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"Home of the RMR Ranch and the ฉHorse Domeฎ"
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"For all of man's friend"
ฉWild Horse Foundationฎ
This page is dedicated to Wild Horse and Burro adopters. These comments and letters are from folks we have assisted with training and mentoring techniques. We hope you find the comments helpful and encouraging with your Wild Horse and Burro training.
"The Wild Horse Foundation is a godsend to the bureau, said a BLM Official", It's just phenomenal what the foundation has been able to do for us as far as placing these animals". In 20 years with the BLM, the program hasn't seen anything like this phenomenon. "The Foundation maybe pioneering what the future will hold for the adoption program".
Articles published on Ray Field and Susan Calhoun-Field Founders of the Wild Horse Foundation.
Come in and stop by and read the articles in our Wild Horse Foundation education center and library.
San Diego, Union Tribune, www.uniontrib.com Nov, 7, 2007 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/wildfires/20071107-9999-1mi7lajolla.html
CBS 8, San Diego, Nov. 6, 2007, http://www.cbs8.com/story.php?id=108132#
Western Horseman - August 2007, see page 2 of the press, scroll to the bottom and click on page 2.
Waco Tribune-Herald Feb 2007
http://www.kcentv.com/news/c-article.php?cid=1&nid=12007
http://www.kcentv.com/news/c-article.php?cid=1&nid=12068
KBTX CBS http://www.kbtx.com/news/headlines/2185602.html
Houston Chronicle, Sept. 2005, Star Lifestyle-Western Icons (see below)
Horse Illustrated July 2005
Cowboys and Indians, 10th Anniversary Special edition with Sam Elliott, 2003
Bandera Bulletin 2006
Country World Equine Spring Edition, Waco, Texas,
Country World Equine Fall Edition, Waco, Texas
Amarillo Globe, Amarillo, Texas
Tulsa World, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Elk City Daily News, Elk City, Oklahoma
Vicksburg Post, Vicksburg, Mississippi
Baton Rogue East Side, Baton Rogue, Louisiana
Jackson Clarion Ledger, Jackson , Mississippi
Franklin News Weekly, Franklin, Texas
Market Bulletin, Louisiana Department of Agriculture
Buffalo Press, Texas
Friendly Farmer, Texas
Bryan Eagle, Texas (go to story)
Waco Tribune-Herald, Texas, 2003
Waco Tribune- Herald, Texas 2004
Texas Horse Talk, Texas's elite horseman magazine
Country Style, Texas
Iconoclast, Crawford Texas, 2004, 2005
Marlin Democrat Newspaper 2005
Robertson County Reporter 2005
Groesbeck Journal, 2003, 2004, 2005
CBS-Exclusive 2004
Fox News 2004
NBC-Exclusive 2004
Contra Costa Times 2005
Kansas City 2005
Washington Post 2005
Air America Radio, 2005, national syndicated coast to coast
Rockdale News, 2005
Cameron Daily, 2005
Newsweek, 2005
Land and Livestock 2005,
(Be watching for our new TV training series coming soon, real soon!)
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Sept. 25, 2005, 1:36AM
By EILEEN McCLELLAND
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
FRANKLIN Rubio has a wicked, toothy grin and a rakish attitude. He's a charmer. He better be he's going to be a stud when he grows up.
The young mustang's mother was rescued by the nonprofit RMR Ranch Wild Horse Foundation in Central Texas, where he was born. He playfully carries buckets around a corral and with his teeth pulls the hair of his sedate equine peers, trying to interest them in a chase.
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Bill Olive / For the Chronicle Ray Field, president of the Wild Horse Foundation, with Sundance, a gentle mustang he plans to give to President Bush. |
"He's just a baby," says Jolita "Jo" Tooke, a petite, 20-year-old wild horse wrangler and preveterinary-medicine college student. "He's like a 10-or11-year-old kid." Rubio interrupts with a push. "He needs to learn some manners," she said, with an indulgent smile. "We have shoving matches."
The comedian Rubio (blond in Spanish) is one of 42 permanent residents mustangs and burros Ray Field and his wife, Susan Calhoun, support on their 100-plus-acre ranch in Texas cattle country. Hundreds more mustangs and burros squeezed out of Western rangelands have stopped at the ranch before being placed for adoption elsewhere in Texas.
"He promised me a horse ranch when we got married," Calhoun said. "Be careful what you wish for!"
Field's promise has turned into a workaholic's version of a hobby that includes the adoption program, training clinics and rescue work. He lives full-time at the ranch while Calhoun spends weekdays working in Houston and makes the 300-mile round trip to Franklin most weekends.
