ARCHIVES

ARCHIVES

Adoption event held in SY Valley

By Janene Scully/Associate Editor

Buy this photo now
A horse smells Kit Click's hand during the wild horse adoptions put on by the Bureau of Land Management on Saturday at Bella Cavalli Farms in Buellton. Below, Art DiGrazia, center, and Louie Andreas lead an adopted horse into a trailer. //Ian Gonzaga/Staff

A weekend getaway on the Central Coast included a different kind of window shopping for Bakersfield resident Melissa Isaac, who spent part of Saturday afternoon gazing at pens of wild horses.

After learning about a Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Adoption in the Santa Ynez Valley, she and her fianc/ came to check out the animals. Isaac carefully wrote down numbers from the geldings and mares that caught her eye.

“We’ve been through a lot of breeds of horses, and we just love these the best,” she said, calling the wild mustangs gentle and lovable horses.

Because they were on a weekend getaway, she wasn’t prepared to purchase a horse Saturday, but is making plans to visit BLM’s Ridgecrest facility.

Amanda Gobo of Thousand Oaks described her new purchase as sweet and gentle.

“She kind of stands out,” she said.

“She fit you. They bonded,” added Creston resident Kathe Hustace, with the American Mustang and Burro Association.

Some 20 wild horses, 18 months and younger, and 10 burros were up for adoption for $125 last weekend at Bella Cavalli Farms — it means

beautiful horses— off Highway 246 between Solvang

and Buellton.

About 80 people visited the Bureau of Land Management’s preview event on Friday, according to BLM spokesman Jeff Fontana.

By Saturday night, five horses and four burros had found new homes.

The number of adoptions is about normal for recent years, although adoptions had dropped off from a few years ago.

“But nine animals are in good homes — we’re thankful for that,” Fontana said.

Although rounded up from the wild, “they’re very trainable,” Fontana said, adding the horses are loyal and smart.

The Bureau of Land Management handles the adoption program as directed by the federal 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

“Our responsibility under that act is to protect wild horses and burros by managing and controlling the population,” Fontana said.

The BLM reports that California has 4,057 wild horses and 895 wild burros, for a total population of 4,952 — much higher than the agency’s determination that the appropriate management level should be 2,237. That appropriate management level number stems from availability of water and plants for the herd.

In the 10 Western states, the numbers are equally staggering. The ranges have 33,102 wild horses and 3,838 wild burros for a total of 36,940, or about 10,000 more than the range can sustain.

Since the animals don’t have natural predators, the populations can double in four years, leading to the need for adoptions.

Some 32,000 other wild horses and burros are fed and cared for at short-term and long-term locations

Since 1971, the BLM has adopted out more than 222,000 wild horses and wilds burros.

“We want to find them good homes,” Fontana said.

The horse adoption site held adjacent to horse whisperer Monty Roberts’ Flag is Up Farms proved fortuitous for some shoppers.

Trainers learning Roberts’ methods, who needed horses to practice their skills on, reportedly agreed to gentle the newly purchased wild horses for three weeks for free.

“There have been several of them adopted today because of that offer,” said Paso Robles resident Lydia Francis.

“It was a really generous offer from Monty’s folks, so we really appreciate that, for sure,” Fontana added.

The AMBA members has a booth set up with snacks and beverages, but were equally eager to feed information about the joys of owning a once-wild horse.

Francis jokes that AMBA is a support group for wild mustang addicts. In actuality, they help new and existing owners understand the animals.

Recalling one owner who asked, “What am I ending up with?” Francis said she responded, “Oh, you’re ending up with a treasure, actually.”

She considers mustang ownership a form of therapy.

“Most therapists never cure you; these do,” she said.

September 17, 2009