KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasAdopt a Wild Horse

Adopt a Wild Horse

A wild horse advocacy group had wild mustangs on display at this year's Clark County Fair and hopes to find homes for them. As the I-Team's George Knapp reports, getting government permission to have horses at the fair wasn't easy.

For more information on adopting a wild horse, you can call 1-702-398-7799. ( You need to dial the complete number)
(Scroll down for details on the outreach booth and horse display at the Clark County Fair)

Meet Bonnie, a playful, one-year-old filly just five weeks removed from a life among hundreds of other captured wild horses living in government pens in Ridgecrest, California. Born on the open range, she'd never been so much as touched by a human. But when Jerry Reynoldson strolled through the big pen, already set on adopting a different horse, Bonnie made her move.

Jerry Reynoldson, of the Wild Horse Adoption Association, said, "This one walked right up, literally put her neck right in front of me and I reached up and rubbed her mane. She was all right with that. I said, change in plans, Bonnie is now on the keeper list."

Clyde, Bonnie's less boisterous equine companion, is shy compared to his gal pal, but he's already come a long way in a short time.

Reynoldson said, "Understand, he's never had a halter on, never a lead or touched by a human until three-and-a-half weeks ago."

Jerry Reynoldson has been working hard to prepare Bonnie and Clyde for their debut at the Clark County Fair. There's no time to teach them anything fancy. He just wants them acclimated to people enough to make a good impression and perhaps get adopted.

He knows that finding homes for two horses is a drop in the feed bucket, since more than 30,000 mustangs are warehoused in Bureau of Land Management corrals, but 100,000 people will visit the fair. Exposure like that is hard to come by, especially in Nevada, where the BLM, which is supposed to manage wild horses and encourage adoptions, spends most of its horse budget on rounding them up and shipping them out -- hundreds at a time.

"We adopted eight last year; twenty-two the year before. We know we're not reaching the market," Reynoldson continued.

He isn't exactly a popular guy with the local Bureau of Land Management. He's been an outspoken critic of how the wild horse program has been managed. So when he announced last year that he had a plan to sidestep the Las Vegas BLM by obtaining horses for adoption from a more cooperative California BLM, he should have expected trouble.

California gave him the okay to bring a small herd of horses to the fair for adoption, but "somebody in the BLM hierarchy here said no. They told California he needs to get our sign off to proceed with this," Reynoldson explained.

Instead of a small herd, he got two and he had to adopt them himself. He knows he will have to eat the $8,000 he is spending to find homes for Bonnie and Clyde, but maybe it's worth it to prove the point that adoptions can work.

"If you talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk," he said. 

Bonnie and Clyde will be adopted out to the first applicants who qualify. But there are many other wild horses in need of good homes, and Reynoldson's association will help any potential adopters to navigate the system and find the right horse, free of charge.

In addition to the outreach booth and horse display in the Small Animal Barn, demonstrations with the animals will be held daily at 12:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the nearby arena.

The booth and horse display will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will feature information, videos of wild horses and raffle prizes.

The BLM will also be at the fair handing out literature about wild horses.

Email your comments to Investigative Reporter George Knapp.