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[RC] BLM adoptions and AERC - jmo - E.L. Ashbach

Just to register my personal experience with BLM adoptions and opinion about the BLM/AERC raffle issue:

Based purely on the fact that my government (through whatever convoluted thinking) collects wild horses and burros which then are in need of homes, our family adopted a mom/baby burro pair last year. It seemed the right thing to do to ensure that at least these two could have a long and happy life with our family.

Short story: they're doing great. Rodeo (the jack) is now gelded and is a muffin. Verano (the mom) is still pretty wild given that she was collected as a 4 yo. She continues to make slow and steady strides in trusting us. The BLM people were very good in our experience, followed up with several phone calls, and visited our facility to check up. We look forward to providing a home (and maybe someday, a job) to these two for many, many years.

Now the other part: as we were getting ready to load our two, the head wrangler approached us and asked if we'd be willing to haul a horse for a lady who was adopting a halter-broke yearling. (She happened to live fairly close to us. He also asked me to check out her facility since he had some concerns. The horse she adopted was already *almost* a puppy dog in temperament.) She followed us and her little horse to her dad's place, where she was going to keep the horse. For various reasons I won't go into here, we refused to leave the horse at her place. It's a long, complex, and dramatic story, but the horse ended up staying at our place for several months while she learned to handle a horse (never had had one), and got him gelded. The BLM did a good job with a bad situation and through many conversations with her and visits to her place got it ready for the horse. The horse lives there now presumably, as it's in the BLM's hands. The horse was *wonderful* and calm throughout this whole process and I can't imagine this lady owning an Arab, for instance. Too hot and sensitive, but Tyler worked out great for her, even though some would question whether she should even have a horse. (I did, but she does, and that's that, and she *loves* that horse.)

Out of this I feel like I really gained some insight into the dilemma the wranglers and administrators face at the BLM. All in all, they're doing a good job with a tough situation and their efforts should be applauded. I don't think that Randy's efforts to combine a BLM auction and AERC event are wrong, or bad, or an endorsement by us of the Wild Horse collection program, and raffle is an opportunity for us to give a great job to a deserving horse. These horses and burros *are* collected, and there are *good* ones and *not so good* ones in the bunch. This event that Randy has put together seem to me to be another effort to live in *this world* with compassion for these animals. I will purchase raffle tickets for this event and support anyone's effort to enter endurance on their chosen mount, whether formerly wild, or highly bred. It seems like a good opportunity for us to give a clinic or two about endurance, or whatever other topics we can share with the folks who will come to this event, and might not otherwise encounter an endurance ride. Are there any plans for that type of thing?

Lisa Ashbach


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