Gentled wild horses find new homes at BLM–Honor Farm wild horse and burro adoption
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RIVERTON, Wyo. – Seventeen wild horses and one wild burro found new homes last weekend after being gentled by inmate trainers at the Wyoming Honor Farm in Riverton. This successful adoption continues the BLM and Honor Farm’s shared commitment to place excess wild horses and burros into private care in order to maintain healthy animals on healthy, productive public rangelands.
About 100 potential adopters and interested onlookers gathered for the adoption. Winning bids ranged from $125 to the high bid of the day: $2,700 for Snooky, a saddle-started gray mare from the Salt Wells Creek Wild Horse Herd Management Area (HMA) south of Rock Springs. The average winning bid for the 18 adopted animals was $682.
Rick Hughes of Saratoga adopted Zane and Kelly, both from the Salt Wells Creek HMA, to take riding in the mountains. He and his family have adopted wild horses before, but these were his first Honor Farm-gentled horses.
“The mustangs are real sure-footed in the mountains and these Honor Farm horses already have a lot of riding time on them,” said Hughes.
Stephanie Blackshire of Casper adopted Faith, a saddle-started sorrel mare. Blackshire has adopted three other wild horses from the Honor Farm, which she trained to compete at the Wyoming State Fair’s Mustang Days. Blackshire won reserve champion in the professional division three years in a row with her first three Honor Farm mares.
“Faith will go camping, hunting and trail-riding along with my other adopted mares,” said Blackshire. “There’s nothing we won’t do with her.”
Two adoptions are held at the Honor Farm each year.
For more information about the BLM wild horse and burro program, visit www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro.
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 located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.