Home Sweet Home: Badlands Wild Horses Adopted by Wisconsin Families

When Dawn Drydale entered a North Dakota sale barn this fall with her heart set on owning a North Dakota Badlands horse, she turned a blind eye to the stunning shades of gray and the blue and red roans that shifted from hoof to hoof in the divided pens. Instead, she and her comrades stood at a distance, quietly watching the horses.

“We didn’t make eye contact,” Drydale said. “The horses that ended up on our short list we picked based on how inquisitive they were, whether they were aggressive in those small pens, whether they were smart enough to find and use the automatic waterers and if they’d come up to the fence.”

Drydale, who lives near Darien in Walworth County, was among a record crowd who traveled to Wishek, N.D., with hopes of owning their own piece of American history, a Badlands mustang, in the Sept. 28 auction. In all, 103 horses sold at the sale, organized by Theodore Roosevelt National Park to help control herd numbers in the fenced-in park.

Drydale, her boyfriend, Bill Maddox, along with his brother, Jack, and father, Larry, made the trek west after Drydale stumbled upon the Badlands breed online.

“Their colors are what people fall in love with, but they also are very, very intelligent,” Drydale said.

A trip through the mustangs’ native park was nearly as awe-inspiring as the animals themselves, Drydale said.

“It’s so incredibly beautiful,” she said, adding the family plans to visit again in 2014 — twice, including once for a reunion ride of Badlands horses sold at previous sales.

The wild horses are managed by the park, not the Bureau of Land Management, which has been criticized for over-culling mustangs from grazing lands to placate cattlemen.

“The park only culls the herds when they have to,” Drydale said.

The last sale of North Dakota Badlands horses from the park was in 2009. After commission is paid, proceeds go back to the park for the horse program.

Drydale and her family brought home four horses, including Republican, a 4-month-old colt whose color remains to be determined; Prairie Smoke, a black 2½-year-old and the “loverboy” of the group; 3½-year-old Wing, a shy roan; and Emerado, a gray yearling who Drydale has been nursing back to health after the filly injured its leg, suffering the only serious injury of the roundup and sale.

The horses are Drydale’s newest prospects for riding in historical re-enactments, a pastime that has taken her throughout the U.S. Though they’re not yet ready for the gunfire and cannons of the battlefield, the mustangs have grown accustomed to human touch, brushing and the noise of trains that pass Drydale’s property.

While the horses are still unsure about the idea of being led, they all — except Wing, the holdout — will usually stand for grooming and to have their hooves picked up.

The mustangs take their cues from Drydale’s Quarter horses.

“That’s how Prairie discovered grain,” Drydale said with a chuckle. “He kept wondering what my Quarter horse, Sarona, was getting so excited about in that rubber dish at feeding time.”

Sale a Success

Marylu Weber, founder of North Dakota Badlands Horse, a group devoted to promoting the breed, called the sale a success.

“We were very happy that, as far as we know, no horses went to slaughter,” Weber said, noting that was a chief concern going into the sale. Because they are known to have never been treated with drugs, the Badlands horses bring a premium slaughter price.

Weber said those who had come thinking they would buy a cheap horse were surprised when some starting bids of 46 cents per pound rang out.

A far cry above the 18 to 20 cents per pound paid for a typical saddle horse, the high starts were meant to deter kill buyers who could make 40 to 44 cents per pound off the animals.

The highest selling horse was Bayonet, a weanling sold for $2,800 to Lori Goodroad, also of Wisconsin.

The lowest selling horse was also a weanling, which sold for $100 to Legacy Mustang Preservation. A total of 35 horses, including 15 bought by a private buyer, found new homes with the nonprofit, which is dedicated to promoting understanding, appreciation and adoption of American mustangs. The horses were shipped to Legacy’s Virginia headquarters, where they will be gentled and some put up for adoption.

“These horses will really be ambassadors for their herd,” Weber said.

Weber said this batch of horses seems to be the tamest cull group yet, a fact she attributed to increased monitoring of the park’s bands in recent years.

“People are so amazed,” she said. “These horses are so nice and smart and so easy to handle.”

Buyers may register their horses through the North Dakota Badlands Horse Registry. DNA samples were taken from all of the park’s horses during the roundup.

“We will be able to offer ancestral DNA information to new buyers, which is really interesting,” Weber said, noting past research has shown draft, gaited and Spanish genetic influences.

Small Steps

As for Drydale’s new herd members, she hopes the older horses will be started under saddle this spring and participating in re-enactments in late 2014. She also plans to take part in breed demonstrations at several Midwest equine festivals.

The horses have come a long way since arriving at Drydale’s home in early October.

“It’s only been two months,” she said. “It might take up to six months to get them all trained, maybe longer.”

As for her holdout, Wing, she’s keeping an easy pace.

“I don’t want to break him and break his spirit,” she said. “I want him to be my partner.”

How quickly the horses advance rests entirely upon them.

“I believe that when he shows me that he fully trusts me, like the other three, then I will start moving forward,” she said.

Although there are no immediate plans for another auction, Weber said it is inevitable.

“We’re going to easily have upward of 50 foals next year,” she said. “There will definitely be more roundups, but we’re hoping to control reproduction enough that we won’t have so many on the market at one time or need as many sales.”

When asked if she’d make the roughly 700-mile (one-way) journey again, Drydale responded without even a split second of hesitation, “Oh, yeah!”

Originally Posted By The Country Today