CARSON CITY -- The services provided by the prison inmates in the training of wild horses is paying off, as reflected by the amount raised during the the saddle-trained horse adoption event.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Nevada Department of Agriculture and the Nevada Department of Corrections on Saturday, May 19, hosted the second of three annual saddle-trained horse adoption events at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center (NNCC) in Carson City.

Twelve wild horses, gathered from herd management areas within administered public lands in Nevada and California were saddle-trained for four months by inmate-trainers in the NNCC program, and offered during a spirited competitive bid adoption. Successful bidders from the crowd of over 150 people paid a total of $13,375 for the animals.

All twelve offered horses were adopted after starting bids of $150. The event’s top bid of $2,350 went for a five-year old brown gelding named “Three Socks.” The average bidding price for each horse was $1,130.00.

The successful bidders officially adopted their new horse and they must show diligent care of each animal for a year before they can apply to BLM to receive a title of ownership. Since 1973, the BLM has placed more than 220,000 horses and burros into private ownership through the adoption program.

The next saddle-trained horse adoption and competitive auction event will be the Wild Horse and Burro Expo at the Reno Livestock Event Center held in Reno on Saturday, August 18, 2012.
Fo more information about these special adoption events visit the BLM website.