Franklin is almost due north of Houston, in Robertson County.
After the couple adopted three mustangs from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management about eight years ago, they realized domestic-horse training methods just didn't work. But they didn't know where to turn for help.
"We found out that in the state of Texas, a lot of resources were not available to help people who had adopted wild horses," Calhoun said.
They decided to do what they could to help, drawing on many sources and devising a training method called gentle horsemanship.
Calhoun said Field is an intuitive trainer, seeming to know what the horse is thinking before the horse knows it himself.
His family calls him the Mustang Man.
For many Americans, the mustang a descendant of 16th-century Spanish conquistador mounts is a symbol of the West. At the turn of the 20th century more than 2 million wild horses roamed the plains.
Today, Field estimates there are 53,000 wild mustangs, including 28,000 in federal holding facilities and 25,000 on open range land in 10 Western states. The majority of horses are in Nevada, and most of the burros live in Arizona. By placing 800 to 1,000 mustangs and burros a year, he's running the largest wild-horse adoption facility, second only to the federal government, which has placed about 200,000 mustangs in homes since 1973.
The BLM charges $125 for adoptions. The Wild Horse Foundation charges an average of $50 per animal, but as much as $250 for specialty horses, such as palominos.
The adoption effort has become more critical this year. The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 protected the animals from slaughter. But Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., attached an amendment to a spending bill in December 2004 that President Bush signed into law. The amendment allows the sale of older and unwanted wild horses without the safeguards required for adoptions.
After 41 wild horses were killed in an Illinois slaughterhouse in April for human consumption in Europe, the Ford Motor Co. stepped in to save at least another 50 of the animals. And the Bureau of Land Management scrambled to protect the horses, as well, stopping all sales for about a month and then, when sales resumed in May, requiring purchasers to sign a contract stating the mustangs will be treated humanely and won't be resold for slaughter.
Tom Pogacnik, California wild horse and burro program manager for the Bureau of Land Management, said these new measures have had a chilling effect on sales while the bureau continues to place horses for adoption.
But Nancy Perry, vice president of government affairs for the Humane Society of the United States, said those motivated by money are able to work around such restrictions. The Humane Society's position is that slaughtering any horse in the United States should be outlawed by the federal government.
"Any horse sold to anyone at any time becomes vulnerable to being sold to killer-buyers, people hired by the slaughterhouses," Perry said. "And most people who sell their horses for slaughter don't even know what they're doing. They assume they are going to a nice home, and instead they experience a painful and terrifying death all so they can be on a European dinner plate. This is not what Americans want."
Advocates hope for new legislative protection while Field has gone into adoption overdrive, embroiled in a struggle that has attracted a range of critics, from groups he calls "tree huggers" to skeptical bureaucrats.
"Tree huggers want them turned loose," he said. "But we're actually keeping them from being put to death. We can't just let them go. Texas doesn't have public land for them."
Pogacnik first worked with the foundation to find new homes for wild burros living in California state parks. The state didn't want them there, but there was no provision for their adoption. Field placed them in Texas.
In 20 years with the BLM program, Pogacnik hasn't seen anything like the phenomenon that is Ray Field, a "character" who is both fierce and kind.
He has unlimited patience for horses but can't abide fools. Field said he once told someone to get off his property because the visitor could not be convinced that Field wearing his usual shorts, T-shirt, tennis shoes and cap combo was really the magical horse whisperer he had read about on the Internet and not some ranch hand.
"He's creating a process that offers a new approach to our adoption program, where he can get the private sector involved," Pogacnik said. "He may be even pioneering what the future will hold for the adoption program. The hope I have is that he's going to be able to export that around the country, that it's not unique to Texas."
The operation has held up to exacting inspections by the Humane Society and the state of Nevada, Pogacnik said.
Even so, a couple of years ago Field was accused of mistreating horses by a group that posted photos on the Internet. If the mustangs are thin, they arrived that way, he said. As soon as they walk off the trailer, they are fed, given water and plenty of space. In many cases, they are taken to new homes immediately. A veterinarian, who donates her time, is on call.
"He's got the right personality for it," Pogacnik said. "He's been getting whupped on, but he's proven he can do the job and do it quite well."
Pogacnik said Field's no-holds-barred attitude combined with the sensitivity of the wild-horse issue made him some enemies early on.
