One of the highlights of my childhood was rushing home after my piano lesson on Saturday mornings to watch Fury on TV with my sisters. How I longed to be Joey jumping up on Fury’s bare back, riding into the mountains, sans bridle, free and wild!
Growing up as a horse crazy little girl in a village of 200 people way up in the northeast, this was the closest I had come to a wild mustang until moving down here to southeast Arizona. Since then I have brushed shoulders with several of these amazing beings and enjoyed the privilege of tending to their needs—a fantasy to me until then!
Recently, a group of wild horses and burros were brought to the Sonoita fairgrounds for adoption. I drove past the sign, wanting to go in and see these beauties but afraid of what I might witness, just as going to a Humane Society is not something I am capable of. It’s too horrifying for me to not be able to rescue every homeless creature there. I drove on and kept to my tasks-athand.
Then, later that afternoon, one of my friends, whose horses I tend to on a regular basis, among which are several rescued Mustangs, called and asked if I would be interested in accompanying her to take a look at the wild horses up for adoption. I told her I would love to but had been afraid to go there on my own.
So we met there. She was familiar with the process of adoption, having been through it before. We looked at every horse there, from beautiful full-grown mares and geldings to youngsters of one year old and less plus many adorable burros. Once more, I wanted to take every one home, but, luckily for me, I live on a cattle ranch, which, including my mare, is at its limit for equine allowance on the pastureland.
We inquired about the current rules of adoption and learned that the prospective owner must be able to provide a fenced enclosure that is at least six feet high. This was not an option in such a short amount of time, so that limited her choice to one year olds or two young horses that were already halter trained.
Several of her friends were in support of her adopting another Mustang; others were not. This is by no means, a lightly made commitment—any horse-savvy person realizes the costs and dedication that horse ownership involves.
After much study of options available to her, and conferring back and forth on our observations and all the possibilities, she said, “Well, I’m going to allow the universe to decide whether I go ahead with an adoption or not and if so, which horse it should be.” Oops! I’m out of room! I’ll have to fill you in next month on all the details of how the universe’s decision unfolded!