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By Thursday the yearling training was going pretty well. Some of the yearlings had been loaded into trailers. Many could be handled safely outside of the BLM pens and were not significantly distracted by the hustle and bustle.
Thursday afternoon Donna Snyder Smith came by and put on a balanced riding class. Dave and Ginny Freeman arrived in the late afternoon and conducted the evening program, an introduction to training burros class. They brought Aerial who spent a little time getting adjusted to the environment, and then she basically wandered the place, visiting whomever and whatever captured her interest.
Friday we brought Maynard, another burro, and Dave and Ginny demonstrated breaking a burro to a pack saddle among other new things.
WHB Program Director Tom Pagocnik and NPO Information Officer Janet Nordin arrived on Friday and observed the activities. The horses for the Saturday adoption also arrived.
We gate cut a fresh horse which was a bit of a handful for John Sharp to demonstrate his techniques. Director Pagocnik seemed quite interested in the methodology.
That night as Aerial wandered the venue hunting leaves to eat, we had an evening discussion about effective marketing strategies for the wild horses; how to increase interest among the segment of the population which was likely to properly care for adopted horses.
Director Pagocnik explained that the National Program Office was conducting a region-by-region review of the entire WHB program. The BLM had also let out a contract for a marketing firm to perform a formal analysis and make recommendations as to ho the BLM can more effectively reach suitable potential adopters. The underlying theme throughout the discussion was appropriate care and safety for the horses and realistic expectations on the part of the adopters.
We discussed alternative programs such as prison trained horses, the upcoming pilot "cottage contractor" program and events such as the Wild Horse Workshop and how they could contribute to an increase in successful adoptions.
We also discussed the role of mentors in helping publicize adoptions, provide first time adopter applicants with realistic expectations about adopting, helping identify and verify suitable public facilities where adopted horses can be boarded and helping ensure that the horses stay adopted and well cared for through follow-up mentoring services.
Pam teaching a horse to load
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