Feral Horses in Miller Creek
Project Background:
Missoula County is currently exploring options to address concerns around a band of feral horses that roams between the Miller Creek area of Missoula and south into the Bitterroot Valley. The feral horses, believed to be descended from rodeo stock from a former ranch that existed in Miller Creek in the 1970s, have become increasingly present in densely populated residential areas over the last few years.
Residents have raised concerns about the feral horses related to public safety, spread of disease, their impact on area livestock, and increased habituation to people and human food sources. The County has also heard from residents who enjoy the feral horses' presence in their neighborhoods.
It is not clear under state law which agency, if any, has jurisdiction to manage feral horses in Montana. After discussing the issue with the Montana Department of Livestock, Missoula County plans to convene agency representatives with subject matter expertise in land and livestock management, ecology and law enforcement. This group will explore potential options for managing the feral horses and provide staff with their recommendations.
The County will engage the public on any potential recommendations sometime in early 2026. This will likely include a public event highlighting the recommendations and providing residents with a chance to bring any questions or concerns to staff.
The county commissioners would then consider adopting the recommendations at one of their public meetings, which take place most Thursdays at 2 p.m. Information on future meetings will also be posted on this page.
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The horses are fine where they are! If people do not like living with the wildlife, they need to move somewhere else. Coming from someone who watched wild horses get decimated in Nv by the BLM. They chase these poor animals with atvs and helicopters to herd them into small pens and then auction them off to people and businesses like slaughter houses. (pet food and delicacy overseas) The horses get injured and they separate moms and foals. This is a small herd and darting the mares with birth control would make the numbers stay down. Please do not ruin the wildlife because people want green lawns and don’t like horse poop! If anything we need to be taking care of the deer population here since they are numerous and often a traffic hazard. They can be used to feed people. Please leave the horses alone.
Please leave them alone. They are lovely and not causing any harm. We live across from the park and it’s always a joy looking out the window and seeing them. Our neighbors do too. I’m not sure who is so unhappy. A majority are fine with the horses. The deer are a much bigger problem. Focus should be on what to do about the deer who are ruining gardens, getting stuck in fences, etc.
Please leave these horses alone. They are no different than the deer or elk, they don't cause any more harm than the other animals in the area. They deserve to be here & have been here for many years. They are a joy to many & are a part of what makes living here special.
The urban deer population is more of a burden on the community than these horses.
WE LOVE THE WILD HORSES!! Please don't take them away.
Leave some real Montana.
They don't hurt anythng!
Leave the horses alone. Let them be.
These horses have been around for almost all of my life. I am 50 years old. They don’t hurt anyone except for divits and deposits on lawns. People can fence their property if they want to keep them out.
You should have Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen on the committee, he’s familiar with the horses, lives in the neighborhood, and is the Sheriff, representing that county dept.
I’m in favor of letting the horses stay. I also think we would want to get a handle on the actual number of horses (if this hasn’t been done already). We can determine who should monitor numbers and issues with the horses before any decisions are made in the future.
I live in upper Miller Creek and I can tell you that most of us LOVE to see the wild horses up there. The herd is healthy and producing healthy offspring proven by the 3 foals born this year. This herd has been here long before we were and instead of looking for ways to get them out of their territory we need to be seeking how to protect this herd. Missoula has much bigger problems that need to be addressed such has cost of living across the board. If Missoula is worried about wild animals in town maybe we should start with a population control plan for the deer which cause a much larger problem in the urban interface.
I would like to submit a comment that I do not want the horses from Miller Creek removed. There may be a very small population of people who don't like them but the majority of us enjoy having them around and they are not causing the problems people say they are. They are wild animals who deserve freedom just as we do and just as the deer who roam our city do. I have never seen anything done about the excessive deer population around the city. And that's because they're not causing a problem just like the horses aren't. Please focus your efforts on more concerning issues in Missoula. If people don't like living around wild animals they should stop spreading out into the wildland urban interface. Not move to somewhere wild and then demand all of the wild animals be removed from that area because they are a minor inconveniences. That girl who got "kicked" by a horse made a very poor decision and her parents clearly were not supervising her well. You should be more concerned about the parents who let their child approach a wild horse rather than the horse's normal reaction to being approached by a human.
Who's Listening
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Phone 406-258-3293 Email clounsbury@missoulacounty.us
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