I’ve adopted, now what?

Before you get to this point, let’s look at some of the facts you’ll need to know and some questions you might ask yourself.

Who do I adopt from?  There are several different organizations you can adopt from.  Some of wild horses and burros can be adopted from one of the many Indian Reservations in this country.  Others come from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (know that these horses are not protected by the same laws that govern the BLM horses and burros and are open to being sold for slaughter), and others can be adopted from the Bureau of Land Management.

Why adopt a wild horse or burro?  These are one of the most devoted, forgiving horses you will ever come in contact with.  They are more herd-oriented than domestic horses, so the bond with your new companion is like no other.  With gentleness and patience, you will be able to train a wild horse or burro for a number of different uses. Wild horses have become champions in dressage, jumping, barrel racing, endurance riding, and pleasure riding, while burros excel in driving, packing, riding, guarding, and serving as companion animals. Both wild horses and wild burros are known for their sure-footedness, strength, intelligence, and endurance.

Providing a home for a wild horse or burro is both challenging and rewarding. Adopting a wild horse or burro is a unique opportunity for you to care for and train a living symbol of American history.  

Do you have the time?  Wild horses and burros will, for the most part, take quite a bit of your time to gentle before you can ride off into the sunset.  If you are ready for the commitment you will have a friend for life. 

What are some of the initial costs? 

Facilities:  Before you can bring your newly adopted horse or burro home, you’ll need secure pens.  BLM adoptions require you to provide a minimum of 400 square feet (20 feet x 20 feet) for each animal adopted. Horses less than 18 months of age should be kept in corrals with fences 5 feet high. Fences must be at least 4.5 feet high for ungentled burros and 6 feet high for ungentled horses more than 18 months of age. You should not release an ungentled animal into a large open area, such as a pasture, since you may not be able to recapture the animal for training or to provide veterinary care. However, once the animal is gentled, you may release it into a pasture or similar area.

The acceptable corral must be sturdy and constructed out of poles, pipes, or planks (minimum 1.5 inch thickness) without dangerous protrusions. Barbed wire, large-mesh woven, stranded and electric materials are unacceptable for fencing.

Posts should be a minimum of 6 inches in diameter and spaced no farther than 8 feet apart. Horizontal rails should be 3-inch minimum diameter poles or planks at least 2 feet x 8 feet. If you use poles, there should be a minimum of five horizontal rails, and when you use 2" x 8" planks, there should be at least four rails. No space between rails should exceed 12". You should fasten all rails to the inside of the post with either heavy nails or lag screws.

You must provide shelter from inclement weather and temperature extremes for your adopted wild horse or burro. Shelters must be a two-sided structure with a roof, well-drained, adequately ventilated, and accessible to the animal(s). The two sides need to block the prevailing winds and need to protect the major part of the bodies of the horse or burro. Tarps are not acceptable. Contact your administering BLM office for shelter requirements in your area. top

Feeding:  Wild horses and burros are easy keepers.  When you bring your new companion home, you might have the tendency to want to feed them a lot of grain and alfalfa.  Please don't!  These animals have spent their times foraging on what mother nature has offered.  They have developed, over hundreds of years, specific enzymes in their systems that make breaking down the high proteins and sugars in alfalfa and sweet grains very difficult for them and causes, more times than not, colic, and even worse, founder.  You may introduce grain, on a very moderate basis, and some vitamins.  But, use extreme caution, as, again, they are used to eating what they can forage from the earth.  Some good quality grain I highly recommend is Strategy GX.  It has a lot of the essential vitamins, protein, fat and fiber.   I highly recommend an all inclusive vitamin like "Necessity," as well.  It is a balanced formula that is based on a molecular level and eliminates the need to mix and match to bring your equine the proper balance of vitamins, minerals and amino acids.  There is no need to feed additional vitamins with this product.  Use caution if you’re going to supplement with selenium.  A lot of people feel, especially in the Northwest, that because the earth and water is low in selenium they must feed more.  However, selenium can be fed in toxic levels, so use caution. [ Selenium is a trace mineral that is essential to good health but required only in small amounts. Selenium is incorporated into proteins to make selenoproteins, which are important antioxidant enzymes. The antioxidant properties of selenoproteins help prevent cellular damage from free radicals. Free radicals are natural by-products of oxygen metabolism that may contribute to the development of chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease.  Selenium, in conjunction with vitamin E, is necessary for proper functioning of the immune system and to protect the integrity of cell membranes. However, there is a delicate balance between too little selenium and too much.  Necessity has created that balance.

