ARVADA, Colo. — To keep a barn running, there are of course the chores, and the mud, but when you get down to it, it takes more than that.

"A lot of heart work," said Margaret Blaha, the director of operations at the Horse Protection League.

There’s no shortage of heart here at HPL, a rescue that takes in neglected, abused, and surrendered horses in Colorado with no place left to go. Unfortunately, passion is not enough to keep the barn doors open.

"We've seen a number of increases in both the costs of everything and also animals that are coming into the rescue. We've also—the more alarming thing on my end—is that we've seen a reduction in adoption," said Blaha.

While the 32 horses in their care remain blissfully unaware, Blaha sees the impact of inflation on the work they do every day.

"In 2021, we were able to successfully adopt 21 horses, which was amazing, and then last year in 2022, we were only able to adopt three," she said.

The pandemic brought with it a nationwide adoption boom. Current inflation, however, has pet owners across the country second guessing their ability to keep their animals.

A recent study by Forbes says 63% of pet owners said inflation has made it more difficult to pay a surprise vet bill. Vet bills of $1,000 and under would cause 42% of pet owners to go into debt. At rescues like the Horse Protection League, where they spend thousands of dollars per horse per year, the lack of adoptions and the increase in surrendered animals coming in has created anxieties about how long they can keep going.

"We hope to see some changes probably within the next four months, three to four months, for us to feel a little bit more comfortable with the upcoming year," Blaha said.

Animal rescues need help from the public right now and Blaha says there are more ways to do that than adopting an animal or giving a big sum of money since times are tough for everyone. There are more creative ways like business sponsorships or donating equipment, and people can also look into membership options for rescues near them.

Although this rescue is struggling, they have a strong team of volunteers determined to carry on their mission. It’s the heart work that’s giving Blaha hope they can survive these turbulent economic times because when it comes to the animals in need they serve, they have no other choice but to keep going for them.

"With gratitude, we have volunteers of all different walks of life that have something in common when it comes to loving animals and wanting to provide the best that they possibly can," Blaha said.

LONGMONT, Co. — On her 44 acre property tucked in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Carol Walker feeds her horses an afternoon treat.

Though Micah and Hermoso are living a sweet life, it still pains carol that they’re kept inside a fence.

"I love them both dearly, but I wish that they had stayed wild and free," she said.

A 1971 law protects wild horse numbers. However, the two adopted mustang brothers are in her care because they were captured in separate roundups by the Bureau of Land Management, the government agency tasked with keeping track of their numbers.

If there are too many, the bureau, or the BLM as it's referred to, herds them into corrals via helicopter, puts them into a long-term holding facility, examines them, and then the horses are offered for adoption.

"What the BLM is doing right now is completely against the spirit and the letter of this act, but nobody is stopping them," said Walker.

What Walker, who also photographs wild horses, is referring to is a string of recent roundups, including one ongoing right now in the southwestern corner of Wyoming. It’s a huge undertaking encompassing five different areas, and it's estimated to last weeks.

Brad Purdy, the spokesperson for the BLM, says this roundup is necessary because there are too many wild horses there for the land to sustain. However, there are voices saying that’s not necessarily the case.

Erik Molvar is an environmental biologist and director of the Western Watersheds Project, an organization that aims to improve public land management. He says the pressure that grazing done by domestic cattle and sheep is outpacing any damage to the land done by wild horses. He argues the number of wild horses the Wyoming land can sustain is actually more than the BLM’s numbers show.

"Right now, the wild horses are about four times that appropriate management and yet still the land is meeting the thriving natural ecological balance, which calls into question whether that appropriate management level has anything to do with a thriving, natural ecological balance at all, or whether what it really set at is to keep the wild horse populations low so they can have more domestic livestock out there," said Molvar.

State governments have stepped up with concern about roundups. At the end of August, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wrote to the US Department of the interior that he is “extremely concerned” with the rate of the roundups and called for a six-month moratorium on them for the American public to weigh in.

Another issue Walker has is what happens to the horses after they're rounded up. Right now, 50,000 horses are in long-term holding, waiting to be adopted. There's an incentive program that gives up to $1,000 to anyone who adopts an untrained wild horse.

Walker is currently a plaintiff in a lawsuit against this practice, saying folks are taking the money and then selling the horses to auction where they could be killed.

"What I would ultimately like to have happen is an investigation into the BLM and to have them removed as the managers of these wild horses," she said.

Purdy said that while the area where the Wyoming round up is occurring is near private grazing land, the decision to remove horses is based solely on there being too many, saying quote, “BLM would be gathering horses regardless of the land patterns or ownership of the private lands as required by the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971.”

Walker hopes more attention is brought to this issue, the more people stand up for America's mustangs

"If people aren't standing up strongly for them, aren't fighting for them, these horses are just going to disappear," she said, "and I don't want to have a library of photos of animals that have disappeared."

TOKYO —

Related video above: Jessica Springsteen joins USA Equestrian Team at Tokyo Olympics

A sumo wrestler that may have spooked the horses has been knocked out of the Olympic equestrian ring.

The statue and a nearby patch of cherry trees that riders thought might be startling the animals during the individual jumping event were among the obstacles swapped out for the start of the team competition Friday night.

Officials say designer Santiago Varela had planned on removing the sumo wrestler even before riders said the life-sized rikishi might be rankling their animals.

Several pairings in the early stages of Tuesday's individual qualifying stopped short near the sumo wrestler, who was positioned next to the 10th obstacle on the 14-jump course. The hurdle was located right after a sharp turn, and the wrestler's wedgied backside was the first thing in sight for horse and human.

"As you come around, you see a big guy's (butt)," British rider Harry Charles said, adding "I did notice four or five horses really taking a spook to that."

The jumping course is always reconfigured between the individual and team rounds, and several of the Japanese-themed barriers were swapped out. The new fences include a life-size samurai and jumbo-size sushi.

Despite the minor drama, jumpers have been overwhelmingly pleased with Varela's design. Vivid — and potentially distracting — fences are a trademark of Olympic jumping venues, and in the end, it's the riders' jobs to keep their animals calm on the course.

"You know it's going to be colorful coming here," Scott Brash of Britain said Tuesday. "You know it's going to be decorative. And it's beautiful, you know? It's fantastic. That's what makes it a championship. If it was just plain old jumps, it'd be just like any other week."

The wild horse crossing doesn't stop in New Mexico.

A herd of wild horses was caught crossing a street on video.

Sister station KOAT Action 7 News shared the remarkable video of the wild horse parade crossing the street.

The long line of wild horses caused traffic to temporarily pause so the animals could safely make their way to the other side of the street.

Watch the video to see the wild horse parade in action.