I got to spend another short session with Zaz this evening, and I really think he is a good horse. Skeptical sometimes, and he does get fed up and get a hard eye sometimes, but it's usually when I push for something he's not ready to give. He hasn't offered to kick at all yet, other than when I threw a flake of hay right behind his feet while my dog was distracting him, and that was just a little scared spurt forward with a half-hearted kick (at the hay, not me). He's already leading better and starting to relax more often. I'm really impressed with how well he dealt with such a huge change. He acts almost like nothing happened. The drive to get him here was probably 2, maybe 2 1/2 hours. He loaded and hauled really nicely.
Kara asked where he's from. I've seen it spelled so many different ways, I'll list them all. Beatty Butte, Beaty's Butte, Beatty's Butte, Beattys Butte. In Oregon. Whichever way you spell it, all the horses I've seen from there were pretty.
Linda,
Lea,
Kara and
Arlene all have horses from that HMA. You can check out their blogs to see what they have to say about their horses. Linda's filly's name is Beautiful, Lea's is Rusty, Kara's gelding is Chico, and Arlenes boys are Wildairo and Echo. I hear they may be doing an emergency gathther of the HMA this fall since the horses don't have enough to eat. Same thing they did with Tonka's herd last year. Zaz was adopted by a member of the Mustang Club in Spokane, after lots of encouragement by me, I might add. I fell in love with him at both the Odessa and the Spokane adoption last year, and she adopted him in Pasco. Her daughter was in love with him as well (and was very good at handling him today, for such a young girl) and she named him Zaz.
So... On to information about adopting this sweet mustang gelding. If you adopt him before he's titled, which will be within the next month, his reassignment fee is only $25 and you will have to keep him and care for him for a year before receiving his title from the BLM. Quite a bargain! That's how I adopted my first mustang.
If you wait until he's titled, he will be for sale. I don't know what his sale amount will be. I think his adopter is more interested in finding him a good home than making money, as she has offered me money from his sale. I'm not interested in making money, I consider anything I put into him to be tuition for his teaching me. But if you'd like to make a donation I wouldn't turn it away. :) I'm not sure about offering him to the public for free, as that might attract all the wrong types of people. What do you all think about offering a horse for free? Not that it's my call, since he's not mine. Just thought I'd ask.
6 comments:
Beaty's Butte? Wow. Was he at the Spokane adoption? I guess he would have been a 2 year old last year.
If he trailered well, that says a lot.
I don't know about the horse for free thing. It doesn't usually work out very well. I think it's better to train the heck out of them and sale them as a gentle, rideable horse--ready to go.
Even now, in this tough market, the trained horses--well trained, that is--sale.
I'm always thinking about that when I'm out with Beautiful or any of my horses--what would happen if I died tomorrow? I mean, I hope one of you Mustang friends would step forward and be a Godparent to my Beautiful--but I know her chances of survival are greater if she's good with people--and the more training the better--teaching them to survive in the human world.
You're doing him a big favor, Andrea--exposure and training. :)
I have never given something as large as a horse away for free, but I do wonder about the kind of crowd that you attact when you do offer things for free. I think you can get people looking for a good deal, but you can also get people looking to make a profit, either by training and reselling, or reselling as soon as possible to whoever. And you really can never completely trust the person you give the horse to unless you know them from previous interactions...for instance, I'd not hesitate to give a horse to you, or Linda, or Arlene (among others I've met here but not ever really met in real life) because I've interacted with you all a lot in a manner that had nothing to do with a free horse, but someone I just met? I don't know. I don't think I'm very trusting of unknown people. That's what happens when you have parents that both work in the prison system.
And I happen to know that many good horse are going for dirt cheap (almost free) right now. So, at the sale this weekend, one of Todd's mom's well bred AQHA weanlings sold for $75. I know the stud fee for this colt was way way more than that! And they fed him for a year! Also, their 3 year old grulla quarter horse filly that was started under saddle this spring sold for $700, and they paid $2100 for her as a weanling, then fed her for 2.5 years. But they just need to sell them to make life more manageable, so any price is good for them right now.
I would think that they should offer him for sale for the BLM adoption fee...at least. But since he's halter broke (and possibly more by the time you are done with him) he should go for a tad more just because that training is really worth it.
He's very cute - and you're right, he looks a bit wary. Glad he's settling in and relaxing a bit. I don't know about the horse for free thing - sometimes it works out well and sometimes the person who gets the horse doesn't feel enough of an "investment" in the horse to stick with it if problems develop.
Free wouldn't be so bad if you knew who he would be going to. At the same time you don't want someone lacking horse experience to get a free horse that needs training. That spells disater too then the horse ends up in a sticky situation and unwanted or as a backyard pet that no one touches.
As far as pricing goes the CO corrections facility offers their halter trained mustangs starting at $250, $350, $400, and $500 depending on how much ground training they do. Their saddle trained horses sell for $1,025. Their website is: http://www.coloradoci.com/
on their scroll bar on the left click on wild horse program towards the bottom and then you can see their halter/saddle trained horses.
Nahima is from Beatty's Butte too. She has some weird coloring to her coat. I'm wondering if she's not a sooty dun or a smokey buckskin instead of a bay...
I have give a few horses away for free. You do have to be careful about who they go to, check references and all that, but it can work out great.
Good luck with him, he doesn't seem like that 'bad' of a horse, he just needs a bit of work. :)
Andrea, Am glad you have Zaz and will work with him. We have been given 2 horses for free and we have given one for free, but we were very sure of who we were giving to, I can't wait to get home and see my horses.
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