Wild Horse Mentors at the
Eureka Wild Horse Adoption
October 19, 20, 2002

45 horses, 1 mule and 11 burros were adopted.
Velvet entertaining some kids
Humboldt County, CA, is a somewhat remote north coastal county up in the redwoods. Although it is one of the smaller wild horse markets in California, BLM provides services to residents of the region with occasional satellite adoptions. The California BLM staff is very focused on providing a good adoption experience for both animals and adopters, and they are very easy for the volunteer groups to work with.

Saturday, October 19, started out as a typical day in the redwoods with "drizzle fog" coming in from the ocean. It stayed cool and relatively wet most of the day Saturday and through the morning on Sunday. While the weather didn't help attendance, a steady stream of visitors passed through the adoption and a number of them took animals home.

BLM brought 58 horses, 2 mules and 21 burros to the event. By the end of the weekend 45 horses, 1 mule and 11 burros were adopted including an old timer affectionately known as "Grandpa Burro." (The most ever adopted at Eureka was 60 animals so this was not a bad event.)

The mix included 12 halter trained weanlings and a 3 year old saddle horse from the Warm Springs (NV) Correctional Center Inmate Horse Training Program. The weanlings were scattered among the ungentled horses in the pens and could be easily spotted as they were pressed up against the pen railings getting pets, scratches and treats from the crowd. It wasn't unusual to see a child reaching through the bars hugging a young horse. The halter weanlings were a big hit and showed well of the Warm Springs program. (All the Warm Springs horses got adopted.)

Spirit and Velvet were the only demo animals to appear at this adoption, and they were a little tired from an eight hour trailer ride, but they soon perked up when the crowd came around and entertained everyone. Velvet also had a couple of her water color paintings on display. (We don't think anyone had seen a painting done by a horse before.)

LRTC Mentors included Willis, Sharon, Joyce, Randle, James and Marialaina. Volunteers from EARS and Mustang-Spirit also assisted. Lesley Neumann provided round pen demos. Joyce also hosted a farewell barbecue for State WHB Specialist Rich Fagan who is retiring in November.

Continue to Part Two

"Rolling Blunder" and photo displays
Display pens, horses, displays & "Velvet art"

Click HERE for a close-up view of Velvet's painting of a burro.
Riding Velvet to perk her up
Lesley working a mule

For a schedule of other upcoming California adoptions, please click Here.



CA Wild Horse Adoptions
Most California adoptions start with a silent auction. Clipboards for each horse are attached to the adoption pens. Registered adopters have an hour to place bids on the clipboards, competing with each other in $5.00 minimum increments.

At the end of the silent auction, the "winners" are posted or called out. If a bidder is high on more animals than he/she wants, the animals that are passed go to the next highest bidder.

The remaining animals are sold on a "first-come first-served" basis for the posted minimum bid.


This is not a BLM operated or BLM sponsored site. It is run by private wild horse and burro enthusiasts.

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