By: Karen Schutte | August 27, 2026
PHOENIX, ARIZONA — The Arizona Board of Regents approved funding Thursday for a scientific study of the Salt River horse herd, moving forward a research effort requested by the Governor’s Office and the Arizona Department of Agriculture to examine the herd’s long term genetic health and sustainability.
ABOR Executive Director Chad Sampson presented the proposal to the Regents before the vote.
Sampson explained that approximately two weeks earlier, the Governor’s Office and Arizona Department of Agriculture approached the Board of Regents about whether Arizona’s public universities could provide the scientific expertise needed to study the herd.
The universities quickly assembled a multidisciplinary research team and developed a proposal through the Regents Grant program.
Sampson also emphasized that the funding would come through the Technology and Research Initiative Fund, or TRIF, and would not take any money away from the universities’ existing budgets. Rather, the grant provides additional research funding to support work by Arizona’s public universities.
Sampson told the Board that the project would include data collection, genetic analysis and population modeling, with the research intended to provide policymakers with the information needed to make appropriate decisions concerning the future population of the herd.
He characterized the work as providing scientific decision support for policymakers, including the Governor’s Office and the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
The Regents approved the funding without substantive discussion or questions concerning the Salt River horse research.
There was also no public discussion during the meeting of a letter submitted by Arizona Department of Agriculture Deputy Director Sheldon Jones raising additional management considerations, including questions related to the number of horses that could be supported within the approximately 19,665-acre Salt River Horse Management Area, or of other letters and comments submitted by members of the public.
With no additional conditions or directives publicly added by the Regents, the research proposal stands on its own scientific merit. The study approved by the Board remains focused on genetic analysis, population modeling and other scientific work intended to inform future decisions about the long-term health and sustainability of the Salt River horse herd.
Nothing stated during Thursday’s public meeting indicated that those concerns had been incorporated as additional requirements or conditions of the research grant.
Instead, the proposal presented to the Regents remained focused on scientific analysis that includes genetics and population modeling designed to inform future policy decisions.
Governor Katie Hobbs announced the proposed study August 18 as part of an agreement providing the Salt River herd a two-year reprieve from removals in 2026 and 2027, allowing two years for the genetic study to be conducted and its findings to help inform future management decisions.
The Governor’s Office has said the research will be conducted by Arizona’s public universities and independently reviewed before its release.
Researchers identified in materials associated with the project bring expertise in wildlife genomics, population genetics, conservation genomics, noninvasive DNA analysis, population modeling and wild horse ecology.
Among the central questions the research is expected to address is one that has remained unresolved throughout years of debate over management of the Salt River herd: What does the science show the population needs to be to preserve genetic diversity and maintain a healthy, sustainable herd over the long term?
Thursday’s vote clears the way for Arizona’s university researchers to begin answering that question.