MERCEDES — Wild horses couldn’t drag these bidders away.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is hosting its annual two-day wild horse and burro event at the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show Grounds in Mercedes, where local residents have the opportunity to adopt a horse or burro.
Crystal Cowan, wild horse and burro specialist with the bureau, explained that every year they bring 120 animals for adoption to the area.
“The wild horse and burro adoption program is a nationwide program and we have one (event) in the area each year,” Cowan said.
In order to manage the horse and burro population in the U.S., the bureau will collect the animals from Herd Management Areas — federally designated locations where wild horses and burros thrive — across various states including Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming.
“There is just too many of them out there for the land to support; we run out of forage, we run out of water so it’s needed that we gather off a certain number and offer them up to the public for adoption,” Cowan said.
Before one can adopt the animal, however, one must fill out an application form and they must meet a specific criteria. One must have a 6-foot-tall corral that is a minimum of 400 square feet where the animal will have access to shelter, food and water.
Six months after purchase, the bureau routinely conducts compliance and inspection visits with owners to ensure the animal is properly taken care of, according to Cowan.
Delilah Sanchez, 21, attended the event Friday with her grandparents and 3-year-old niece, Azriel. She explained that they attended the event because her niece has been wanting a horse.
In fact, Azriel made sure to tell her grandpa to bring his wallet so he could buy her a pony, Sanchez said jokingly.
“She walks the horse we have … so she is already familiar on how to manage them a little bit,” she added.
Veronica Martinez, 28, from Mercedes also attended the event looking to add a new member to her ranch family.
Although it was their first time adopting from the bureau, they were still excited to adopt a horse for her 4-year-old daughter.
“She actually has a pony,” Martinez said. “She tends to walk her little colt that she has.”
Not only does the bureau offer the animals for adoption to residents, they also offer horses up for adoption to Border Patrol.
According to Danny Rios, an agent at the Rio Grande Valley Sector headquarters, border agents have partnered with the bureau to obtain horses for their mounted patrol. In 2018 they adopted several horses and now plan to adopt six more in April.
According to the bureau, the horses adopted by Border Patrol are trained by inmates at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility in Kansas.
The event will continue Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at the livestock showgrounds, 1000 N. Texas Ave. in Mercedes.
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