Still interested in adopting?  We hope so.  But, here are some more facts to consider.  Once you get your horse or burro home, you’ll have to find a good farrier who is knowledgeable with your type of animal.  Wild horses and burros have been wandering the open land for centuries.  Their hooves have had to adapt to the terrain.  Therefore, most of them have strong, large hooves that require little more than a trim every 8 weeks.

How about a veterinarian?  Interview a few and find one that is knowledgeable with wild horses & burros.   Although, they are not much different than a domestic horse, it’s still comfortable to know that your vet has a shared interest.

If you are adopting from the BLM, these horses have been vaccinated, wormed, and have freeze marks.  The BLM will provide you with a record of the adopted animal’s medical history, including a negative Coggins test. (A negative Coggins test indicates the animal does not have Equine Infectious Anemia).

Ok, so you’ve decided that this is for you.  Now what?  How do you know what to look for?  Here are some things to think about:

* Age

* Gender

* Conformation: Picking the Right Horse for the Job

* Temperament

* Color

* Your gut-level Connection

Age:  How good are your horse-gentling skills? Are your skills up to handling an adult wild horse or are you more comfortable with a weanling or yearling? Do you have a gut-level preference? Some people prefer babies, others prefer adult horses.

Many experienced wild horse adopters feel that three to five years is perfect: the horse is still young enough to accept domestication easily, yet mature enough to have all the mental and physical advantages of a natural upbringing in a fully functioning wild herd.

WILD HORSES OVER AGE 5: Many experienced adopters dispute the commonly held theory that older mustangs are too difficult to gentle and should not be adopted. Not so. Any horse will, with time and patience, learn to bond with you. Some older horses, being very wise and intelligent, come around very quickly, as they realize they are in trouble and that you are there to help them. Now that older wild horses in holding facilities are not protected from sale to slaughter, it becomes more important than ever to consider adopting the older mustangs. Remember, in the overall horse world, 7, or even 10 or 12, is not considered an old horse by any means! At 7 they've just reached maturity, and most horses are at their prime starting around age 10 and into their teens.

If your reason for getting a wild mustang is in hopes of riding right away - DON'T!

Very few people will be able to ride their new wild horse within the first year. There are some horses that will gentle and accept training very quickly, and a really good trainer can usually get a wild horse "green-broke" under saddle within a few months. But for most of us, it's a longer process. You probably WON'T be riding right away. If your top priority is to ride right away, purchase a horse that is already trained.

Gender:  To some people this isn't an issue. Other people have definite ideas about gender in equines.

Mares are often more "cuddly" and demonstrative in their affections than males. They can also be harder to handle during their heat cycles, depending upon how they are affected by their hormonal fluctuations. Many people prefer geldings for this reason. Of course, individuals vary.

Males come in two models: stallions (studs) and geldings. Wild studs are reported by many to be far more tractable than domestic stallions. This is due to the socialization inherent in wild herd structure - a wild horse who acts like a jerk is not tolerated by the others in his band. Wild studs do have normal mating urges, however. It is generally a good idea to get a newly-adopted wild stud gelded as soon as possible.

Geldings are the choice of many horse owners. There is an old saying that "Mares and stallions are good for making foals, but the only good working horse is a gelding."  Again, choose a horse on your preference.

Conformation;   Picking the right horse for the right job:  Unless you are consciously taking on a rescue horse (and this is a wonderful thing to do, don't get me wrong!) you will probably want to learn enough about conformation (skeletal structure, etc.) to choose a horse who has sturdy legs and feet, and an overall structure that will allow a pleasant smooth ride, and will not cost you big bucks down the line in vet bills.

If you plan to show your horse, you need to choose an animal with exceptional conformation. Contrary to popular myth, such excellent individuals do abound in the wild horse populations.

A good dressage horse is built differently from a good cutting horse. A reining horse needs differing conformation than a draft horse. A good barrel racing horse is built differently than an endurance horse.  And, due to their heritage, they all make great trail horses.

Think about what you want to do with your horse, and choose accordingly. If you don't know what is needed for your chosen discipline, visit shows and talk with people. (Be aware that they'll probably also turn up their noses at your mention of a mustang - but consider that their problem, not yours!)

