[Cherie]

These may have been some of the 'free' mares that Pauls Valley gives away. Aged mares that have not been adopted in a certain amount of time are available 'free' to approved homes. (Not slaughter buyers or 'bucking horse breeders, etc.). They started doing this during the great horse recession in 2007-??? to get rid of them.

Here is a link to the ACTUAL numbers of USDA managed feral horses actually living on the range and living in BLM holding facilities like the one at Pauls Valley and includes long-term leased range land like the ones I spoke of. These numbers were updated in February, 2016, so they are current.

Quick Facts

As you can see, there are now over 105,000 BLM owned feral horses and burros. We started out in 1971 with approximately 20,000 of them.

The drought stricken deserts of the western states cannot support even half of the feral horses attempting to live on them. They are ruining the habitat of all of the other actual native species including endangered animals and plants as well as all of the game animals that were already living there.

Meanwhile, all of the completely ignorant animal rights nuts want them left alone to keep multiplying at the rate of doubling their numbers every 4 years. That would be just great. Then all of them along with the deer, elk, antelope and all other native species can die with them.

Just WHAT is the BLM supposed to do? Where are these tens of thousands of unwanted horses supposed to go?

 

[Dreamcatcher Arabians]

These may have been some of the 'free' mares that Pauls Valley gives away. Aged mares that have not been adopted in a certain amount of time are available 'free' to approved homes. (Not slaughter buyers or 'bucking horse breeders, etc.). They started doing this during the great horse recession in 2007-??? to get rid of them.

Those mares may have been part of that program, but whoever picked the horses for this gal charged her, they weren't free. The whole thing was a little smelly. She lives out of state and someone down there handled picking out the mares, probably someone who was affiliated with whatever AR group got their hooks into her in the first place.

So, you have a woman and her daughter who were looking for a pair of riding horses so they could have mother daughter time out riding together. They meet up with a "rescue" or "AR" nut who sells them the Fairy Tale of the Romantic Mustang who will develop an extra strong bond with you once you build your relationship based on love and trust. How am I doing so far on the fiction story category? They are put in touch with a person who will handle the actual transaction for them and find them a suitable pair at the BLM facility. She finds a trainer who will handle these horses because he's done it before, successfully, and has them transported to him sight unseen. They come off the trailer and and HOLY COW these things are over 16 hands, 1500 lb or better and they are no more yearlings than I am. Trainer says, "OH WAIT A MINUTE HERE. I don't think this is what she signed up for." and he calls her and describes the horses, who she can hear in the background trying to dismantle his holding facilities. Well, no, that's not what she thought she was getting, but they are so pretty she decides to keep them anyhow. He says, "Well, I will do the best I can with them, but you understand 60 days is not going to get these 2 under saddle.". She says it's ok and so it begins. She gets behind on training bills, I don't know the dollar figure but trainer's daughter says, "I could have put down a NICE down payment on a brand new car." on the amount. He finally has to call and say that he's going to stop training and have them put in a pasture situation until she's caught up on the money. They have been sitting in a pasture fenced for Elk for the last several months. She is current and could move them but won't, she can't handle them and doesn't have facilities to hold them and cannot find a boarding situation that will accept them anywhere near her.

I see 4 victims here. The horses, the woman and her daughter. No one got served well by this scenario. And unfortunately, the horses will probably come out on the dirty end of the stick when she either runs out of money or gets tired of paying board for 2 horses she's never going to see in person or handle.