Thirty-five wild horses and burros found new homes last weekend after being started by inmate trainers at the Wyoming Honor Farm in Riverton. This successful adoption continues the BLM and Honor Farm’s 30-year shared commitment to place excess wild horses and burros into private care in order to maintain healthy animals on sustainable, working public rangelands.
Almost 200 potential adopters and interested onlookers gathered for the adoption, including adopters from Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota. Winning bids ranged from $125 to the high bids of the day: $1,600 for both Dalley, a 3-year-old saddle-started red roan mare, and Shenanigans, a 3-year-old saddle-started sorrel gelding.
Eleven pack saddle-trained burros from public lands in Arizona were also adopted, for an average of $318 each.
Travis Crane of Cody adopted Spartan, a 3-year-old saddle-started gelding, for his 6-year old daughter, Emily, who attended the adoption with her dad. Crane is a game warden who will work with Spartan in the backcountry all fall before Emily starts riding him.
“These guys do good work,” said Crane, of the Honor Farm inmate trainers. “They get the horses started right with good groundwork.”
In addition to saddle-started horses and burros, ten halter-started horses also found homes. Justin Roussan of Basin adopted two gentle yearlings. Roussan plans to train Jenny and River to eventually work cows.
“We heard these horses can handle different environments well and I’d like to see if maybe they can outwork our regular quarter horses,” said Roussan.
Two adoptions are held at the Honor Farm each year. The next adoption will be held in May 2019.
To learn more about the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program and adopting a Wyoming wild horse, visit BLM.GOV/WHB or contact the national information center at 866-468-7826 or [email protected].