An Albany County man accused of fatally ramming a wild horse with an ATV says his animal cruelty charge stems from a neighbor’s vendetta over a land zoning dispute.
The neighbor, conversely, says she turned in Stuart Schmidt, 60, for committing a cruel act — not because of any bitterness over the land feud.
Schmidt faces one count of felony cruelty to wildlife, which is punishable by up to two years in prison and $5,000 in fines. He is out of jail on an unsecured bond.
Wyoming has had a felony-level animal cruelty law on the books for years. It’s difficult, but not yet deemed impossible, to prosecute when the animal in question is wildlife.
The Legislature this year enacted a wildlife cruelty statute, largely in response to the case of Cody Roberts, a Daniel man who was indicted last week after being accused of running down a wolf last year with a snowmobile, taunting and tormenting it, and later shooting it.
The Albany County Attorney’s Office invoked the older animal cruelty statute for this case, according to Schmidt’s one-count charging document.
First, Court Docs
An evidentiary affidavit filed Aug. 22 in Albany County District Court says that Albany County Sheriff’s Deputy Ryder Seely was dispatched to the sheriff’s office Aug. 18 for a report of an ATV striking a horse in the Wild Horse Ranch area on Twin Buttes Vista Drive.
Wild horses have access to roam the Wild Horse Ranch, the document notes.
Seely met with Tammy Barnhart, a resident of the area, and Alex Sas-Jaworsky, whom the deputy wrote “owns all the wild horses in the Wild Horse Ranch (homeowners association)."
Barnhart told the deputy she watched Schmidt leave his property, drive an ATV at a high rate of speed and chase one of the horses until it fell to the ground.
Schmidt stopped and used his phone; and the horse tried to get up and run away, the document says.
Barnhart told the deputy that Schmidt chased the horse again, it fell again, and he hit it with the ATV, according to the affidavit.
The horse didn’t get back up, Barnhart added.
Schmidt returned to his property, stopped at his gate and inspected the front and underside of his ATV, the neighbor reported.
Barnhart gave a video recording of the incident to the deputy.
The video shows a black ATV chasing a horse, the horse falling, and the ATV stopping, wrote Seely.
The horse takes a while to get back up and when it does, the ATV chases the horse again until it falls again, wrote the deputy.
“Then the ATV drives away,” Seely wrote. “The video does not show the horse being struck, only being chased.”
Barnhart told the deputy she then contacted Sas-Jaworsky, who had to put the horse down since it was struggling to breathe and could not get up.
Sas-Jaworsky told the deputy that he’d taken the horse to a lab to have a necropsy performed, and that he’d share the results when he got them, the document says.
Next Interview
Seely met with Schmidt.
Schmidt told the deputy that he thought the horse was sick and didn’t want it to die on his property. He went out on his ATV to check on the horse and see whether it was giving birth, the affidavit relates from Schmidt’s interview.
“Schmidt reported he was only traveling approximately two miles per hour, trying to check the sides of the horse for legs or hooves,” the deputy related. “Schmidt reported he then left and never saw the horse again.”
Schmidt also said he tried to call Sas-Jaworsky three times, and the latter didn’t answer.
Seely reviewed those call attempts on Schmidt’s phone, but those calls were at 5:09 p.m., whereas the incident happened at 4:53 p.m., the deputy wrote.
“Meaning, Schmidt had already returned to his residence after chasing the horse before he tried to report the sick horse,” he added.
Seely wrote that Schmidt was arrested, and that the deputy recommended a felony animal cruelty charge.
That Land Feud
Schmidt’s attorney Grant Rogers told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday email statement that the claims against him comprise a “baseless allegation” by Barnhart.
“Until June 2024, my client and the Barnharts were friends,” said Rogers. “That changed when my client opposed the Barnharts’ application to subdivide their… parcel to build another house.”
Technically the Barnharts applied to the Albany County Planning and Zoning Commission for a zoning change from agricultural to rural residential, saying they wanted to split their 40-acre parcel into two, 20-acre sections, according to commission meeting video from June 12, 2024.
Schmidt wasn’t the only neighbor to oppose the change toward greater residential density. The commission also heard a written opposition and two more verbal objections that day.
The neighbors attested that they bought land in that area because it was so sparse — with parcels of about 80 acres each. They argued that they didn’t stake their investments in a neighborhood they thought could become more residential or as one neighbor put it, “a trailer park.”
Schmidt told the commission he was the first person, 21 years ago, to buy property on Wild Horse Ranch, knowing of a plan for 80-acre parcels across the region.
“I love Roy and Tammy (Barnhart), I just – I don’t want any more people out there,” said Schmidt, adding that the antelope were already declining in numbers in the area. “I hope they’re still my friends after this but we’ll see.”
The commission denied the Barnharts’ request at that time.
“I’m sympathetic to those who bought into the wide-open spaces Albany County provides,” said Commission Chair Bern Hinckley at the time. “And I’m inclined to honor that expectation to the extent that we can.”
Ultimately a compromise passed.
The Albany County Commission on May 6 of this year approved a zoning change to agricultural, not rural residential, Planning Department associate planner Joe Wilmes confirmed Tuesday.
The difference, he said, is that the rural residential zoning allows for plots as small as two acres with a minimum average of five acres, whereas the agricultural residential zone allows for plots as small as 10 acres with a minimum average of 20 acres.
Absolutely Nothing To Do With It
Tammy Barnhart turned Schmidt in because he was fatally cruel to an animal, not because of any land dispute, she told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday phone interview.
With the compromised zoning approval passed in May, she considered that a done deal, she added.
“This has nothing to do with zoning. It has to do with, basically, the murder of a horse,” she said. “With the rage of Mr. Schmidt against the horses – and against one particular horse that I watched him run down with his fourwheeler.”
Barnhart was emotional during the interview, saying the incident was difficult for her to watch. She’s haunted by knowing she was scared to intervene at the time, but still wishing now that she had regardless, she said.
“Her foal was standing over her and she was lying on the ground, dying,” after the incident, added Barnhart.
Barnhart said that part of Schmidt’s land fences the wild horses out, but the horses can still access other parts.
Wyoming is a fence-out state, she noted, meaning cattle and horses (not sheep) are allowed to roam, and people who don’t want them must fence them out.
“If you don’t want them on your property you fence them out – you don’t kill them,” she said.
Barnhart declined to give Cowboy State Daily still photographs from her surveillance video of the incident, saying the case is still under investigation and she doesn’t want to interfere with that.
Schmidt’s case is ongoing in the felony-level court.
Editor's note: The subhead on this story has been corrected. Schmidt is not accused of running down a horse on his own property. The witness cited in the court affidavit said he was observed allegedly leaving his property to chase the horse.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
