Jeeze Heidi! And I thought my comments were
scathing! However I was so glad to see your post (from a professional) and
also sort of backed up my gut feeling on this.
It's not just the bargain basement adoption fee and
all the work and effort that goes into them; it the ton of money the gov. has
into each and every one.
I am sorry to say,the group I saw in Lakeport was a
very sorry bunch. There was not a one in the herd I was impressed
with (granted, many were babies). I also heard from some folks that they bring
the "dregs" of the roundups to these auctions. The best are adopted via
internet, or go to the training programs. often for a lot of $ (the Kigers'
etc)
When I was at the Lakeport adoption, I wandered
around checking out the horses AND the crowd. The people that are
establshed horsemen stood there shaking their heads. They were not
bidding. The folks walking around with stars in their eyes, planning on
which one to take, were, for the most part, people who had never owned a horse
before, and could not afford to buy a "trained horse.". They all had the
attitude that they, and their horse, would "learn together." They were not even
required to own a trailer, as BLM would haul the horses to their property for a
fee. One of the gals hauling horses was a volunteer for the BLM. She went
up to the property near me (falling down field fence and loose barbed wire, one
shelter), and one pipe panel round pen insufficient size for ONE horse,
and pronounced the property met BLM standards. THREE horses were crammed into
that round pen! NO access to the shelter.
The entire BLM "mustang" charade is one of the most disgusting,
poorly-run, pie-in-the-sky projects the government has yet conceived, and that
is saying something. To start with, the entire diefication of mustangs
is a fallacy--the modern horse is NOT native to this continent, and those out
there are more correctly called feral horses. They are domestic horses
that have gone back to the wild. From a range management point of view,
they are a disaster--they can outcompete virtually every native species, and
can destroy a habitat in just a few generations if not managed. >From a
humane point of view, letting them reproduce unchecked is a disaster--watching
them starve in bad winters or die of dehydration in a drought is not a
tolerable situation. From a historical point of view, they don't belong
out there in the first place. From a horseman's point of view, unless
one knows the history of a specific herd, there simply isn't much point in
messing with them, as each area's herds are shaped by what sorts of stallions
the local ranchers turned out a few generations ago. Some feral herds
were carefully managed by ranchers who rounded up and gelded the colts and who
turned out Remount or other stallions of the breed of their choice--you
will find herds with Thoroughbred, Standardbred, Morgan, Arabian, or draft
characteristics, depending on what sorts of horses the local ranchers
wanted--while other herds were left to reproduce willynilly.
Bottom line--while some
herds yield some good riding horses, in general the horses are not worth the
adoption fee or the time and effort that goes into making them saddle
horses. Endurance riders who have ridden mustangs successfully have
gotten specific individuals out of specific herds, for the most part, that had
the appropriate characteristics. It is much more of a crap shoot than
getting a quality horse from a competent breeder who has spent the time and
effort to raise a horse suitable to the job intended.
Personally, I find the
AERC participation in this program foolhardy at best, and at worst
a grave insult to its members who strive to produce quality horses.
Randy, did you engineer this farce? If so, perhaps a proper response
should be to have a few burly members horsewhip you at the next board
meeting.
I hope RMs stand firm
in not volunteering their rides to participate in this farce. And if any
of our NW rides do participate, I hope a list of rides that choose to do so
will be published in advance, so that we can boycott them.
