California ? It wasn’t a simple, orderly process, but the federal government’s controversial wild horse roundup started Wednesday in northeastern California with few of the problems that opponents decry as they try to put a stop to the practice.

Roughly 130 horses were herded into pens by a helicopter buzzing in the rugged, high-desert sky near here, and at times it was far from a pretty sight.

The wild animals kicked hard at the steel railings and horse chutes they were driven into and occasionally turned on each other with bared teeth that left some with large patches of skin gone.

But the process, which is expected to continue for six weeks to trim the herd from 2,200 horses to fewer than 500, was counted as a success Wednesday by some who say the herd thinning is necessary to protect the lands and the herds themselves.

“They’ve got to be managed,” said Dave Cattoor, the Utah-based contractor in charge of the roundup. “They’re just totally wiping themselves out.”