01/20/15
HISTORY OF THE CARR RANCH & THE
BLM WILD HORSE & BURRO PROGRAM:
On August 15, 1979, the very first BLM Adoption Center opened for business in the East.
The home office was in Alexandria, Virginia, and the horse staff consisted of two people: a wonderful lady named Candy Brazed and Don Kellogg. The program became an overnight success and Candy was having to schedule folk every half hour to come and pick up their animals.
We did all the screening and loading of the animals and approximately 125 animals or more would be finding homes a week. Word of mouth started spreading about these wonderful horses.
Many country music folks and showbiz folks heard about this program and started wanting to adopt also.
This was such a wonderful time for the horses and the program. In 1980 a lady named Betty Gillas was in charge of the program and she and I decided to do the first adoption on the road in Florida.
We took burros, and the truck driver, and a couple of wranglers from California, and we adopted out over 80 burros, leaving folks begging for more.... Two weeks later we took some more and still left folks begging for more.
A few months later we put our thoughts together and named this kind of traveling adoption operation "SATELLITE" since at that time the space program was putting together many satellites in the sky.
We then decided to try our first horse adoption. But we needed more expert help and a means of working and caring for their animals on the road. Randall Carr put together a crew and chutes and a workable situation for the horses and safety for the crew.
This satellite adoption was held at a fairgrounds in Michigan. Cold and wet, but this worked so well, and we again left folks wanting more.
Since 1979, we have worked with so many wonderful BLM folks and BLM Directors that really had the horses' and burros' welfare in their thoughts and in their actions of helping this program grow to what it is today.
From having only a few BLM folks at a Satellite, it then grew to having approximately 10 to 12 Government folks at every event. So all the paperwork and screening the adopters became the Government job to complete and we were only there to load animals out. That is still the situation today.
Contractors are only used to handle the animals at
a few satellite adoptions. BLM folks decided a few years back that
they wanted to do it all. That worked for a little while, so the
contractors are getting to do a few again. But with the few the
contractors are asked to bid on, the winner of the bid must be the
lowest bid.... The Carrs are unable to meet that requirement all the
time, so doing satellites are very sparse for them now.
Facilities that have
processed over 20,000 animals since 1979 – not only adopting but
holding, sorting, vetting, hoof trimming, and medical attention.
This has been the
site for many Government meetings - many well known horse trainer’s
shows – Wild Horse and Burro Days every year for 15 years – Horse
show competition with high money and trophy awards.
Many horses and
burros have been trained for the general public.
Horsepital (not
shown on picture) for recovery for sick or hurt animals.
Easy access to
interstates – semi-truck turnarounds and off loading.
Hall of Fame Award
This was the most
exciting award we have ever won. We feel very honored to have
receive it.
December 6, 2006
Paula was nominated as President of the Mustang Heritage Foundation
Trustees
www.mustangheritagefoundation.org
The Mustang Heritage Foundation is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) public, charitable, non profit organizati0on dedicated to facilitating successful adopting excess mustangs and burros.
December 1, 2006
Carr’s Wild Horse Center received the Satellite adoption contract for three years. We have won this contract every three years since 1980.
Randall and Paula take a semi with panels and trucks with gooseneck trailers full of water buckets, hay, tolls, and haltering chutes to a designated place and set up for horses and burros arriving to be adopted out for the weekend.
Currently we do not do BLM adoptions at the ranch, but we do have horses from the US Fish & Wildlife Service lands in the West. (See
SHELDON HORSES)