The Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the nonprofit North Dakota Badlands Horse Registry (NDBH) have entered an agreement by which wild horses gathered from the park’s herd will be placed in approved private homes.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park spokeswoman Eileen Andes said the Medora, North Dakota, park’s herd descends from horses residing in the park in the 1950s.

“Part of the park was fenced off in the 1950s in order to accommodate the reintroduction of bison, and some of the horses residing there got left at the time of fencing,” Andes said. “Some were escaped ranch horses or horse that ranchers turned out during difficult economic times,”

The wild horses residing in the national park are not subject to the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, she said