Red Alert: Save Wild Mustangs named Freedom & Friend before the 4th of July!

(public domain video & photo)

Freedom (#8527) is a 5-year-old wild mare from the Jackson Mountains in Nevada. She deserves to go to loving a home with another wild mare who will be her buddy for life. Freedom was not born to be domesticated. She was born to be wild. Now she needs to be saved from an uncertain future due to budget cuts and that could mean slaughter!

Fill out the BLM’s Sale Application, write the complete freezemark numbers on the top for the wild horses you want to save then email or fax it in: https://blm-prod.opengov.ibmcloud.com/sites/blm.gov/files/wildhorse_howtoadopt_doc4.pdf)  and send it to wildhorse@blm.gov or fax to 202-912-7182.

Under a December 2004 amendment to the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act that should be repealed, wild horses and burros more than 10 years old – as well as younger animals that were passed over for adoption at least three times – are eligible for sale. The younger wild horses falling into this risky category are also known as “3-Strikers”. Purchasing a wild horse or burro for $25 means that ownership of the animal passes immediately from the Federal Government to the buyer.

If you have questions regarding the sales program, please e-mail wildhorse@blm.gov. If you have questions that aren’t getting answered or you find yourself in BLM’s red tape and need to problem-solve for solutions please send an email to Contact@ProtectMustangs.org

If you adopt Freedom you can return her if you don’t want her anymore. If you buy her you own her quickly and are done with BLM. Please consider buying Freedom with Friend (seen below). Thank you!

Here’s what BLM says about Freedom:

“Sex: Mare Age: 5 Years Height (in hands): 13.0

Necktag #: 8527 Date Captured: 07/05/12

Freezemark: 12618527 Signalment Key: HF1AAAAHE

Color: Sorrel Captured: Jackson Mountains (NV)

Notes:
This is an untouched mare with no training.

Freedom is currently located in Palomino Valley, NV. For more information, please contact Jeb Beck at (775) 475-2222 or e-mail: j1beck@blm.gov .

This wild horse is available for sale or adoption. The adopter will inform the BLM if they are purchasing or adopting the animal. If the animal is purchased, not adopted, the adopter receives bill of sale to the animal upon completion of payment and final paperwork. If the animal is adopted, the animal is not eligible for title until the one year anniversary.”

Please buy Freedom with Friend so they can be buddies

 

(public domain video and photo)

Friend needs get out of the BLM’s clutches because her life is at risk now with talk of killing and slaughtering alleged “unadoptable” wild horses! We noticed a bump on Friend’s left cheek so her buyer needs to know about and be willing to help her if she needs it.

Pro-Slaughter lobbyists have weaseled their way into the offices of BLM, Department of Interior and America’s elected officials flashing their cash. Freedom and Friend are at risk and the clock is ticking. . . Please help save them! 

Here is what BLM says about her:

“Sex: Mare Age: 5 Years Height (in hands): 13.1

Necktag #: 9020 Date Captured: 09/12/12

Freezemark: 12619020 Signalment Key: HF1AAADFD

Color: Brown Captured: Pancake HMA, Nevada

Notes:
This is an untouched mare with no training.

This horse is currently located in Palomino Valley, NV. For more information, please contact Jeb Beck at (775) 475-2222 or e-mail: j1beck@blm.gov.”

 

 

Protect Mustangs is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of native and wild horses. www.ProtectMustangs.org



How [Not] To Tame A Wild Mustang

By Elaine Nash

When we had a large ranch near Santa Fe, NM, the US Forest Service had apparently heard that I’m a softie for any person or animal in need, because one of their guys from a district on the NM-CO border called one cold winter night and asked if I would mind taking in a thin two-year old mustang stallion that had been pushed out of his family band by the herd stallion. Without the team effort of the herd to assist him, he was unable to paw up enough grass from under the deep snow to sustain him through that especially harsh winter.  Of course, I said yes.

The next day, after a harrowing six-hour-long, snowy drive deep into the mountain wilderness of northern NM, we arrived just before dark at the US Forest Service corrals, where we saw a pretty bedraggled and gangly bay two year old colt standing alone in the large panel enclosure he’d had been driven into earlier by USFS cowboys. As I backed our trailer up to the corral, I found myself wondering just what I was getting myself into.  Although I’d owned and trained horses all my life, I’d never had an actual wild mustang in my care before. I anticipated that just getting this wild horse loaded into our ‘cave on wheels’ might be a real test of my horsemanship skills.

