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Mar. 28, 2008
Volunteer seeks horse adoptions
By MARK WAITE
Debbie Hines, a member of the National Wild Horse Association from Pahrump, said she first began to bond with Shyla, a two-year-old bay mare recovered from the desert, when Shyla got a whiff of her hair. "If you go to touch them and all they want to do is freak out and get away from you, you just have to be patient," Hines said. "For an entire week I kept trying to touch her," Hines recalled. "Then she got a whiff of my hair and that was it and, 'Hey that smells good.'" Association members will attempt to find homes for nine horses they adopted and trained at the Clark County Fair in Logandale April 10-13. Three horses come from Pahrump, another three from the Cold Creek area across the Spring Mountains, while three more hail from northern Nevada. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management provides some of the horses from the heavily populated adoption facilities at places like Palomino Valley near Reno, or Ridgecrest, Calif. NWHA President Shari Warren, from Las Vegas, said her volunteers gentle the horses, which makes them more adoptable. "We'll work with people after the adoption if they have problems adjusting; we'll have clinics. We'll teach people how to train them," Hines said. On a recent Saturday morning, there were no takers arriving at the Wind Rock Ranch for a training session, just Hines, Warren and Shyla the horse. Hines said she picked up Shyla last August, when she was a year old, an age when horses are easier to train. Two months later, last October, Hines was already showing Shyla at the POSS show in Pahrump and at the annual Mustang Show and Adoption in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, an owner wasn't found for Shyla. Another horse the organization picked up from Pahrump is Storm, an eight-year-old pregnant mare who was struck by a plane late last year at the Calvada Meadows Airstrip, Hines said. "Our goal is to promote the adoption of the mustangs and to show people that they are great animals that can be trained to any discipline," Warren said. There are a number of advantages to adopting a wild horse, Hines said. One is the price, a $125 adoption fee, unless they go to a formal auction with a bidding process. Then there's the different attitude from the more domesticated horses. "There is nothing she will whine over," Hines said of Shyla. "A mustang will go right in the water because they know what water is. They will go in there to cool off, they know the value of water, unlike domestic horses. It's just like riding a mountain goat. They will just do everything. They're very calm generally -- level-headed." The bonding process is amazing while she goes through the gentling process, Hines said. The problem is some owners adopt a wild horse, wanting to get a cheap horse, then take it home and don't know what to do with it, Hines said. The monthly clinics are a start toward those horse owners. "We want the adoptions to be successful. We want the owners to keep them," Hines said. The association is sponsoring a Spring Ride and Easter Egg Hunt starting out with a breakfast at 8 a.m., Sunday. Another fundraising trail ride is held over Thanksgiving. Warren is concerned the BLM gathers up too many horses on the range, not leaving enough for a viable breeding herd. The last major gather in the Pahrump area was in January 2007. Wild horses normally have a 20 to 22 percent reproduction rate per year, but Warren said many of the 130 estimated wild horses now on the Spring Mountains were administered a one-year contraceptive shot. "We also advocate for the horses too, trying to keep as many out on the ranges because BLM wants to pull a lot out and we want to keep them there," Hines said. The NWHA also tries not to flood the market with horses, Warren said. The BLM held a large adoption last June, where 20 wild horses were adopted, she said. The contact number for the National Wild Horse Association is 1-702-452-5853. The e-mail address is adoption@nwha.us. |
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