“Living Legends” now run about $125 each.
The whinnying, galloping kind, that is. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is selling wild mustangs to folks who will treat America’s trademark equine with kindness — and have corrals at least 6 feet high.
“We are bringing some exceptional young horses from the Western states,” Mike Nedd, director of BLM’s eastern state division, said yesterday.
His office will oversee the sale of 100 mustangs at the University of Connecticut in Tolland — not exactly cowboy territory.
“The majority of these horses get adopted east of the Mississippi, where people tend to use the American mustang as hunters, jumpers, in dressage, you name it,” BLM spokesman Bill Davenport said.
“They make excellent pleasure-riding horses. They don’t get really big. They’re loyal to a fault, intelligent and extremely strong,” he said.
The BLM is careful, however, to alert prospective owners that these are wild creatures. The distant descendants of horses that once belonged to Spanish explorers, American Indians and the U.S. Cavalry are not exactly “Mr. Ed.”
Though they stand only 52 to 60 inches high, the mustangs are “not accustomed to people” the BLM advises. “Your challenge will be to develop a trusting relationship.”
The agency requires buyers to complete an adoption application and a health care agreement.
But there has been some trouble afoot this year.
About 32,000 mustangs roam the range in 10 states, said BLM spokesman Tom Gorey. The horses take their toll, however, and unchallenged herds double in size every five years. The agency periodically rounds up some of the horses and places them in government-owned facilities at a cost of about $20 million a year.
About 22,000 excess horses are at the federal trough. The BLM must seek homes for thousands of the animals, which essentially have nowhere else to go.
A new law freeing the agency to sell off 8,000 older or unadopted animals ran afoul four months after it was enacted in December. To the horror of animal rights advocates and the agency, 35 mustangs ended up in slaughterhouses in April during resales by profit-minded horse brokers.
The BLM suspended mustangs sales, and the travails were short-lived.
The Ford Motor Co., maker of the iconic Mustang pony car, shelled out $20,000 to repurchase 52 of the ill-fated horses, sending them to a sanctuary in Idaho. The company has founded and funded a high-profile mustang rescue league.
Meanwhile, the BLM quickly revised its sales procedures. The agency is negotiating with three major packing houses to reject animals that bear a government brand and has resumed sales, now scheduled in 16 states and through the Internet.
“We’ve got a ways to go, but we’ve made some very positive steps,” Mr. Gorey said. “And we still want to encourage individuals and groups who are up to the challenge of caring for these horses, particularly the older ones.”
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