A statement issued today said the new facility will offer family-friendly mustang safari tours and luxury accommodations for guests wishing to stay overnight.

The International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros, established by Velma Johnston, gave up most of its horses in 2016 when a whistleblower revealed conditions at the ranch.  Approximately 900 animals were placed into private hands the following year through an adoption program.

The sanctuary took in horses from White Sands, New Mexico, Gila Bend, Arizona, the Virginia Range and Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, both in Nevada.

A video posted yesterday tells the story.  He was born and captured in Nevada.

The YouTube channel, started in 2009, has quite a following.

In late 2011, when I was new to horses, I saw an ad in a magazine that said ‘think like a horse.’  Made sense so I searched the web, landed there and never went anywhere else.

As of today, the loss is not mentioned on the Think Like a Horse web site.

Here are the prices at the local feed store as of May 1:

• Alfalfa-grass hay, $19 per bale if you buy 20 or more (add $1 if not)
• Equine Senior, $27 per 50-pound bag
• Rice bran pellets, $19 per 50-pound bag (discount for 5 or more dropped)
• Oat hay pellets, $19 per 50-pound bag
• Alfalfa hay pellets, $18 per 50-pound bag
• Layena Crumbles, $21 per 50-pound bag (for chickens)
• Salt with minerals, $11 per 50-pound block

The drive-out price was $673, including $55 for our precious government.

If you deduct the chicken feed and two salt blocks, the total still exceeds $600, putting the cost of feeding six horses for one month at approximately $105 per AUM.

RELATED: Grain Tank Refilled.

A rescue in Webster, FL takes in wild horses, trains them and adopts them out, according to a video report posted yesterday by the Ocala Star-Banner.

A spokeswoman told Western Horse Watchers that most are owner surrenders, some purchased on sale authority and some adopted with the $1,000 incentive.

As of today, 49 of the 60 horses at the facility are mustangs.

She doesn’t look like she’ll be foaling anytime soon in this photo from April 19.  If the stud gets close she kicks him, aggressively.

Dart her anyway, it’s good for business.

RELATED: Due in Two Weeks?

The mares may have been captured at the Eagle or Silver King roundups earlier this year.  Some looked like they were very close to foaling.  Photos taken today.

The photo below was taken on April 4 but still applies.

Horse in foreground hears something outside of corral, head goes up.  I put beer in grain buckets, walk off to investigate, computer in hand.

Horse in background knocks can over while I’m away, finishes it.  About half full.

You guys aren’t supposed to have beer!

Nice teamwork, though.

Yesterday was his first birthday.  Almost reached the sixth rail.

RELATED: Colt Reaches Fifth Rail.

Found in one of the corrals this evening.  Almost 12 inches end to end.

Filmed just before sunset.

This hay room is in an old horse stall, so the partition was already there.  When you cut the hay strings, the bales don’t come apart because of the wall.

It’s also nice to lean against or catch your balance when you’re pulling bales to the top of the stack.  They weigh around 100 pounds each.

I can stack four of them while standing on the floor but must stand on one of them to lift them any higher.  The top of the sixth bale, on the right in the following photo, is about eight feet up.

The capacity of this area is 30 bales.  They are stacked on pallets.

Each bale contains 15 to 18 flakes.

RELATED: Hay Transport, Hay Reserve.

She’s been gone for eight years.  I never met her and spoke to her only once by phone.

Her horse came to the ranch in 2012 while she sought treatment.  Her husband was inconsolable a year after she died.

He’s put on some weight since then, maybe a bit too much.  He’ll be 25 in June.

He’s in the background in the following photo, taken March 21.

You probably guessed that the local feed store is a Purina dealer.

The drive-out price was $666.73, which included 20 bales of alfalfa-grass, ten 50-pound sacks of grain and one 50-pound sack of chicken feed, plus tax.

That payment will keep six horses fed for about a month, which works out to a little over $100 per AUM.

It also works out to about 2,500 pounds in case you’re wondering who had to stack it.

The cost to feed cattle and sheep on public lands is $1.35 per AUM, which explains in part why there is so much interest in getting rid of wild horses and replacing them with privately owned livestock.

RELATED: Extra Grain Storage.

Quick video update, filmed just before dark.

The drug, a hormone replacement that alleviates the symptoms of menopause, is made from the urine of pregnant mares, according to a letter published today by the Johnson City Press of Johnson City, TN.

A search for ‘premarin horses’ suggests that it’s true, and may qualify as animal cruelty, but Western Horse Watchers does not know if the practice goes on today.

Side effects include blood clots, stroke and breast cancer.

Aerial footage of former wild horses in an off-range pasture by Jay Stockhaus.

There are currently six ORPs in Kansas.  They are the subject of a 2019 article in Kansas! Magazine.

Horses not adopted or sold are supposed to end up in these facilities.

RELATED: New Off-Range Pastures, Quick Note on Overpopulation.

Rain over the last two days has turned the corral into a mudhole again, reducing the feeding area to a dry patch in the shelter.

When you show up with hay, the horses will converge on you, not because they’re mean but because they’re hungry, increasing the risk of foot injury.

There are four of them in this corral and they don’t pay much attention to the location of my feet when they’re exploring the pile for the best spot.

The front feet of an average horse carry around 300 pounds each, with 200 pounds on each of the rear feet, give or take.

In the early days, I had steel-toed boots but when they wore out I never replaced them.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, the colt reared up and came down on top of me.  Yeah, that colt.  Probably around 500 pounds.  I got up, dusted myself off, but did not respond in kind.  Just a colt acting like a colt, I thought.

As they say, if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

I’ve been bitten, kicked, stepped on and knocked to the ground, not by wild horses but by those on lead ropes or in a corral.  This was a new experience.

Every youngster, you have to set the limits, teach them what’s okay and what’s not okay.

The whoosh of a hoof going past your ear, you don’t want to hear that very often.

Photo of colt’s mom taken this morning.  Conventional wisdom says she’s due mid month, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.  These are not randomly selected horses thrown together in a corral, they are family.

One of the theories in the wild horse world is that roundups stimulate reproduction, growth rates are lower when herds are kept intact.

Video of colt at eleven months was posted to YouTube yesterday.

RELATED: Another One on the Way?

The agency is aware of several cases where patients required medical support after self-medicating with the equine dewormer, according to a report published yesterday by The New York Daily News.

RELATED: Safety of Ivermectin Paste?