"Ray has brought discomfort to a lot of people," Pogacnik said. "He's made some brash statements that he could do a whole lot more than the BLM. But he's done it and he's done it humanely, which is what the public demands. There's zero tolerance for the animals being injured or dying. He's under a lot of scrutiny."
To Field, the whole thing is just plain common sense. Why not find good Texas homes for mustangs who would otherwise either exist precariously in the wild or in a no-man's land of governmental bureaucracy and holding facilities? Particularly with the specter of the slaughterhouse looming.
Since mustang advocate Velma Johnson of Nevada, known as Wild Horse Annie, died in 1977, mustang protectors have lost some of their lobbying focus.
"There's been no united front to protect wild horses," Field said. "There are a lot of groups out there, but they can't get their act together. I wanted to get away from the politics of it and put horses first."
The BLM routinely ships horses and burros to the ranch. They also come from the U.S. Forestry Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the U.S. Navy, the National Park Service and the state of Nevada.
Although Field believes the mustangs' migration off Western rangeland is in direct response to cattle ranchers' complaints, Pogacnik said it's more a question of a scramble for limited resources.
"The perception among the horse organizations is that all the ranchers are anti-horse, but I haven't seen that," Pognacnik said. "The vast majority of ranchers just want to keep their populations at a set level." Years of drought and fire have contributed to the shortage of grazing land as well.
"There is conflict between wild horses and livestock, but there's also less room for elk, mule deer, big-horned sheep," Pogacnik said. "All the interests are competing for the same thing. And when you have a very limited resource that doesn't have much of an opportunity to expand, then you're going to get conflict."
Janet Neal, based in Reno, Nev., is national volunteer and public outreach coordinator for the Bureau of Land Management's Washington, D.C., office. She said critics are inflamed by the wild-horse issue for myriad reasons.
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Bill Olive / For the Chronicle A group of mustangs arrives on RMR Ranch on Sept. 9 after a journey from Kansas. The 35 wild horses have all since been placed in adoptive homes. Field expects 33 more to arrive on Wednesday.Sept. 28. ``We're just looking to get them on green pasture,'' Field said. ``I want a horse to be a horse.'' |
"Everyone has a different opinion. Some people want them to stay where they are and let Mother Nature take its course, let the animals die of starvation and dehydration. Some people want all the cattle taken off the land."
The Wild Horse Foundation is a godsend to the bureau, she said, because maintaining long-term holding facilities are draining the bureau's already lean budget. It needs help from the private sector. In fiscal 2005, the BLM expects to spend $39.5 million on the wild horse and burro program, including $20.1 million on those in holding facilities.
"It's just phenomenal what the foundation has been able to do for us as far as placing some of these animals and that the foundation has found good homes for them," Neal said. "That is the key to all of us. That good homes are found for our animals."
People who want to help, but can't take a horse home, can make a monthly donation to name and maintain a horse on the ranch.
Sometimes mustangs are brought to the foundation from private owners, along with a donation to fund their retirement.
Mary Putnam stopped by to visit Dakota, a mustang she adopted in Lake Charles, La., through the BLM and later relinquished to the foundation when she could no longer care for him.
"I drove by and whistled and I saw a head go up," she told Field when she arrived at the office.
Field drove her to the pasture on a golf cart, where they were quickly surrounded by a small herd looking for edible treats. Dakota was among them.
"I still have your baby pictures," she told him. She hugged his neck and posed for pictures smiling like a proud mom visiting a college kid.
Putnam said she adopted Dakota almost on a whim. She had the space for him, but no experience with horses.
"It was like bringing home a submarine," she said. But Dakota somehow became a good friend. "He really was very gentle. He taught me a lot of self-confidence."
When Putnam left, she wrote a check for $150, at least $100 more than the value of the mugs and T-shirts she bought. Field was grateful. It all adds up.
A Houston business owner, Field relies on adoption fees, donations and the sale of logo souvenirs to keep the operation going.
Each group of horses costs $6,000 to transport. Sometimes the government pays, but sometimes it's not in the budget and the nonprofit foundation must absorb the cost.
The average placement is six horses per adopter, although some ranchers have taken in as many as 30. Others choose one special pet.
Calhoun said the horses are carefully matched with their new owners, who are screened. "We ask a lot of questions," she said. The average wait for a horse is 30 to 45 days, but some applicants who want certain colors paints and palominos are popular are willing to wait longer.
Jim Phillips was mourning a mare when he found the mustang he describes as the love of his life.
"That hurt so bad for a long time," he said. "I couldn't pull out of the slump." Then he saw Lupe, a 6-month-old filly at the Wild Horse Foundation.
