March 3 was our scheduled pick up day at the BLM. We attended a trainer dinner the night before and got to know some of the other trainers, as well as learned what to expect during pickup. They have this process really dialed in. Each trainer signs up for a one hour window on either Friday or Saturday, 10 trainers total for each hour. The BLM has the mustangs pre-sorted. When we arrived, Sidney went into the office to write a thank you card for Mustangs Forever for paying her mustang adoption fee. I headed over to the BLM trailer to pick up the paperwork and sign on the dotted line.
Pam, another boarder at the ranch, also adopted a mustang this year. Sabrina, the owner of the ranch, volunteered to drive her trailer to pick up the mustangs. I was happy to take her up on that, as this was my first time through. Sabrina lives for this stuff and has trained countless mustangs herself. Everyone at the BLM knew her by name.
When it was our turn, Sabrina backed up to the loading chute.
Sidney was waiting anxiously, checking everything out.
Sid, Pam and I climbed up onto a cement pillar to get a better view of the horses coming down the chute. We brought a halter, as the BLM said they would put this on the horse while in the chute. Having a halter on is a game changer. Here is Sid snapping some pictures of her mustang coming down the chute.
..and they were loaded. It was time to close the doors and head back to the ranch with our very wiggly cargo.
Once we got back to the ranch, we backed the trailer up to the round pen, which is adjacent to the two stalls that were set up for the mustangs. There was a chute set up from the round pen to the stalls to make things a lot easier. The mustangs backed out of the trailer and were inseparable in the round pen. It took them a bit to go down the chute and into their stalls.
Frankly, it all was going incredibly smooth and that should have been the end of the excitement. However, none of us noticed that one of the small man gates at the far end of the second stall had been left open. Very big Holy Crap! The mustangs went in one side and right out the other, before we even knew it. The whole ranch scrambled to shut the perimeter gates into the ranch. Now we had two wild, untrained mustangs on the loose on 40 acres.
After some quick thinking and quick acting on everyone's part, most notably Sabrina and Noel, we were able to get them back into their stalls (2 hours later). Frankly, two hours seemed like nothing as none of us were sure we would ever get them back. The mustangs explored every inch of the ranch, including both the big herd and the needy herd. Levi jumped five of the lower fences, while Lester just decided to plow through them. Yes, Sid named her mustang Levi. Pam named her mustang Lester.
A few pictures of the 'where are they now' antics.
Noel jumped on her horse that had just gotten back from the trainer and drove the big herd into a smaller pen. Levi and Lester followed the crowd. Then, everyone separated the herd horses out until only Levi and Lester were left. Those of us hanging back made a wall of cars, etc. from the pen back to the mustangs stalls. Pam grabbed one of the older, well broke horses and used that horse to lead Levi and Lester through the 'car chute' and back to their stalls. It was a crazy, wild morning that, thankfully, ended well.
Sabrina was mortified and swore us all to secrecy. Yet, in true Sabrina spirit, she was laughing and sharing the story with everyone by the afternoon. The mustangs were tucked in safely and ready for training to begin.
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