As I walked past the back of the trailer and eyed the open slot beside Keebler- the ‘buddy’ horse we’d brought along, I imagined that a space just half the width of a two-horse trailer would probably look awfully small to a horse who’d only known wide open spaces in his life.  I walked to the center of the pen and was looking around- considering how best to use fence panels to create a chute for guiding the mustang toward that tiny, now-dark space in the trailer, when I heard a soft “clump, clump, clump”.  I turned around just in time to see that ‘wild’ mustang- who’d never seen a horse trailer in his life, walk right up the ramp into his spot in that trailer- where he calmly started munching on hay. That unexpected display of courage and common sense turned out to be just the first of many surprises that we were to enjoy during our adventure as owners of Poco-the ”wild” mustang.

As soon as we got home we brushed and combed- as gently as we could, years of tangles out of his long black mane and tail while he was still in the trailer, and he hardly flinched.  I chalked that up to his fatigue and probable trauma from the trailer ride. We then released him out into a roomy private pen, where he could live quietly for a few weeks while we gave him the groceries he needed to put on some weight, and where he could get acquainted with our other horses through the fence. By the time spring rolled around we’d had him gelded and he was back in fine physical form. We turned him out into our spacious pasture to ‘run free’ with the our herd of family horses.  With noble- and romantic, intentions I had decided to ‘respect his wild origins’ and leave him untamed for life- but Poco had something else in mind.

All my childhood, movie-inspired images of captive wild horses yearning to be free faded fast as Poco made it quite clear that he much preferred the barn to the pasture, human company to that of other horses, and he thought that having good hay and grain delivered right into a feeder was clearly better than going to the trouble of grazing on wild grass. Suffice it to say that Poco turned out to be more puppy dog than wild horse.  Teaching him to lead quickly became an effort to keep him out of our laps, caps, and pockets. He allowed me to ride him the first time he was saddled, he never bucked a single step with anyone, and the greatest danger that a person could be in while in his presence was having their belt loop tugged on or their hair nibbled.  Poco was like a country boy who visited the big city, liked living in the lap of luxury, and decided to stay.  He never displayed a single trait of wildness.

Now, I’m not saying that we should capture and domesticate America’s wild horses.  In fact, I think that our wild horses should, in almost every case, be left to live their wild lives on America’s public lands as the longstanding US Wild Mustang and Burro Act dictates.  But- as long as BLM and other government agencies continue on their mission to decrease the size of wild herds in deference to grazing beef cattle and the exploration for gas and oil on America’s vast public lands, mustangs will captured, and they will need homes.

I hope that anyone who considers adopting a mustang can realize that in doing so, they are not taking on a horse whose heart will always belong to the wild. Rather, they are creating an opportunity for a displaced horse with an incredible heart and spirit to form
you.

(Note: Common sense still dictates that wild horses should only be handled/trained by people who have a significant amount of experience with horses.)

Notable equine advocate and founder of Fleet of Angels, Elaine Nash, writes at The Nash Rambler.

 

Adopt a wild horse or two ~ Save a living legend

Mustangs make great partners

Protect Mustangs . org  & Photo © Taylor James

Jackson Mountain wild horses for adoption (Photo © Taylor James)

Sadly these wild horses have lost their homes and their families. They need to find good people to adopt them. Mustangs are quick to learn and train.

We have adopted wild horses and would be happy to share our experience as well as some resources such as gentle trainers. We welcome you to email us at Contact@ProtectMustangs.org with your questions. Please include your phone number for us to call you back.

We encourage people to adopt a wild horse or two to keep them safe. It’s direct action you can take to save the mustangs.

If you know of someone who might adopt a mustang please forward this on to them.

Living legends at risk

Once wild horses are shipped out to long term holding their fate is unknown. The public and advocates can’t keep track of them . . . They can be purchased by the lots of 100 horses or more. Who buys 100 wild horses at a time? Where do they go?

These wild horses are located at the Palomino Valley Center near Reno, Nevada. They need homes quickly before they are shipped out to long-term holding.

Thank you for doing what you can do to save a wild mustang’s life.