Claiming wild horses

Friday’s wild horse and burro adoption brought Ashley Oliver all the way from the Tucson area.

"We’re going to adopt them to give them good homes so they can be taken care of," she said.

Oliver was adopting four horses for her mother-in-law. She said she came to Texas because it’s easier to plan since the shows put on in Arizona aren’t on a set schedule.

"We really weren’t too picky about them," she said of the horses she adopted. "We just wanted to help them, so we were willing to take any of them."

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management put on the event, which wraps up today. It allows people to adopt adult and yearling horses and burros that once roamed free on public lands in the western United States. The bureau says excess animals are periodically removed from the range to maintain herds and protect rangeland resources.

By lunchtime Friday, 30 of the 70 horses available had been adopted at the event at the Ector County Coliseum’s Outback Arena, said Paul McGuire, bureau public affairs specialist.

"It’s always a very successful adoption for us," he said. "The people in that part of the country support our program very strongly."

Odessa is such a big market for the program that it is the only location in a four-state region that has a wild horse auction every year. McGuire said the area’s other 14 auctions alternate to different cities.

"The culture of Texas is stemmed very much in horse lore," he said. "The people of West Texas have a cultural attachment to horses that goes way back."

This year’s auction had a new wrinkle. McGuire said Odessa is being used as a "test site" for an incentive program that pays a $500 care and feeding allowance to people who adopt horses 4 years old and older. The program makes it easier for the bureau to find homes for older horses before they become eligible for sale, which offers fewer legal protections for the animals than adoption.

It also keeps the bureau from having to pay ranchers to keep the horses, which McGuire said costs as much for a year as it does to pay the incentive fee.

Bidding on most of the horses started at $125 Friday morning. Those that weren’t bid on remained for sale at that price.

Though it’s called the wild horse and burro sale, McGuire said only one donkey made the trip to Odessa this year. And it was adopted Friday morning.

"They’re in pretty short supply," he said.

Rusty Salmon of Andrews said he wanted to come to the auction because he needed some mares for a new horse business he recently started.

"I’m just trying to build my little horse farm up and do a good cause to boot," he said.

Salmon was pleased with the event.

"I think they’ve got some nice ones for the money," he said. "Of course, you’ve got to work ’em, but you’ve got to do that with any horse you bring home."

IF YOU GO

>> What: U.S. Bureau of Land Management wild horse and burro adoption.

>> When: 8 a.m. to noon today.

>> Where: Outback Arena, Ector County Coliseum, 4201 Andrews Highway.

>> Call: 1-866-4-MUSTANGS.