GOSHUTE HERD MANAGEMENT AREA
The Goshute HMA is located southwest of Wendover, Nevada. The area is 250,000 acres in size and is 35 miles long by 18 miles wide. The HMA supports vegetation typical of the Great Basin region which is sagebrush and rabbitbrush mixed in with many species of native grasses such as Indian ricegrass, squirreltail and bluebunch wheatgrass. The higher elevations support pinyon pine and juniper forests and at the highest elevations, fir trees are abundant. Wild horses must share their habitat in the Goshute HMA with domestic livestock and wildlife species such as mule deer and pronghorn antelope.
The predominate colors among the Goshute horses are solid colors consisting of bays, sorrels, dark browns and blacks. A small percentage are buckskins, duns and palomino. The Goshute horses are not large animals with the average height being around 14 hands.
Geology in the HMA is characteristic of that found throughout Nevada - north/south trending mountain ranges separated by wide valley bottoms. The highest elevation in the HMA is Goshute Peak at 9,666 feet above sea level; the lowest points are found in the valley bottoms and range around 4,000 feet above sea level. Average precipitation is approximately 7 inches on the valley bottoms and from 16 to 18 inches on the mountain peaks. Most of the rainfall occurs during the winter months when the plants are dormant and this creates the cold-temperate desert of which Goshute HMA is a part. Temperatures can be extreme. They range from a high of over 100° F in the summer months to a low of -15° F in the winter.