adopting 30,000 horses

Thousands of wild mustangs have lived for decades on federal land, protected by the government and sustained by allocations to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). But now the BLM says the program—w hich had a budget of $36 million last year—is overwhelmed, and the horses are in danger.

Since mustangs have virtually no natural predators, herds will double every four years if left unchecked. To prevent overpopulation, the BLM removes thousands of the horses from the wild each year and seeks to place them in adoptive homes. But adoption rates have declined by 36% since the 1990s, leaving thousands of homeless horses in temporary facilities at government expense. Without an influx of new money, the BLM may have to begin killing horses with no adoption potential or selling off horses for possible slaughter.

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Madeleine Pickens, wife of oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, is an animal lover. As a horse breeder and a philanthropist, she has always considered that people must be responsible for the care of animals.

Wild horses, which date back to the time of the Spanish conquistadors, roam free on federal land in 10 western states and share that land with herds of cattle. To ensure that there is enough food for both wild horses and domestic cows, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management thins the herds, keeping the mustangs to about 27,000. They round up the rest and auction them off.

Recently, the land available to the horses has been drastically reduced by 19 million acres, so the government has had to round up more and more mustangs. Now, 33,000 horses live in holding pens, each horse costing $1,500 a year to feed. By law, if they can't be auctioned or adopted, they are to be slaughtered.

Faced with the prospect of losing these animals, Pickens took action, announcing that she would adopt the 33,000 wild horses that are in captivity.

Pickens said she is in negotiations to buy about 1 million acres for her wild mustang sanctuary in the West, a land mass slightly larger than Rhode Island. And it will be a place where anyone can go and see these wild horses running wild. She would not say where exactly.

"I think a lot of people would love the opportunity to go and see what America's really like, to see our true heritage, which is the wild horses," she said. "Once the horses are installed, families will be able to pull up in the RVs. We'll have hopefully log cabins, little hotels. Children will sit outside and have bonfires."

Pickens plans to have the sanctuary open within the next year.

"I can't wait for the day that the first horse is turned loose and you'll just see him kick his heals up and gallop away with this herd together," she said. "It's going to be so beautiful."

For more information on Madeleine Picken's project, visit her Web site: www.madeleinepickens.com

[via CoachJuneJones (football coach of the SMU Mustangs)]

*** [12/15/13] watched Wild Horse, Wild Ride on Netflix.  Recommended

a lucky 100 horses a year get trained and adopted.  One was adopted and became the SMU mascot.