Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Bold plan to save our mustangs!














































Madeleine Pickens, wife of the multi-billionaire T. Boone Pickens, is offering her own plan to help solve the current mustang problem. Stated simply, the BLM has too many mustangs in captivity to feed them all and is looking at euthanizing some of them. Mrs. Pickens has her own idea and is planning to purchase over 30,000 of them and find land for them! That is most, or all, of the burros and mustangs currently in holding by the BLM. Can you believe it? What a woman! I salute her for her love of the American mustang. I only wish there were more enlightened rich people who could put their money to work! Here is the full story on the Washington Post website:
I especially salute her because I've visited the BLM holding corrals at Ridgecrest several times now and I've fallen in love with horses there that I've had to leave behind to a very UNCERTAIN fate. I'll post the story of one of them tomorrow. I called him "Gordo".

2 comments:

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

I think her idea is amazing, but I do have a few concerns.

1)How much land will she be keeping these 30,000 horses on?

2)Will she be providing care for them:
worming
contraceptive
vet/health
teeth
hoof trimming
food
water
safe fencing

3)Will she make sure to provide humane euthanasia for sick or injured horses?

4)Will she make sure that no horses will ever suffer from starvation or extreme weather?

I worry whether there will be enough land to provide for grazing without over-grazing, land deprivation, and parasite overload.

I worry if there will be enough land to make sure there will be enough space for the horses to create individual herds with lead stallions and mares.

I really worry about over-breeding and in-breeding.

I know she's got bukoo money, but before she takes on these lofty goals, she first needs to prove that she has the means to provide ALL the care for every one of these 30,000+ horses for their entire lifetimes.

~Lisa
New Mexico

Linda said...

This plan left me speechless--I think it left everyone that way, for the most part. It's miraculous. I can't wait to see how it unfolds--and I hope she picks Eastern Washington to buy the land!!