Lander Field Office
| Contacts: | Sarah Beckwith | |||
| 307-347-5207 |
Wild Horses Find Homes at Wyoming Honor Farm Adoption
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Wyoming Honor Farm held their spring wild horse and burro adoption and gentling clinic May 18-19, in Riverton, Wyo. One burro and 16 halter and saddle-started horses found new homes after beginning the gentling process with inmate trainers at the Honor Farm.
 The first horse of the adoption is shown by an Honor Farm trainer. |
 A bid is placed at the Wyoming Honor Farm adoption. |
 Trainers show the burros, always popular with the crowd. |
 Lady, a 3 year old bay from the McCullough Peaks Herd Management Area near Worland, is loaded on a trailer bound for her new home. |
Honor Farm Training Supervisor Jeff Martin demonstrated the gentling process on Friday, emphasizing the necessity to lay the groundwork with the horses. “The repetitive round pen work that we begin with is very important,” Martin said. “It builds the foundation for halter work, saddling the horse and finally the rider being accepted by the horse. Without groundwork, there will be no respect and partnership between the horse and the trainer.”
Potential adopters and those just interested in the process gathered Saturday morning for the adoption. Martin and BLM Wild Horse Specialist Scott Fluer talked about the history and experience of each horse as it was brought in by its trainer.
Adopter Bonnie Ballou was looking for horses that were proven and chose three saddle-started horses as well as a beautiful two year old halter-started palomino. “I could tell by the way the trainers rode them that they were well-trained,” Ballou said of her new charges. Ballou plans to use the horses for ranching on her Angus bull, sheep and cattle ranch north of Hulett, Wyo. She hopes the two younger horses that she adopted will also become “kids’ horses” for her grandchildren.
“The Honor Farm staff did a fantastic job of offering the horses and making the event run smoothly,” said Fluer, who also served as the auctioneer at the adoption. The high bid of the day was $1000.00 and the average bid was approximately $234.00.
The Honor Farm has found that the wild horse training program contributes to inmate rehabilitation. All inmates of the Honor Farm are given productive, meaningful work and some spend long days working with wild horses gathered from Wyoming public lands, readying them for adoption.
There are two wild horse adoptions in Wyoming in June: the Mustang Versatility Trail Ride Buckle Series on June 16 at the BLM Wild Horse Holding Facility in Rock Springs and an adoption on June 23 at the Mantle Wild Horse Training and Adoption Center in Wheatland.
The complete adoption schedule can be found by visiting www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/Wild_Horses.html. For more information about the Honor Farm, visit http://corrections.wy.gov/institutions/whf/index.html.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. In Fiscal Year 2012, activities on public lands generated $4.6 billion in revenue, much of which was shared with the States where the activities occurred. In addition, public lands contributed more than $112 billion to the U.S. economy and helped support more than 500,000 jobs.
Lander Field Office 1335 Main Street Lander, WY 82520