"I noticed this one little filly, she had her head down in the hay all the time," he recalled. "After a while she raised her head and looked right at me, and she had two of the most beautiful eyes you've ever seen, and a beautiful head and a short muzzle. And I said, 'Well, that's her.' To make a long story short, she has been the apple of our eye."
Within a few days, he was able to lead her in a halter. He hopes to saddle-train her when she's older so his grandchildren and great-grandchildren can ride her.
Now Phillips volunteers to train other young horses for the foundation, although 16-month-old Lupe gets terribly jealous.
"Mustangs seem to have a quick wit to them," he said. "The mustang will put 110 percent of himself into what he does. They are really alive. Being part Indian myself, I probably understand a little about this thing called freedom. Mustangs are really my kind of horse. I can relate to their feeling of freedom and a little bit of wildness, too."
Lynn Holleran of College Station said she's had "various and sundry creatures," but she always wanted a mustang since she was a little girl. "Don't ask me why," she said, "but it's always been a passion of mine." On her first scouting expedition, she found Brumby, a golden-hued palomino with three white socks. "He is the gentlest soul," she said. "How quickly they're willing to bond with you. It's magical. If you're fair with them, they're willing to work their darndest."
While most horses arrive in relatively good shape, Field still is incredulous that he was once shipped a filly that could barely walk. He asked Dr. Ilka Wagner of Hearne to examine the youngster, who arrived during the Christmas season.
Christmas, as she came to be called, had contracted tendons of both front legs.
"My heart went out to that filly," Wagner said. "If she could tough out a trailer ride from Nevada in that condition, we owed it to her to give it a shot and try surgery. Sometimes it doesn't work, but I hated to put her down without trying."
Wagner not only operated but she also took the filly home. "I was going to adopt one of the mustangs, anyway," she said. "So I adopted one that needs some after-care. She'll never make a riding horse, but she runs around out in the pasture."
To draw attention to the cause, Field has made a gift of the mustang Sundance to President Bush. Formerly abused, Sundance is a medium-size horse who likes men and hides from women. Field hopes Bush will claim Sundance when he leaves office.
"I thought they'd look well together," Field said. "Sundance has an elegant glow about him."
Contact the foundation 979-828-3927 or on the web for more information, www.wildhorsefoundation.org
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That's the most important thing to remember in training wild horses, said Field, founder of the nonprofit Wild Horse Foundation.
Field gave several demonstrations of his training techniques Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Adoption sale at the Golden Horse Training Center north of Canyon.
"I've had horses all my life," said Field, a Mississippi native. "My wife and I adopted a horse three years ago at Pasadena, Texas."
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"You were basically on your own," Field said. "You'd take him to a domestic trainer, and he'd tell you that horse was stupid, ignorant, crazy, retarded, inbred and everything else."
Field said that he and his wife, Susan Calhoun, decided to open an avenue where people could get help with the wild horses they had adopted.
They established Ray's Mustang Ranch at Franklin and developed a wild horse program.
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The desensitizing process that he uses is a way of training a wild horse without stripping it of its pride, he said.
"You want him calm," Field said. "You want him to be able to work with you. You want him, when he sees people, to be able to relax."
One of the first things Field does is to get the horse used to being touched and handled.
He uses a method called poling. He shows the horse a long pole and eventually gets to the point where the pole is run across the horse's back in a soothing motion to alleviate any fear that the animal might have. The pole enables Field to stay at a non-threatening distance from the horse.
It is a method, Field said, that he learned from an 87-year-old horse trainer in Idaho.
Field works with the owners also. One of the missions of the foundation, his wife said, is to help teach wild horse owners methods of training that will benefit horse and rider.
Some can't say `neigh' to the call of the wild Below: Two burros wait to be loaded onto a trailer Friday after being sold
at the CLAREMORE EXPO Center. The U.S.
Bureau of Land Management auction continues Saturday. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is hosting a burro and wild horse adoption
auction at the CLAREMORE EXPO Center
that began Friday and runs through Saturday.
The program allows people to bid on and adopt wild animals that have been
rescued by the government in order to control their populations and give them
proper medical care.
The large, brown, begging eyes that shone out from lot No. 3194 caught Deb
McGowan's interest, and she soon made the winning bid of $125 for the mare.
Not long afterward, McGowan went back to make friends with her new horse, who
would later be named "Sister" for the many brothers in Collinsville,
Texas, that she would be going home to.
"It's a part of our heritage -- a part of the American wild,"
McGowan said.
She and her husband, Dennis, pur chased another horse and a mother and pair
of baby burros Friday.
