Friday, Oct. 10, 2003 | 8:57 a.m.
Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at [email protected] or (702) 259-4082.
Eyore has found his tail but is still looking for an owner.
The 4-year-old horse, whose name is spelled with one fewer "e" than the maudlin little gray mule of "Winnie the Pooh" fame, is one of 17 formerly wild horses the Bureau of Land Management is putting up for adoption Sunday.
Five of the horses, including Eyore, are saddle-ready after training by inmates at Warm Springs Correctional Center in Carson City. Four others were culled from the Nevada Wild Horse Range that covers 394,000 acres on the Nellis Air Force Base, due west of Goldfield.
The remaining eight came from Red Rock Canyon management area, which covers 220,000 acres west of Las Vegas. One of these is a palomino filly with blue eyes that was born July 20 at Oliver Ranch, a BLM facility that sits in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
Hopefully, all will gain new owners Sunday at Henderson Saddle Association grounds, 6490 Weisner Way. The silent bidding, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., is open only to pre-approved applicants.
But anyone may attend the adoption or see the animals Saturday during a daylong horse show sponsored by the National Wild Horse Association advocacy group. The free show opens at 8 a.m. at the Henderson Saddle Association facility. Information on how to become an approved bidder will be available.
Four of the Red Rock horses up for adoption were born at Oliver Ranch. Their mothers were among 30 horses the agency rounded up in July 2002 from drought-ravaged land in Red Rock and near Lake Mead.
Three died soon after the gather. A fourth was tamed and is used as the adoption program mascot, said Billie Young, National Wild Horse Association president and the newly hired wild horse and burro program director for the Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Association.
The rest have been living at Oliver Ranch. With eight being adopted out this weekend, that leaves 22 of the rescued animals in the corral. And those, Young said, are to be returned to the range when the forage and water supply improves.
"It all depends on the rain we have," Young said. "We don't know whether we've had sufficient growth. We have to get better data."
But members of the Nevada Wild Horse Commission, an advisory committee to the BLM, are skeptical. The desert recovers slowly. It could be a year or more before it's suitable to add more horses to the Red Rock's existing herd of about 25.
"The BLM has to prove to us that there is enough food out there to sustain the horses. We don't think there is," said commission member Julie Gleason.
Young said the horses will not be released until they're certain food and water are adequate. Red Rock's wild horses are important to the visitor experience and provide good promotion for adoptions. Most Nevada horses are adopted by out-of-state owners.
"We're very concerned that we're going to lose some valuable assets to our community," Young said. "Once they're gone, they're gone."
But Gleason said it's better to lose horses to adoption than starvation.
"The decision to not put them back on the range may not be popular. But it may be the best thing for the horses overall and for the herd range overall," she said.
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