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By Naomi Creason, Sentinel Reporter

Last updated: Thursday, August 30, 2007 10:26 AM EDT

Less than a year ago, mustangs Jasmine and Cristy wandered the hills of Utah with their herd.

Within a short time, they were transported across the nation to Lorton, Va., where Stanley and Denise Smith of Gardners peered at them through the fence.

“We walked around holding pens, near enough to pet. Even though you’re not supposed to put your hands in, everyone does it,” Denise Smith said. “We saw the two mustangs and thought they were really friendly.”

Though the couple had never owned a horse before, they had decided earlier that it was something they both wanted to do.

“My friend in Dillsburg has about eight of them, and they’re really nice,” Stanley Smith said. “It’s better to give them a home than to be out in the wild starving.”

Adopt through auction

Jasmine and Cristy were a part of the national Wild Horse & Burro Program from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.

The BLM conducts national adoptions to match wild horses and donkeys from the western United States with interested buyers across the country. The next auction will be at the Farm Show Complex and Expo Center in Harrisburg starting Friday. It will be the first such auction in central Pennsylvania in a number of years, according to Shayne Banks, spokeswoman for BLM.

The program was designed to help control herd numbers in the West while also giving the mustangs a home.

“Overpopulation is the problem,” Banks said. “It’s not so much that there isn’t enough land, but that there isn’t enough food and water on the land to sustain the numbers. Wildfires and droughts only compound that problem. This way, we can give them good homes.”

Starting in 1973, the program has since allowed for 215,000 adoptions of wild mustangs and burros, or donkeys, nationwide. Most of the adoption auctions are held in the Southeast.

“There are more adoptions in this part than anywhere else because, I think, a lot of the area is more agriculture, and wild horses are a bit of a novelty,” Banks said.

Difficult to train

Banks, however, warned people against adopting the mustangs purely as a novel adventure.

“People do need to understand that these horses are wild,” Banks said. “It will take a lot of time and patience to train them, but they can be trained. There are a lot of videos of non-resistance training and horse whispering training, and that works really well with the horses.”

Stanley and Denise Smith knew what they were getting into.

“My husband likes to get into new adventures,” Denise Smith said. “We decided to raise pheasants, and we wanted to have new ones, but they wouldn’t hatch. He decided to let them out and give them away. This was a big decision to make. If we get tired of them (the horses), we can’t leave them out in the woods.”

The first few days with the wild mustangs did not go as expected for the Smiths.

The trip from Lorton was about two hours, and the Smiths had a number of family members and neighbors helping them get the mustangs settled.

“Everyone was petting them, and I thought they were pretty well behaved,” Denise Smith said. “I think they were shell-shocked from being taken from pen to pen and having huge amounts of people milling around. It wasn’t until three or four days later that we saw their true temperament.”

The couple dealt with everything from kicking to the occasional biting from the mustangs, which are about five feet high from the hoof to its back and can weigh up to 1,000 pounds when they are fully grown. Knowing what types of food the animals ate was also a trial for the Smiths.

“We tried feeding them apples and horse treats, but they absolutely had no interest in them,” Denise Smith said. “Even though horses usually like those foods, the mustangs have to become accustomed to the food. Now they love it.”

Growing tamer

The horses also gradually began to accept the presence of their new owners.

“We started with hay and talking to them by the fence, just so they get used to our voices,” Denise Smith said. “I think once they realize you won’t hurt them and, more importantly, see you as a provider of food, they grow attached to you. Now they follow you around like little puppy dogs.”

“Each of (the mustangs) has their own personality,” her husband added. “Some can be laid back, and some can be difficult.”

With the help from one of their neighbors, the Smiths trained the mustangs to become less demanding.

“It’s not about breaking their spirits, but having them decide on their own that they want to please you,” Denise Smith said. “They still show their true colors from time to time. My bay has a dominant personality, and she likes to kick out and rear out when she doesn’t want to do something we want her to do. She’s gotten more compliant and more docile, but she still does that.”

A bay horse has a brown-and-black color pattern specifically marked by a black mane and tail.

With more training, the Smiths also hope to ride their mustangs when they get a little older. Jasmine and Cristy are each about 27 months old.

Hope to ride

“We hope to ride them by the end of September,” Stanley Smith said. “You can’t ride a horse until they’re about 2 1/2 years old. They got to have enough muscles and strength in their legs. And that’s on any horse, not just mustangs.”

Most of the horses up for adoption at the Farm Show Complex are about 2 to 4 years old. The three-day event will feature about 80 animals, with a preview of all the animals on Friday and the competitive bidding starting Saturday at 10 a.m. Walkup adoptions will take place Saturday afternoon and run through Sunday.

Those who wish to adopt the wild animals are expected to register Friday into Saturday morning, where their applications will be processed on the spot. Adopters must be at least 18 years old with no record of animal abuse and own an area where the horses may be kept.

For more information or to adopt online, visit BLM at www.blm.gov/adoptahorse/ index.php.