A handful of people in Goshen County are trying to keep 14 horses alive that were allegedly abandoned and abused by a man facing charges for animal cruelty.
The man who left them in a barren pasture in Lingle without hay awaits trial for abusing a separate herd of horses in May 2025.
Two local men and a retired veterinary pathologist from Laramie are spearheading efforts to feed the animals and find a pathway for them to be sent to a horse rescue operation.
Donal O’Toole, who as a retired veterinary pathologist for the state has done forensic necropsies on abused animals, said he has started a GoFundMe because the two men supplying feed for the horses are running out of hay.
The cost also has been borne from their own pockets.
“This pasture literally has no grass. It’s got a couple of yucca plants, Spanish bayonet but that’s about it,” said O’Toole, a member of the Wyoming Coalition for Animal Protection. “Probably that pasture is gone for good.”
He estimates 20 tons of hay will be needed to keep the horses through May.
O’Toole said he became involved after getting a text from a woman he didn’t know in Colorado who informed him about the situation, which led him to contact locals involved.
Goshen County rancher Gary Hubert, 83, said the horses first came to his attention when he would drive by the pasture alongside Highway 85 that the horses’ owner Nathan Wallman rented from a Lingle man and saw the condition of the horses last fall.
He said he contacted the sheriff’s office and was told that it would be a week or two before they could do anything.
“I said there is a horse in there that is not going to be alive unless I get some feed into him,” he said. “You’ve got to lose an animal or a person before you can do anything, it seems like.”
Horse Sliced By Steel Post
One day last spring, Hubert said another local was driving by following a hailstorm and saw that a horse in the pasture had cut its belly wide open on a steel fence post and was laying out in the weather.
“His guts were laying out on the ground. He was a horseman and happened to have his gun with him and he put him to sleep out of his misery,” Hubert said.
It was last May, when the owner of the animals, Wallman, 45, was being charged in Torrington Circuit Court for cruelty to animals related to 17 other horses he kept on a rented Torrington property.
An affidavit in that case shows that a Goshen County Sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to the 5000 block of Road 56 in Torrington on May 8, 2025, and learned from the owner of the property that Wallman had his horses on his property and had not paid rent for the property or fed the horses.
The deputy found the 12 horses in one corral and five horses in another. There was no sign of food and the water in the troughs was green and low.
The deputy returned on May 10 and took photos and there were still no sign of food and the water was low.
The owner of the property said he had not seen Wallman for weeks. After measuring the corrals, the deputy learned from a local veterinarian that the 97-by-71-foot corral should have three to four horses, not 12.
The veterinarian said the smaller corral that had five horses and measured 68-by-64 feet should have just two horses, the affidavit states.
An affidavit filed in the Torrington case by the owner of the Lingle property where Wallman kept the 14 horses states that in the same time frame, Wallman was not showing up on his property either.
The affidavit states that Wallman left 15 horses on his Lingle property in October 2024. The owner said Wallman stopped taking care of the horses, though a woman periodically between May and November 2025 would provide occasional hay and check on water for the animals.
March Trial Date
Wallman in amended charges dated Jan. 19, 2026, now faces trial March 16 on three counts of cruelty to animals. One count charges that he had the horses in enclosures that were too small without adequate food and water.
The other counts involve having them in the small enclosure and failing to trim hooves and having one horse with a serious eye injury that was not cared for.
“The eye is no longer useful, having retracted into the socket and is now infected, oozing pus and creating a concern that infection could spread which may eventually kill the animal,” the affidavit states.
An affidavit from Goshen County Sheriff Kory Fleenor in that case states that a veterinarian assessed the horses on May 30, 2025, and a Wyoming Livestock investigator checked them on June 2 and confirmed they were abused and neglected.
The horses were seized and taken to the Cheyenne Livestock Yard. The bill for their care for 90 days there totaled $81,542.
The horses were sold on June 25 after Wallman failed to post bond for the cost of the care of the animals.
Court records show that Wallman was charged for cruelty to animals involving five horses in October 2024.
A trial in the case set for November 2025 was dismissed after the May 2025 charges were brought and Wallman was “named in another information alleging abuse and neglect,” the court file states.
In March 2023, Wallman was convicted on animal abuse after an anonymous tip about a horse that had been confined to a trailer for two weeks.
A Goshen County deputy wrote in an affidavit that he drove to the Torrington Livestock Market where he knew Wallman worked at the time and found the trailer with a horse inside and 1-to-2 feet of manure in the trailer.
A black rubber tub in the trailer was dry. There was no water for the horse inside and no trace of hay.
The portion of the trailer that the horse was standing in was about 10-by-7-foot wide. The deputy saw a half bale of hay and a few bags of feed in the front of the trailer, the affidavit states.
A horse eats hay supplied by Goshen County rancher Gary Hubert in October. Hubert said there one horse in particular that appeared ready to die when he started his feeding efforts. (Courtesy Gary Hubert) 
A horse goes for nourishment after its owner apparently abandoned them in a rented pasture. (Courtesy Gary Hubert) 
Horses enjoy their meal in late December in the Lingle-area pasture where they have been since October 2024. (Courtesy Photo)
Known Figure
The deputy wrote that the department had dealt with Wallman and his horses on a “consistent basis” since July 2022.
Wallman was charged with cruelty to animals, convicted and given a 30-day jail sentence with 25 days suspended and placed on six months of probation, court records show.
O’Toole said in the case of the Lingle horses, he wrote letters to the Goshen County sheriff and the county commission and followed up with a visit to the county commission to talk about the issue and offer help with placing the animals with a horse rescue group.
To do that, he said the authorities need to secure a “brand transfer to change ownership.”
He said unless something is done, the county likely will see “a bunch of dead horses.”
Calls to Goshen County Board of Commission Chair Michael McNamee and Fleenor were not returned by deadline.
Hubert said he began feeding the 14 horses in late October last year and estimates he supplied 20 to 25 1,100-to 1,200-pound round bales before he ran out of hay.
The owner of property also supplied some hay before Torrington businessman Dave Cronk stepped in to supply the big round bales from his supply.
Cronk said he was at the Fort Laramie Country Church when the pastor mentioned the need for hay.
“That’s when I stepped into it about a month to six weeks ago,” he said. “I hope I am not giving it away, but if that is the way it ends up, so be it. My concern is for the animals.”
Cronk believes that Hubert’s initial efforts put the animals into a condition where they can survive.
He said he has talked with the man who owns the pasture that is in his 80s and was told Wallman initially asked to rent the pasture for five horses and then he kept dropping the horses off until they became 15.
Cronk said the horses now are in much better condition and come running and bucking when he shows up with his 1,200-pound bales.
County Helping
On Sunday, Cronk said he took a bale up to the property and the waterer was frozen up. He said he went to McNamee, the county commission chair, and told him about the situation. Cronk said McNamee told him he would buy a stock tank.
Cronk said the county is now helping care for the horses.
“Now on a daily basis since Monday morning, we’ve got the county hauling water up to those horses,” he said.
O’Toole said because of the number of horses, the horses would have to be split up to different rescue organizations to be saved.
He does not believe there are any groups with enough resources to help in Wyoming, but believes there are well-funded groups in Colorado or Idaho who may be able to assist.
He said the GoFundMe he started will be used to help reimburse the neighbors for their costs and any money left over would go to Home the Range, an Albany County livestock rescue group.
“It’s unfair that Good Samaritans in the neighborhood in Goshen County are having to use their own hay to feed somebody else’s animals,” he said. “Especially when that guy has done this at least three times.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