Temperament:  Temperament is probably the hardest thing to evaluate at an adoption site. The stress of being confined in a small pen with other horses who may be strangers to one another sometimes makes good horses look bad. 

Horses are herd animals.  They have a pecking order and depending on that pecking order is where you decide what kind of horse or burro to adopt.  There are a number of widely-quoted benchmarks for judging temperament: Look for a kind eye, look for large, clear eyes, not tight, slit-open ones.

Watch how the horse interacts with others. If you want a quiet, easy-going horse, choose one that manages to avoid most skirmishes, one that does not seem overly upset by the more excitable horses, or one who seems sociable and well-liked by the other horses. A horse with many scars and blemished should not necessarily be ruled out, as it may be due to human harassment, injuries during capture or transport, predator encounters or a host of other reasons, but it is a "red flag" that just may indicate that this fellow has an Attitude!

If you want a horse for endurance or similar discipline that requires tremendous "heart" choose one of the more animated, even feisty ones.

You may see some of these traits in horses at an adoption, but do understand that such horses are stressed. It seems unreasonable to expect them to stand around, calm and serene, with big soft eyes, under the circumstances. Their facial expressions will change 100% once you get them home and they start to feel safe and comfortable.

Color:  A good horse is never a bad color. You don't ride the color, you ride what's inside the horse. That said, color may matter to you.  Certain disciplines that you may want to participate in, do discriminate against, or in favor of, certain colors & color patterns.

Or you may feel that, if you can only get this one horse, it had better be the horse you've dreamed of all your life. One's Dream Horse is usually a certain color or color pattern. Since your ability to commit deeply to the horse is THE prime ingredient for success, a color priority is legitimate. If you have a color preference, simply admit that you do, and don't beat yourself up over it.

Your gut-level Connection:  The most important thing of all is for you to feel a strong commitment to your animal, because that's what it's going to take. This is not a decision to be made lightly, but a choice to be made wisely. The perfect horse is out there for you.

No matter how "practical" or "rational" a choice is, your adoption project will not be successful if you cannot, in your heart, commit deeply to it.

So, after considering all the practical matters:

CHOOSE A HORSE THAT SPEAKS TO YOUR HEART.

So now what?  How are you going to get the horse or burro home?  The BLM requires stock-type trailers with rear swing gates to transport adopted animals. Drop ramp, divided two-horse trailers, and trucks with stock racks are not acceptable. However, in some situations, two-horse trailers are acceptable for transporting burros and horses 12 months or younger.  All trailers must meet these minimum standards: covered top, sturdy walls/floors, and a smooth interior free from any sharp protrusions; ample head room; removable partitions or compartments to separate animals by size and sex, if necessary; floor covered with a non-skid material; and, adequate ventilation.

You will need a double-stitched nylon webbed halter and a lead rope that is 12-20 feet long, cotton works great.  The wranglers will place the halter on your new adoptee for you.  DO NOT remove this until the horse or burro has been gentled, or if you have a good chute that you can work your animal in.

Once you get to your destination it is a good idea to be able to back the trailer up to the pen, or use a chute to guide your horse or burro into its safe, new home.  Now, let your journey begin.  It’s a good idea to give your new animal a few days to adjust to its new location.  Don’t rush them.  They’re going to run to the other side of the pen, get into a flight mode, panic at the site of you coming near their pen.  This is all natural.  Remember, this horse or burro has been taken from the wild where he was able to run from “predators”, graze at will, and just be a horse or burro.  He was chased, rounded up, loaded into a truck, transported to a new location, run through chutes, been examined and given shots, freeze marks (if adopted from the BLM), had its hooves trimmed, and then turned back out to an enclosed facility.  The trauma from all of this filled a lifetime.  Now, he’s wandering around an even smaller pen and trying to figure out if you’re friend or foe.  This is where your love and patience begins, and the reward will be more than you ever dreamed of.

OK - so now you've chosen the perfect horse, gotten it home, given it a few days - now what?

Too many "old cowboys" adopt these horses and ruin them by tying them to a trailer to "gentle" them.  Or, too many tie a rope around their necks and let them drag a tire for days.  PLEASE DON'T!!!  And, don't let them just stand around letting the halter grow into their faces because you're too afraid to do anything.  There is a lot of resources out there, and people willing to help.  The first steps to training are going to be the most vital and need to be done correctly.  See TRAINING for more information.

(Excerpts contributed by Mustangs 4 Us, and the Bureau of Land Management.)