Equine connection

Wild horses and real cowboys still exist, and you can see both today and Sunday at the Nevada County Fairgrounds.

You can even take home a wild horse or burro recently captured at the sprawling range in northeastern California as part of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's adoption program.

Silent bidding will be done on about 80 horses and 20 burros during the weekend, with each starting at $125. BLM employees and volunteers will be on hand with tips and literature on how to deal with the wild animals.

"When they come off the range, they have no bad habits," said BLM volunteer Edona Miller, who brings her mustangs and a burro to adoption events to help teach prospective owners about them. "I call them a fresh canvas."

Looking over the herd Friday, the Borges family of Big Oak Valley was hoping to find their fifth BLM mustang. Trelaina Borges was there to do a school report on the mustangs, as well.

"I like them because they're different; they learn faster," Trelaina said. "They're very accepting."

Dealing with a new mustang can be dangerous, but it does not have to be if you are calm and assuring, said trainer Phil West, who rides one for the Mono County Sheriff's Department.

"It's called gentling," West said. "You basically are domesticating them, and they have no people problems; you have a blank slate.

"The best way is just taking your time with them and read everything you can get your hands on," West said, ''and then throw away everything that doesn't work for that horse at that time."

George Berrier lives just outside Grass Valley and is president of the American Mustang and Burro Association, which is dedicated to perpetuating the program.

Berrier will be on a mustang at the adoption, one of many he's had since 1979.

"They're more sturdy and calm than domestic horses," Berrier said. "They don't have any feet or leg problems because they don't survive out there if they do."

While proper care and patience can turn a wild horse or burro into a fine animal, it also takes commitment, Berrier said.

"They're not toys," Berrier said. "You have to train them like any other horse. It takes time, patience and a place to do it."

According to the BLM's California horse and burro program coordinator Mindy Odom, "people train burros for backcountry packing, pulling cars and even riding." Odom said people appreciate their ability to adopt them.

Grant Lockie is a real cowboy, a full-time wrangler who helps round up the wild horses and burros on the range north and east of Susanville and readies them for adoption.

Lockie and fellow wranglers set up corral traps out on the range. A helicopter runs a herd toward the traps, and the wranglers run them in.

"There's a lot of people that prefer them," Lockie said. "They have a high endurance."

Lockie and his co-workers round up the horses from August to January to make sure the foals are mature and strong enough to take the action. The rest of the year, they leave them alone.

The horses are rounded up according to federal law, said BLM spokesman Jeff Fontana. In the 1950s, wild horses and burros were rounded up for commercial purposes until a Nevada congressman stopped the practice.

BLM managers figure about 2,500 can survive in the northeastern California-northwestern Nevada range.

"We know what the range can support, so we gather the excess," Fontana said. The adoptions assure that those left can thrive without competing for foliage.

People who adopt a wild horse or burro cannot sell it or use it for any commercial purpose, according to a contract they sign with BLM, Fontana said. After one year, an adopter gets full ownership if they can prove the animal has been raised correctly.