Last week, we wrote a piece about the BLM online adoption event where 956 wild horses and burros are crammed online in an event that will garner more “strikes” for unadopted horses (in the three strikes system) than it garners safe homes. The Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) is still subsidizing a brand new cottage industry of pulling a horse or burro and getting the stipend, sticking it in a field for a year and looking for a fast turnover at open auction where jacking up the price for rescues is becoming commonplace (and if a rescue does not take the horse you can still get the “meat price” at auction).
Stating the above does NOT mean we do not support adoption and sanctuary. If you can give a formerly wild one a safe landing (and commit to care for a lifetime) we urge you to do so. Every single one of these horses and burros have lost everything a wild grazing animal is hard wired to associate with safety (home and family). Most of our volunteers own formerly wild horses or burros, not one regret.
The BLM online corrals have an active auction from May 6 through May 13th starting and ending at 4:00 PM MT.
You can access the online auction event by clicking here.
Above is “3150,” an 18-year old mare from Black Mountain in Idaho. This mare has lived all of her life in the wild and carries all the wisdom of the herd. Rounded up in September, her family shattered, she has very little chance of finding a safe home.
The same holds true for the other 18-year old, 2098, also from Black Mountain.
Only 2 of the wild ones rounded up from this area have online bids.
One of our volunteers, Bobbie Moller, is a regular visitor to those ranges. She documented the roundup, the horses in the corrals, adoption events onsite. She wrote the piece below highlighting horses from the September roundup.
Horses are both online and at the corrals. Wild ones from Blue Wing are also at the Boise adoption corrals and we believe even a few from Buffalo Hills are in the mix. Info on the Boise corrals HERE.
Meet Betty (some call her “Dosa”). These pictures were taken before the roundup. After the roundup her baby was adopted from the corral. Betty is still at the corral with mares that have foals or may be getting ready to have foals.
Currently there are 17 Idaho wild horses available for adoption in the BLM’s online adoption auction. Ten are from the Black Mountain HMA, six from Hard Trigger and one is from 4 Mile. All are located at the Boise corral except the one from 4 Mile is at the Bruneau, ID facility. All are mares. There are five between the ages of three and five, but the remaining twelve are between the ages of six and eighteen. Two of the mares are eighteen.
The Black Mountain and Hard Trigger HMA wild horses were rounded up by the BLM in September 2023. The one mare from the 4 Mile HMA was rounded up in 2021.
As of this writing, in the online auction, there are only two bids, on two Hardtrigger mares. None of the other fifteen have bids. Obviously I am very concerned. I have visited Idaho HMA’s numerous times. The horses are beautiful. If you know someone who might be interested in adopting, please share this article with them.
The online auction runs through Monday, May 13th at 4pm MT. Here is a link to the auction: https://wildhorsesonline.blm.
Betty, April 2024
As for the 13 younger mares that are not part of the online auction, that are still at the Boise corral, we thought we would highlight some of them here for you. First, Betty, aka Dosa, is probably four years old now. She had a foal in early June 2023. Her foal was trained for 90 days by an Idaho 4-H group and was adopted by a couple from the southeast U.S.
Betty was loved by many who saw her on the range. She was curious and cautiously approached us at various times. When I went to see her in the Boise corral at an adoption event that was held there last November, (Betty wasn’t available for adoption then because she was still nursing her foal), when I approached the pen she was in, all the other mares jumped back. Betty kept eating! She is a very calm girl even after all she had been though.
The photo above, taken last month, simply does not do her justice. Under the shag and mud is a stunning 4-year old. Betty deserves a loving forever home.
Below, note from WHE: The horses are being fed at the fence line, on the ground. This creates a high traffic area at a low point. Anyone. that cares for horses would be concerned about feeding off the ground, particularly in mud that sticks to hay. This sets up a high potential for a host of medical conditions from parasites, to colic and hoof issues.
For every horse or burro on the internet event, so many more stand holding corrals around the country.
We need your help to continue to document, expose, work toward reform with lawmakers and litigate. Our wild ones deserve to live free on the range and free from abuse.
Thank you for keeping WHE on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our treasured wild ones.
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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