When told of the possibility that the female horse might be pregnant -- Deb
McGowan's eyes lit up.
"What a blessing that would be," she said.
"A two-fer," Dennis chimed in.
"Better than being a new grandma," Deb said.
The couple plan on gentling the horses and using a nonintrusive style of
training.
Ray Fields, a trainer with the Wild Horse
Foundation, said gentling was the form of training he preferred.
He said wild horses were the easiest to train.
"They don't have any bad habits or bad
habits from people trying to train them in the past," Fields said.
He said that for someone trying to train the horses on their own it would
take 60-90 days to get the horse trained enough for riding.
Many of those attending Friday's auction did so more out of curiosity than
out of any desire to adopt a wild horse.
Lisa Hammonds of Chelsea came to scope out the prospects for her husband.
Hammonds said she had raised thoroughbreds in the past but that her husband
wanted something different.
"He wanted a horse he can cowboy," she said.
Wild horses find a caring partner thru WHF By MANDY JOHN |
Central Texas Edition November 21, 2002 -- Horse lovers from the United States and abroad were able
to pick out and adopt various wild and saddled horses and burros gathered from
mainly Nevada but including ten different states across the mid-west at the
Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) National Wild Horse and Burro Expo, held in
Glen Rose, Texas Nov. 14-17. The Wild Horse Foundation, located in Franklin,
Texas was also at the event to promote the adoption of these wild horses and
burros. Susan Calhoun, president of the foundation, said that the Wild Horse
Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to prevent the American
Mustang from suffering abuse, neglect, and slaughter. "Our goal is to support the Wild Horse and Burro Program through the
BLM's Horse Adoption Foundation ," explained Calhoun. "We are a
resource for gentle horsemanship assistance training as well as providing
education programs to the public." Some of the assistance that the Wild Horse Foundation offers includes: rescuing abandoned, abused or neglected wild horses, rehabilitating,
gentling and placing by adoption into new loving homes. providing technical knowledge and assistance with training, as well as
gentling and desensitizing using gentle horsemanship techniques. educating the general public on wild horse issues through the
implementation of programs, which reinforce the need for preservation,
protection and management, while promoting a more positive image of the wild
horse. being a referral and consultation service that assists with placement of
gentled horses to other nonprofit organizations. organizing events where horse owners/enthusiasts can learn how the wild
horse compares to domestic horses, in events such as trail rides, team penning,
working cattle, pleasure riding, barrel racing, and endurance races. Ray Field, co-founder and trainer, stated, "We have 13 horses on our
ranch, nine of them are mustangs." Field, also known as the "Mustang Man", said that he likes to care
for and protect the mustang. "I have a deep love for these wonderful and
majestic horses. "One of the great things that we do is we hold various classes and
clinics every month for people who have just adopted a wild horse. In addition,
we offer a free clinic every other month. The free clinics are on a first come,
first serve basis. "The problem we see is that many new adopters try to train a wild horse
like they would a domestic horse. Coming to our class will help you learn simple
and safe techniques that can encourage the new horse with kindness and gentling.
I think you will find yourself filled with a wonderful feeling of satisfaction
knowing you and your new wild horse will have a great life and lots of fun
together." "The Wild Horse Foundation takes the stand that America's wild horses
have played an important role in American history," said Calhoun. "In
the 1800's the number of these horses in America were estimated to be two
million. Now, I am sad to say that there are only about 40,000 of them
remaining. They deserve to be here. "This can be done if people continue to support the BLM's Wild Horse and
Burro Adoption Program. This will only be achieved through education. We aim to
be an integral part in that education. "We are based solely on donations and need the public's support to keep
it running. There is always a need for a foundation that cares for horses." For more information on future National Wild Horse and Burro Expos, call
1-866-4-MUSTANG. For more information on the Wild Horse Foundation, call
979-828-3927 or visit their website at: www.wildhorsefoundation.org.
JONATHAN
WANCE World Staff Writer
07/20/2002
Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page a13 of News
Photos by JOE IVERSON / Tulsa World
Animal lovers flock to horse, burro auction
CLAREMORE -- It's the call of the wild, the romance of the unknown that has
brought people from as far away as Texas and Arkansas to bid on their very own
piece of the Wild West -- the wild mustang.
Home >> Central
TX News >> News Headlines
Susan Calhoun and Ray Field of the Wild Horse Foundation were
on hand in Glen Rose where they showed their love for wild horses by helping
with BLM adoptions and general wild horse training.
-Staff photo by John
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