September 27, 2009 – Stiles

This morning we headed out to Britton Springs to pick up Stiles. When we arrived a little after 8, there were already others there picking up there horses too. Soon came our turn, and they brought Stiles out.

He went through the Britton Springs chutes for his last time to receive some final treatments and to have a halter put on.

Next he was loaded onto the trailer, which really wasn’t that hard for him at all.

Stiles was a little nervous in the trailer once he was loaded, but he rode well.

For this first part of his journey, he went to an area just outside of Lovell where he will stay for a short while before heading to New Mexico. Stiles unloaded easily and went into the round pen that he will be staying in here.

In the area next to the round pen was put a very kind old gelding named Dollar who has been used in therapeutic work. He came up to Stiles, and the two became very good friends from the start. There was no hostility shown between them at all.

There are two other horses in pens nearby to Stiles too, and he has also shown an interest in them. One is another gelding, and there is also a colt foal.

Life has quickly changed for Stiles, but he is handling it very well. The one thing that he wasn’t quite sure about was the sound of a train whistle in the distance. A dog that was watching him with us didn’t seem to phase him nor did some of the resident cats who also watched him with us. He did start to get a little upset when Dollar walked away momentarily to get some food, but he was fine when he figured out that he could still see him. Soon he will be back in the wild where he will form many more new relationships and live a wonderful life.

I’d really like to thank all of you who have been generous in providing donations for us to get Stiles his new home. Thanks also needs to go to S-9 Quarter Horses; they were in charge of this morning’s transportation and are also providing Stiles with this temporary home before New Mexico. Also, we have to give many thanks to photographer Lynne Pomeranz for all of her work on this project that started in its earliest stages and will continue for years to come. For more information on his new home, please visit the Monero Mustang Sanctuary’s web site.

September 27, 2009 – More On Adoption

The events for the 2009 adoption started on Friday with Britton Springs being open all day for viewing of the horses. Also, Ken McNabb did two great demonstrations for visitors in which he worked on gentling two Pryor horses. Hipshot was the first horse he worked with early in the afternoon.

He was able to make a lot of progress with Hipshot during the demonstration. During his afternoon he worked with Gabriel. By the end of this demonstration, Ken was able to easily touch Gabriel.

Saturday started out with a third demonstration with Ken. He decided to work with Isildur. As the morning progressed and more people arrived, there was a pretty big crowd watching the demonstration.

Ken McNabb’s demonstrations were very enjoyable. I think that all who watched were impressed with his gentle approach to working with horses. For more information on Ken McNabb, please visit his website http://www.kenmcnabb.com. Also watch for his future shows on RFD TV that will feature the Pryor horses.

Throughout the Saturday demonstration, many people also went through the pens to look at the horses.

Soon after this, the BLM announced that the auction would soon start, and so everyone settled in to prepare for it.

Saturday was National Wild Horse Adoption Day. There were adoptions throughout the country for this day, and the goal was to adopt out 1000 horses at these events.

Montana BLM’s Associate State Director Howard Lemm was the auctioneer for the adoption event. Many other BLM employees were also present to help out. I think the BLM hosted a great adoption event.

The majority of the horses were adopted out during the first round of bidding. Following that round, there was a short break so that people could go see the horses who hadn’t been bid on. After the second round of bidding, there were only a few older horses left who went to the sale where they were bought. After this, all of the new Pryor horse owners lined up to await their turn to pick up their horse or horses.

I am still so happy that each of the horses found a new home. I think it was a win-win situation for the new owners and their new horses. It really was great walking around and talking to the new adopters. I hope that many of them stay in touch so that we can see what new lives the horses will lead. I hope to soon visit some of the horses that were adopted locally too. The Cloud Foundation and their associates also took most of the older horses, and I understand that these horses will be living together somewhere around Pryor, Montana. Due to our schedule, we had to wait until the next day to pick up Stiles to get him ready for his new home. I will have more on this in the next post.

September 26, 2009 – The Adoption Is Over

Well, the adoption finished up earlier this afternoon. Every single horse found a new home. Watch for a new post soon with photographs from the weekend along with information on things like the amount of money each horse brought. I’ve added on some updates to the original post. Just for sake of interest, I will say that Conquistador was the highest selling horse for $2500. There was definitely a bidding war going on there. He wasn’t the only horse to break $2000 – Hickory went for $2100. A good number of horses also went for over $1000. Some horses also went for the starting bid of $125. As I went around and talked with people, it seemed that each person was extremely happy no matter what the cost, though. I was very impressed with the people giving these Pryor horses new homes. It was really nice to hear of where these horses will go and what their futures may hold.

Also, we were able to work in conjunction with the Monero Mustang Sanctuary in finding a new home for the stallion Stiles. I’d doubt there were too many other times when $50 went toward such a worthy project. We are very excited to know that Stiles is going to this sanctuary; we are sure his new life there will be wonderful. Please visit the Monero website for more information on the great work they do. Also expect future posts following Stiles as he goes to his new home.

September 17, 2009 – Photos of Adoption Horses

Just a quick post tonight – Here’s a collection of photographs and some information on the horses available for adoption. This is a document put together by the BLM for this adoption.  The document can be viewed by clicking here. New: Here is a chart with our names and ID numbers that correspond with the neck tag numbers that the horses are listed by in the aforementioned PDF.

Here is some more info I am just going to add on to this existing post too: All of the Pryor horses in this adoption will be adopted. This includes the older horses that were unfortunately removed. There are people, including the Mustang Center, who are working to get these older horses into really good homes.

Also, I’ve had questions on the treatments the horses were given by the veterinarian. They got a 5 way vaccination and vaccinations for strangles, West Nile, and rabies. They were also given a treatment to be wormed and had Coggins tests done on them.