There are thousands of older mustangs in holding and most people won’t even consider giving one a home, and I understand why. I’ve trained an older gelding myself - it’s not easy. I’ve seen many older mustangs be passed up for adoption multiple times or sold for as little as $25. They’re unwanted by most people.
That’s one of the main reasons why I started Mustang Mission, to give these older mustangs a chance. On this Giving Tuesday, will you consider donating to our facilities expansion fund to enable us to continue rescuing older mustangs? Even a donation of $5 would be a huge help and we have a gift for you, too!
It’s been almost a year since I won Alamo on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) online horse auction. When I began browsing through the auction a year ago, I decided that I would choose between three older geldings. One was dark brown, one black, and then there was Alamo. After much prayer, thought, and speaking with a person who knew them on the range, I decided on Alamo and won his bid.
A few months after Alamo came home in February 2022, I learned that the black gelding that I had considered adopting had fallen into a bad place. His adopters had left him alone to starve after trying to work with him in inhumane ways. It suddenly hit me that that could have been Alamo. If I had decided to rescue that black mustang instead, Alamo could have been the one being abused and neglected. That’s why I believe it’s so important to continue to rescue these older geldings - they end up in bad situations far too often.
Help Mustang Mission Save Older Mustangs!
I completely understand why so many older mustangs get passed up for adoption multiple times. It hasn’t been easy training Alamo. Sometimes, I have had to deal with slight aggression and major reactions, all stemming from fear and instinct. People don’t want such a difficult mustang to work with. Yet, the older geldings have become very special to me because of training Alamo. I understand them better and the importance of having a gentle training approach. Training Alamo has taught me that connection and good communication are much, much better than control - it’s safer too. Training a difficult mustang, like Alamo, has taught me how to appreciate the little things just as much as the big achievements. Alamo’s training journey has been incredibly rewarding for me and I thank God for giving me the wisdom I’ve needed.
Alamo should never have been removed, he should have stayed wild. There was no reason why he had to go through all the trauma of a roundup, being trailered to the holding pens with many other mustangs in the same trailer, and standing in two feet of mud in the holding pens for a month. Several months after Alamo and 311 other mustangs were captured from the Onaqui Mountain Range in Utah, the BLM allowed ranchers to put thousands of sheep on the range. Before the roundup of the Onaqui Mustangs, the BLM was telling the public that the mustangs needed to be removed because there wasn’t enough water and forage. Sadly, this is happening all over the West, but many people are fighting to stop it.
You can learn more about the wild horses and burros’ plight in the west here.
In the future, we will be helping many, many older geldings like Alamo that have lost their freedom so unjustly, and we will continue to tell their stories. Will you make it possible to save more lives like Alamo’s? You will never know just how much it changes a mustang’s life to rescue them. Rescuing a mustang from the holding pens is like taking them out of prison and giving them back freedom. It’s giving them another chance on life.
Many older mustangs need help and it gets worse every day. Your donation will enable us to have the proper facilities to take in more mustangs and save them from danger, abuse, slaughter, and neglect. Lastly, please share this fundraiser everywhere you can. Thank you…❤️
-Erin
P.S. An incredible donor is supplying Mustang Mission with all of the fencing materials to expand the mustangs’ pasture/field. We’re so grateful for their incredible kindness and support!
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“Not one of them is forgotten before God.” Luke 12:6
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