BLM teams with 4-H to train wild horses for adoption
The Bureau of Land Management is teaming up once again with Eastern Idaho’s 4-H program. BLM and 4-H are working to train and adopt out wild horse yearlings.
Wednesday was selection day where the kids could select which yearling they want to take home and train.
BLM has been doing this program in Eastern Idaho for four years, though the wild horse program started about seven years ago in Boise.
Kevin Lloyd, wild horse specialist with BLM, said the program is a good thing because it allows the horses to find good homes. It also saves the BLM and taxpayers money that would have been spent taking care of those horses on BLM off-range pastures. Lloyd said it teaches the kids a lot of skills too.
“To be able to work with these wild horses and to learn good horsemanship, on the ground training techniques, to learn about the wild horses themselves,” Lloyd said
Madison Shupe has done the program for four years and said she really enjoys it. She said there are both challenges and rewards.
“The toughest part is probably the first part – getting to know them and them getting to know you and the trust,” Shupe said. “The favorite part is probably the end result, getting to see what they’ve become to what they were when you first got them.”
The kids have until September to work with the horses. In September, they will then show them at the Eastern Idaho State Fair, where hopefully someone will adopt them. The fair runs Sept. 1 through Sept. 9.
“Two of the things that I’m very passionate about – the wild horses and youth and being able to see them work together is just a neat experience,” Lloyd said. “And the changes these kids can make in the horses over the next 60 days or so is just amazing.”
“It teaches you so much and the knowledge that you learn is crazy and it helps you throughout your whole life, I think,” Shupe said.
Since the program started in Eastern Idaho, it has a 100 percent adoption rate. More than 260 horses have been adopted through Idaho and surrounding states.
