A crowd gathered at San Martin’s Taylor Made Farms last Saturday, where 14 wild mustangs and one burro found new forever homes through the Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Adoption program.
To maintain a thriving ecological balance, the BLM’s National Wild Horse and Burro Program protects, manages and controls wild horse and burro herds. The BLM’s website states, “wild horses and burros have virtually no natural predators and their herd sizes can double about every four years. As a result, the agency must remove thousands of animals from the range each year to control herd sizes.”
When overpopulation or resource damage occurs, horses and burros are rounded up and made available for adoption at events such as the one that took place July 13 in San Martin, where the BLM offered 30 horses and 10 burros for public adoption.
The animals were brought from the BLM’s Litchfield Corrals, which serve as the regional preparation center for wild horses and burros gathered from public lands in northern California and northwestern Nevada. The Litchfield facility covers approximately 80 acres with numerous pastures and corrals.
San Martin’s adoption event began with a silent auction at 9 a.m. Any equines that were not snatched up during bidding became available for a $125 adoption fee.
Hollister resident Monica Williams, 16, was one attendee who departed the event with a new four-legged companion. Monica and her mother had come to preview the horses when the animals arrived Friday at Taylor Made Farms, and Monica fell in love with one of the yearlings. Having always wanted a horse, Monica bonded with her new mount Saturday and debated whether to call him Rocky or Blue.
While some of the other wild horses acted more nervous around attendees and shyly backed away from the friendly pats of their admirers, Monica’s gray-colored mustang seemed to understand he had been adopted. He kept walking over to her and nuzzling her hand, causing Monica to break out into a huge grin.
“I get to keep this horse!” she smiled.
Wild horses and burros often get a bad reputation as being hard to train, according to BLM’s Erin Simmons, a safety and facility specialist who has worked for the organization’s adoption program for the past four years.
“But I think that’s a really untrue statement,” said Simmons. “Mustangs are lovable, trainable animals that really maintain family values and form loyal bonds with the people they belong to. It’s just a matter of being persistent in taking the time to create that bond.”
In addition to the wild horses and burros brought from the Litchfield Corrals, four wild horses trained just three months ago by the Sonrisa Stables youth group – an equestrian team from Taylor Made Farms consisting of 20 girls and led by coach Karen Topping – were also up for adoption. The young riders from Sonrisa had a chance to showcase their hard work in a performance with the now halter-gentled mustangs.
That included Mickey, a 2-year-old gelding who charmed the crowd with his friendly demeanor and received the highest bid at $625, followed by a handsome 2-year-old buckskin named Hulk, who was adopted for $525. Mickey was adopted by former San Jose Sharks defenseman Mike Rathje, whose daughter Hannah is part of the Sonrisa youth team that has been training Mickey. The other horses were auctioned off for $125, and all proceeds went to the BLM.
“In the three years that our youth group has been training wild horses, we’ve gotten 23 mustangs adopted out to their forever homes,” said Topping. “We’re really proud of that, and I hope that this program has helped the girls to see that they’re capable of doing great things in this world. Being able to train mustangs in such a short period of time is a testament to how hard the girls have worked, and also shows that successfully training a mustang can just take a lot of love, kindness and patience.”
San Martin mustang trainer Jose Chavez, of Chavez Sports and Performance Horses, also showed off his horse Sara at the event. In May, Jose and Sara competed in an Extreme Mustang Makeover competition – a national horse training event that showcases the ability of wild horses to become trained mounts and companions – and has also assisted the Sonrisa youth group in their training efforts.
Simba – the oldest horse taken on by the Sonrisa team this year – was up for adoption last Saturday and is currently receiving secondary training from Chavez. Simba is still available for adoption.
Each year that the Sonrisa youth group has trained mustangs, they’ve visited the BLM’s Litchfield Corrals and picked the horses out themselves. The BLM is responsible for managing the 7.1 million acres of public land in California where wild horses and burros roam, in accordance with federal law that protects the animals. Besides exceeding the appropriate management level determined by the BLM, other factors that require the bureau to remove animals from their range include drought, depleting forage and wildfires.
The BLM’s adoption program is the primary means through which wild horses and burros are placed into private care. Since Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971, the BLM has found private homes for more than 230,000 wild horses and burros.
As for the Sonrisa youth group, they already have their next challenge lined up: For the next 30 days, they’ll be training a wild yearling gelding palomino (palomino being a color breed consisting of a gold coat and white mane and tail). The palomino will be available for adoption in mid-August.
40,605: Number of wild horses and burros roaming BLM-managed rangelands in 10 western states
26,677: The maximum appropriate management level of free-roaming wild horses and burros
14,000: The estimated current free-roaming population exceeding the number that the BLM has determined can exist in balance with other public rangeland resources and uses
49,272: Other wild horses and burros that are fed and cared for by the BLM in short-term corrals and long-term pastures off the range
Source: The Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Land Management: Visit http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram.html
Sonrisa youth group: Email so************@gm***.com or call Karen Topping at (408) 644-JUMP.
