Freedom Drives $14,825 Bid for Wild Horse Sarge
A rosary hangs on the metal bars outside pen 32A where a battered old horse named Sarge is held at the BLM’s Palomino Valley corrals just north of Reno. Ann Marie Yow placed it there to help her win an auction for Sarge. She and her husband, Curtis Yow, also lit candles at the Catholic church in Virginia City.
“I was praying so hard to God, I was praying so hard to Jesus to please, please help save him,” she said.
After a total of 917 online bids, Sarge was won Tuesday for $14,825.
“It might be a record-breaking bid for an ungentled horse,” said Jason Lutterman of the Bureau of Land Management. “It is a record for adoptions from the Palomino Valley facility.”
Yow planned to visit Sarge to tell him the good news.
“I wanted to win him to keep him safe and for his freedom and to keep him out of the hands of bad people I knew were bidding for him,” Yow said. “I’m a wild horse advocate and I’m doing this for him. He’s been through so much.”
Yow, who lives in Carson City, raised almost $8,000 through an online fundraising site to help pay for Sarge. She also teamed with fellow wild horse advocate Chris Fairbanks of Yerington, who was actually the top final bidder.
“To get me to join up with her, she went to great lengths with her compassion, her faith,” Fairbanks said of Yow. “The fact that the public backed her was magnificent. I don’t think there was any stopping her.”
Their plan is first to stable him temporarily.
“Then we want to get him placed at a Nevada sanctuary so he can run free on lots of land,” Yow said.
Laura Leigh — founder of Wild Horse Education, a Nevada nonprofit that advocates for the welfare of wild horses — said Sarge was first removed from the range when he was a baby and apparently dumped back in the Fish Creek Horse Management Area near Eureka about age 2 when he became too difficult to handle.
“I’ve known him for years,” she said. “He had mares and every year had beautiful babies on that range. He was a joy to watch and get to know. He has been removed from the range three times in his life, and hopefully now he can find some peace.”
Online commenters have questioned spending so much on a single horse.
Fairbanks said she hopes Sarge’s case shines light on how many other horses are available for adoption at Palomino Valley.
According to the last count in October, the facility held about 800 horses and 14 burros, almost all of whom are available for adoption, Lutterman said.
Yow said Sarge was a special case and she did not want him to be used to raise money for pro-slaughter groups or organizations working to have horses removed from the range.
A few months after being returned to the range earlier this year following a court case, Sarge was found starving and thirsty. A dispute arose over attempts to bring water to his band of horses, and the BLM removed him again.
“I want to see him have a peaceful life and ultimately go to a sanctuary that’s as close to the wild as it can be,” Fairbanks said. “We’re not going to geld him and train him. I want to try to give him back the life he should’ve had that was taken from him.”
Originally Posted By RGJ