Starting slowly once the store opened, but getting busier by the minute and in full swing by 10 or 11, around the time the skies cleared and sun came out, for awhile...
Children, men, women, senior citizens: all turned out to see the wild mustangs. All were SO interested in the horses, it was difficult for me to tell who the adopters would be and who were the curious, who came to see these icons of the old American West. They wove their way around the pens and the roundpen: strollers, umbrellas and flapping raincoats. All good exposure for the 'wild' horses and only a couple of them mildy reacted, at first, and then quickly accepted all the strange attire from these humans.
Everyone I spoke with was very pleased and surprised at how calm most of the horses were and even those that were still a bit skittish and aloof were still impressive specimens. There was no racing around, pinning of ears or any behaviour that I would associated with meeting a 'wild' horse. People lined the contours of the pens, hands outstretched, trying to pet them, some offering handfuls of grass, which most gratefully accepted, gently. The group of 12 horses did an outstanding job of educating people and successfully impressed all that came. The BLM volunteers and USWHBA group were all so busy answering inquiries answering training questions and sharing information about gathers, adoption programs that if I needed to find one of them, they were not in the same place I saw them just seconds before. The trainers took turns taking a horse into the roundpen and letting them strut their stuff, and the spectators oohed and ahhed at the fence. Everyone was smiling, all seemed impressed, some were horribly disappointed they didn't have room at their barn for one of these horses.
Sage and Fallon had pending adoptions and once the paperwork was completed and finalized by Steven and the BLM, her nametag was one of the first to be edited: "ADOPTED".
I was VERY impressed by Aspen: what a mover in the round pen, what a pretty face, and that forelock: a Fabio horse.........and he was not yet adopted by noon, I couln't believe it!
We spent some time shopping in the store while we waited for the vet to arrive to do the interstate paperwork. Steven got his 5 bags of complimentary grain for adopting, and 2 official BLM tees that sprot a Proud Adopter logo. Sage got a new water bucket, 40 lbs of peppermint flavored treats, a bag of alfalfa cubes and
a bag of Mare Magic to ward off marish behavoiur....something which I was mildly concerned about. I had geldings aat home, my goal being to maintain peace in the neighborhood.
Outside, I purchased 90.00 worth of Tee Shirts, as souveniers of the day for a few people and ordered a black verison of the USWHBA sticker for my trailer.
We did meet alot of people that attended intending on trying to adopt Sage! There were a couple people that emailed Robin about her just after we did....the next in lines. I met one of them over at Red's pen......the teen and her mother were smiling broadly, the girl with her knuckles to her mouth....That would have been me a few decades ago if my mother had said yes when I begged and pleaded for the pony I never got til I was 23. She had been disappointed to hear that Sage had an adoption pending, and very nearly didn't come to the event. I laughed when they said they were an hour and a half away, they reciprocated the laugh when I told them we came from Cape Cod: not once, but twice: for Sage...
The pair had adopted Red: my second choice when viewing the site for Steven: small world, I thought. I had asked Robin what the usual outcome was of a regular adoption. She said they vary, some better attended than others, and it was common for 2, 3, and 4 to get adopted. By that standard this was going extremely well: I noted 5 out of 12 were marked "ADOPTED" and heard there was a LINE at the adoption paperwork table inside. Wow!
I noticed the grey colt was available still, Aspen. he was really a looker. Steven had commented the same back at the barn too. Seems we have similar taste in equines. Steven had already opened a bag of the treats he'd purchased, filled his pocket, and mine too. I passed a few out to people that were looking at Aspen, trying to figure out who were the potential adopters and who were the spectators.....
I was chatting with Kim at Aspen's pen, she was his trainer and he was a new arrival, who was quickly joined by a BLM rep.....and the hard sell started.....I do not need a thrid horse, I do not need a third horse...I do not have a forth stall, I do not have a forth stall....I will admit, that I did, fleetingly, entertain the idea when the 'once in a lifetime offer' of 'gelding included' was put on the table, but ultimately my rational mind prevailed.....Apsen was still up for adoption, and he was still on my mind.
I saw an SPCA van pull up, and a gentleman standing next to it, observing what was going on.....I stopped and asked him if he was, by some chance, the person doing the interstate exams. That was what we were waiting for so we could load Sage and head home. No, and he asked what was going on, I explained.....and he was very impressed. He told me that he'd wanted to get a horse, but had not done so. So I started the hard sell, and he resisted, stating he didn't 'yet' have a barn. When we parted, he was on his way down to meet the horses. He didn't adopt, but he left educated about 'wild' horses. In passing him at the hot dog table, I told him he better start that barn soon.
With the white flag to proceed, Steven swapped halters and leads to ones we brought with us, then he led her to the trailer uneventfully. She got right in and after the final Thank You's and goodbyes to our new friends from USWHBA, we headed home.
I had taken a final accounting of those adoted before I left: 8 out of 12 spoken for, and Aspen was still available......
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