For Jake Harvath, 2024 was the Year of the Mustang.
The Utah man devoted his entire year to advocating for the United States’ wild horses, completing a 6,000-mile journey across 25 states to raise awareness about a crisis plaguing these majestic creatures.
He began his journey in September of 2023 and just returned to a spirited welcome and police escort into his hometown of Herber City, Utah before the turn of the new year.
With him were his three trusty steeds: Denver, Eddy, and Bella. (Though Bella did take a detour for her health amid the journey.)
Throughout the expedition — which Harvath documented on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok — he lived with only what little he could pack on two mustangs (he reserved his mare, Bella, for riding), traversing east and turning back around after reaching the Atlantic Ocean.
“My goal is to bring awareness to the plight of the American mustang, wild horses that were once a symbol of an untamed country but now struggle to keep their place in it,” he wrote on a GoFundMe page at the top of his journey — a fundraiser that has since collected over $38,000.
“I'll be crossing this country’s diverse terrain and unpredictable climates, relying on those skills and the natural hardiness of the mustang to succeed in my goal,” he continued. “I know my mustangs will be great ambassadors, helping me spread awareness of the BLM's wild horse adoption program.”
The program he spoke of is the United States Bureau of Land Management’s Adoption Program, which oversees the placement of wild horses and burros into qualified farms and rangelands.
These animals are federally protected, but since they lack natural predators, the federal government — namely the BLM — must manage their populations to ensure they are healthy and able to thrive on public lands.
All three of Harvath’s horses are adoptees from the program, and he hoped to inspire other outdoorsy farmhand folks like himself to consider adopting their own horses, too.
In 2023, the bureau spent nearly $159 million on population control efforts for wild horses and burros across the U.S., but they continue to outnumber what the BLM deems sustainable, clocking in at a population of more than 73,000 as of March 2024.
And allowing them to exist on their own in the wild simply isn’t a solution, either.
“As wonderful as that would be, we live in a country, in a modern society, that doesn’t allow that to happen,” Harvath told Deseret News in 2023.
Grazing offerings on public lands are limited, especially while rising populations force horses to compete for scarce resources. Besides, human development makes it much harder for wild horses to truly be wild.
“Many of these horses out there are starving,” Harvath added. “At least in BLM holding (they) get enough food to eat and regular water, compared to ... competing with other species, mostly us, to survive. It’s because of that, them just being wild, turning them all loose, isn’t really a solution.”
Over the years, BLM has implemented measures of fertility control, but gaining access to wild horses can be costly and challenging. Therefore, the adoption program provides these horses a safe place to land — and lessens the weight on the BLM’s shoulders.
Since 1971, the BLM has facilitated the adoption of more than 270,000 wild horses, according to Deseret News. Adoptions increased over the years but dipped again in 2022, making Harvath’s project that much more vital to the care of these creatures.
On his journey, Harvath said he was “able to help loads of people start the adoption process to adopt their first wild horses,” according to the Nebraska Examiner, as well as provide “some people’s first experience with horses.”
“These horses are absolutely worth adopting, they’re very trainable, and they are incredible partners,” Harvath said in one of his YouTube videos. “What better way to showcase that than on a journey like this?”
On his return home, his success was palpable. He also believes he set a new record for the longest continuous horse pack ride in the U.S. within a single year, riding 4,570 miles between September 2023 and 2024. The closest before him was a man who rode 3,000 in a year back in 1989.
Harvath told the Nebraska Examiner he plans to submit an application to The Long Riders Guild and Guinness World Records, though that’s not what he cares about most.
“These horses have suffered, bled, worked, and sweat to no end to get us here to the end, through storms, rivers, over hundreds and hundreds of mountains,” Jake told his supporters upon his homecoming.
“They’ve proven their worth again and again. I owe my very life to them.”
And for leaders at the BLM, Harvath has proven his worth, too.
“The mustang is another horse. It’s another member of people’s family that can do anything a domestic horse can do,” Gus Warr, wild horse and burro manager for the BLM’s Utah office said.
“We have animals we need to find homes for. And [Jake’s] been a banner for that.”
Header image courtesy of Jake Harvath/Instagram
