The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) started the new millennium off in a big way—adopting 35 mustangs through cyberspace. Over 288 applications flooded into BLM computer e-mail in-boxes during the three week window for applications and bidding. The adoption offered a wide variety of exceptional wild horses, such as well-known Kiger mustangs, pintos, buckskins, halter and saddle trained horses, and horses gathered from Nevada, where over one million acres of land were charred by wild fires this summer, critically reducing the forage for wild horses.

BLM’s Eastern States Director Gayle Gordon said, “I am delighted that these 35 horses will be placed into loving homes. People all over the country bid on these mustangs that show so much potential. Applications came from as far as California, to New York and Florida.”

This internet adoption offered a horse for every horse-person’s budget, with bids ranging from a couple hundred to several thousand dollars for rare Kiger mustang mares and several saddle-broke mustangs trained through the Colorado Department of Correction’s Wild Horse Inmate Program in Canon City, Colorado. The total combined bids reached $38,000, illustrating the growing popularity and demand for mustangs by horse owners throughout the country.

“The BLM has adopted more than 160,000 wild horses and burros since 1973, to caring people who want part of the old west right on their property,” said Gordon. “These animals are known for their endurance, intelligence, and hardiness, and make great trail and pleasure riding mounts after training,” she said