said. "During the winter, even domestic horses will look thinner."

"The average age of these horses is over 15 (years)," Shepherd said. "In the wild, most horses between 15 and 20 (years) are at the end of their lives. This cold weather taps their energy. The area didn't grow whole lot of feed this year, but it was enough to keep them in pretty good flesh condition. With supplemental feeding, they should be fine."

Jim Siler, law enforcement administrator for the Wyoming Livestock Board, said an officer from his department checked the horses late last week.

"Our inspector said it appeared there were some horses who appeared to be thin, but they couldn't determine whether they were the older horses," Siler said.

But wild horse advocate Patricia Fazio of Cody, who has a degree in animal science and has studied wild and domestic horses for many years, said the descriptions she has been given paint a picture of at least neglect.

"Wild horses do not automatically get thin when they age," she said, noting that she hasn't seen the horses and therefore can't offer scientific conclusions. "Horses live into their 20s and 30s in good body shape. If they're thin, they're either malnourshed or undernourished, have dental problems or parasites, or some underlying disease."

Fazio said she was happy to hear that the horses were being given supplemental feed, but she would like to see an independent assessment of the animals' condition.

"It's not that I don't trust the BLM, but they want this program to work, and I think objective veterinarians not within agencies (should) look into the situation," she said. "You can't help the cold weather, but in a true wild horse situation, there's plenty of land, and horses can find barriers to the wind. When they're out there on somebody's property, they may or may not have barriers that will help protect them from the wind and the weather."

Fazio said she understands the need to reduce the numbers of wild horses on Western rangeland, but she is against moving the animals into private sanctuaries such as that operated by Wild Horses Wyoming.

"These horses are at the mercy of Wild Horses Wyoming, which is putting them in a zoo-like situation," she said. "It's not a safe haven if these horses are being starved."

She would rather see the federal government use contraceptives to control wild horse populations and develop a "quality adoption program" to help train the animals and move them into the custody of people who will treat them well.

But Griffith and Shepherd said they view Wild Horses Wyoming as a success, and they would like to see more such efforts.

"We've had really no problems," Shepherd said. "The horses get to live to be wild horses, not confined into corrals, and get to live out their lives. I think it's a useful thing - I really do."

Star-Tribune correspondent Phil White contributed to this report.