By Violet Hassler, Columnist

The first time I met my wild horse Piper it was fate.

I adopted him through the federal wild horse program at James Crabtree Correctional Center in Helena. Back then, they drew numbers, and by the time my number came up it was down to two horses.

There was the skinny, despondent horse left in the lot or the one that went bucking across the yard.

I eyed the bucking bronco and without hesitation picked the other — fate.

Turns out, once he had some meat on his bones and a person to bond with, my low-spirited guy perked up. It was fun learning to ride a horse they call green-broke — you never know when you might get bucked off.

But Piper was eager to learn. He was starved for love.

Sometimes when I stare at him ... staring off into the distance ... I wonder what would happen if he was free to roam the range again. I bet he would love it ... until he began to look around for his supper.

With my job and family responsibilities I’m not able to ride my mustang much anymore. In fact I’m sure my green-broke horse has regressed in his training, as he retreats to the far end of the pasture at the first sign of a halter and breaks into a frenzy at the sight of a saddle blanket.

But my husband likes having a “living legend” and my horse enjoys square meals every day, so it all works out.

He has a good home. It’s something that may become as rare as the sight of those horses roaming wild in the countryside, as economic times have hit the federal program hard.

Crabtree stopped its wild horse program last year because the expense “was not a good use of taxpayer money,” a spokeswoman said. She added the program, in which inmates worked with the horses was popular at the prison but the public interest had waned to the point where only a few came to public auctions.

And a few weeks ago when a Bureau of Land Management adoption was held in Pauls Valley, no one showed.

It’s sad to think of those horses, starving for food and love, never going anywhere.

Nearly 37,000 wild horses and burros roam in Nevada, California, Wyoming and other Western states, and another 32,000 horses and burros are cared for in corrals and pastures in Kansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota, according to an Associated Press article.

The wild horse program, operated by Bureau of Land Management, will cost about $50 million this year, officials said, an increase from $36 million last year. Costs for the current program are expected to rise to at least $85 million by 2012.

With that in mind, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters this week he is urging Congress to authorize seven wild horse preserves — including two owned and operated by the BLM. The agency would work with private groups on the remaining reserves in states in the Midwest and East.

Land in the West for the horses is shrinking, and the range land never has been conducive to maintaining the wild herds in a humane manner. Piper is a prime example, as every time his farmer comes down our dusty road he has to think of new ways to trim my wild one’s hooves to provide comfort to legs malformed due to lack of proper nutrition when Piper was a colt.

Salazar did not identify where the preserves would be located, but according to the AP story he said the two federally owned preserves would cost about $92 million to buy and build. The preserves would reduce taxpayer costs for care of wild horses in the long term, Salazar said.

While many still want to help the wild horses, they may not be in a position to do so, financial or otherwise, these days. BLM restrictions on the animals’ care are strict, and the horses are wild animals who are not as docile as the half-starved gelding looking for some love and a little sweet feed who captured my heart years ago.

But the preserve proposal and the BLM program use a lot of money, and some people argue there are homeless people who could use those dollars, there are children who need education.

They are right, of course, and there is no arguing those facts.

My fiscally conservative nature often wars with my heart in matters such as these.

But God has given mankind the ability to think and fare for himself — rather wisely or foolishly — and many times he broaches on those same rights of animals and the environment.

From the moment God entrusted the care of the creatures of the Earth to Adam, it has been our responsibility to care for the animals of the world. When they are not able to care for themselves, I believe it is our responsibility, especially when we take over the land where they prospered.

I am reminded of it every day by a pair of liquid, brown eyes and the nuzzle of a velvety nose.



Hassler, News & Eagle special projects editor, can be reached at violeth@enidnews.com.