On Saturday, Bureau of Land Management wranglers as well as a host of volunteers brought the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program to the Los Banos area. The BLM brought forty horses and burros to the ‘Against A Crooked Sky’ horse boarding facility near Los Banos in hopes of placing these animals (that have recently been removed from public lands) into new homes.

According to the Bureau’s website, “The BLM protects, manages, and controls wild horses and burros under the authority of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 to ensure that healthy herds thrive on healthy rangelands. The BLM manages these living symbols of the Western spirit as part of its multiple-use mission under the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act.” The website notes, “The estimated current free-roaming population exceeds by some 10,350 the number that the BLM has determined can exist in balance with other public rangeland resources and uses.”

The horses and burros that are put up for adoption in this manner are there because the ‘carrying capacity’ of the rangelands that BLM manages is limited. According to the Bureau’s website, “The BLM estimates that nearly 37,000 wild horses and burros are roaming on BLM-managed rangelands in 10 Western states. Wild horse 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 population.” It goes on to explain that not doing so is untenable because, “The ecosystems of public rangelands are not able to withstand the impacts from overpopulated herds, which include soil erosion, sedimentation of streams, and damage to wildlife habitat.”

Removing some of these horses from public lands has given people in this area the opportunity to obtain one of these wild animals for a modest $125.00 adoption fee via the BLM’s Horse and Burro Adoption Program. Potential owners have to meet a number of requirements that include such things as space, shelter and living condition requirements for the animal. Additionally, it is expected that sometime during the first year the BLM or a BLM volunteer will at some point show up at the adopter’s place and make sure that all is well with the animal and that the adoption requirements have indeed been met.

In point of fact, those who adopted the animals don’t really actually ‘own’ them for about a year. A wild horse or burro that is adopted out through this program actually belongs to the Federal government until the BLM issues a Certificate of Title, which comes only with time and certification. After a potential owner has had the animal for one year, the BLM will mail them a Title Eligibility Letter and then the prospective owner must “obtain a signed statement from a qualified person (such as a veterinarian, county extension agent, or humane official) verifying that [they] have provided humane care and treatment for [the] adopted animal.” Subsequent to that, the BLM will send the new owner a certificate of title.

The future inspections and red tape did not seem to deter potential owners at the Los Banos event. One gentleman and his wife adopted two horses on Saturday. He seems to love the animals from the BLM program. In fact, the family apparently tries to obtain a BLM horse every year.

When asked why he was so fond of obtaining BLM horses he stated simply, “challenge… challenge, and better horses.” He went on to extol the virtues of BLM horses noting, in particular, the bond that he is able to form with these animals. He speaks about one horse that he adopted that he can let out of the pen and it will ‘follow him around like a dog’. He also mentioned the stamina of one of his formerly-wild horses saying, “I pack people into the mountains and stuff in the summer. I can ride that mustang all day long when the other guys can’t ride their domestic horses. I mean they’ll be breakin sweats and he won’t even hardly sweat.”

Though he declared, “They’re awesome animals!” He was also circumspect about the horses from the program. “They’ve got a lot of good things about ‘em but they’ve got a lot of bad things about them too…” When asked what he found were the challenges associated with the BLM animals he noted, “When a regular domestic horse comes at ya… when it goes to nip you or bite at cha, it takes little bitty bits. I’ve had these things take big bites. They’re in the wild ya know?” He went on to tell a story of how one of his horses had given him a ‘front leg slap’ and tore open his breeches.

Despite the potential challenges, before the day was over, the couple would bring the number of horses that they have adopted in recent years to about a dozen. They drove off with two newly adopted horses in their big white livestock trailer on Saturday.

There were other families adopting at the event as well. The Battle family who owns Los Banos Feed and Supply were there. Their son had his eye on one particular ‘Dunn horse’ and the Battle family had a small booth set up where they had feed, tack, ropes, and hats set out.

The Dutra’s were there as well. They had just adopted a very pretty horse named Rocky who they were planning on boarding at Against A Crooked Sky. The family was all smiles as Chris Toepfer, one of the BLM volunteers introduced them to “Rocky” a beautiful dark brown animal that fades to black as you look down toward his legs. Rocky who has a white ‘star’ of hair on his forehead had apparently been given some special attention. Mrs. Dutra smiled at their new horse and said, “[My husband] and I had a black gelding about thirty years ago and we loved it…” She spoke about her granddaughters and other members of her family and how the horse would be part of their lives.

All in all it was a successful day. In a brief phone interview on Monday, a BLM public affairs officer who was present on Saturday said, “We are very pleased, we did a lot better than we did last year. Maybe the economy is turning a bit.” He noted that of the thirty horses and ten burros that had been brought out, ten horses had been adopted and eight burros had found new homes.

It appears that things worked out nicely for the stable that hosted the event too. As of Saturday afternoon, Against A Crooked Sky had five new boarders including “Rocky” who was already in a large corral eating hay from this reporter’s hands and watching the goings on as his cousins were being adopted a few yards away.

For more information on the BLM’s horse adoption program you can go to their website at: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro.ht

If everyone in Los Banos would just take 1 or 2 hours a month to do something to help their neighborhood or their community we could truly make Los Banos the gem of the valley.

The above is only my personal opinion and I strongly encourage readers to seek out more information from expert sources. Copyright 2010