Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Dave,

 

Sounds like you did your homework, too, and glad it has worked out. The little mustang I adopted was originally from "the lava fields in Pershing County, northwestern Nevada." He'd been in the BLM system for a year, and been shipped thru about 6 different auction/adoption events between Nevada, Arizona and a few states east as far as Arkansas, but he wasn't adopted for whatever reason, til me.

 

I guess I took at a little personally when mustang owners were generically labelled "idiots", and a program that I am very grateful for was generically maligned. Without the BLM program, and its strengths and weaknesses, I wouldn't have Cinnabar. Did he become the horse I had visions of when I got him? No. Endurance riding is not his cup of tea. But other qualities I thought I saw in him when he was in the adoption pen have proven out, and some interests I didn't forsee.

 

Anyway, I work  a half day today. The weather is beautiful, so I'm going to go home, hook up my trailer, saddle up Cinnabar, pony my donkey somewhere I can turn him loose and not worry about him chasing calves, and enjoy being a mustang owner. (PS - this horse has no loyalty. If I ride another horse, and pony Cinnabar, I can't turn him loose where there is good eating, or he'll look up, watch us ride away, and say "Foods great, pick me up on the way back.")

 

Jo Anne
"Smith, Dave" <dsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Jo Ann:  I agree with you that ?Odd farm?s? recent rant here against the BLM and its handling of mustang adoptions bares little, if any, semblance to reality.  At the very least, that rant goes counter to my actual experience in adopting two mustangs three years ago.  Prior to our adoptions, I spent nearly a year of weekends and after-work-hours preparing a place to house and pasture our horses to be.   I also conducted extensive research into handling and ?breaking? wild horses. We joined a mustang-support organization, got hands-on experience in gentling wild horses and we made a number of visits to the BLM?s Palomino Valley mustang holding facility on the other side of the Sierra in search of the horses we might adopt.  On each and every visit, we found the BLM wranglers and administrators to be caring, attentive stewards of the wild horses under their management.  The horses at that facility were neutered, doctored and fed high-value forage. The staff was always helpful and always professional.  Eventually we adopted our two geldings through the inmate-training program conducted under a state/federal agreement at Carson City?s Warm Springs Correctional Prison. At the end of the day we came home with two wonderful, healthy animals that have enriched our lives. When the Wild Horse Act was passed by Congress in the mid-1970s, the BLM was tasked with the responsibility of managing wild horses on federal lands.  This was added to the agency?s many other responsibilities. It is clear that the agency made a number of mistakes when assuming this new and demanding duty.  But it is also clear, to me at least, that the agency learned from those mistakes and now does a most credible job in managing America?s wild horses.  Can it do better?  Probably.  But faced with shrinking budgets and expanding responsibilities, I believe the BLM should be commended, rather than damned, for the job it is doing. It is always easy to criticize ? particularly if you know little about what you are condemning.