The Bureau of Land Management, the Nevada Department of Agriculture and the Nevada Department of Corrections hosted the most successful saddle-trained horse adoption ever held at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, said BLM spokesman Mark Struble.
"Seventeen wild horses, gathered in January 2010 from the Calico complex of BLM-administered public lands in Northern Nevada and subsequently saddle-trained for four months by inmate-trainers in the Nevada Department of Corrections program, were offered in spirited competitive bid adoption," Struble said.
Successful bidders from a crowd more than 200 people paid a total of $29,900 for the animals.
All 17 horses were adopted after starting bids of $150. The event's top bid of $8,500, the highest ever bid in the 10-year-old program in Carson City, went for a
2-year-old strawberry roan gelding named "Quick."
Eleven of the horses sold for at least $1,000 each, he said.
The successful bidders officially adopted their new horses and are required to show diligent care for 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 competitive auction event will be held at the NNCC in Carson City on Feb. 12.
More information about these special adoption events is available at: www.
blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/carson
_city_field/blm_programs/wild_horse_and_burro.html.