On April 30 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, cattle rancher, cowboy, and author H. Alan Day will tell the story of establishing a sanctuary in South Dakota for unadoptable wild horses previously warehoused by the Bureau of Land Management. After Day successfully lobbied Congress, those acres became Mustang Meadows Ranch, the first government-sponsored wild horse sanctuary established in the U.S. His entertaining presentation will include the challenges of balancing the requirements of the government with the needs of the 1,500 wild horses and the land itself, and give an update on the sanctuary today. A book signing of The Horse Lover will follow the lecture. Books will be presigned by Sandra Day O’Conner, retired Supreme Court Justice and inductee to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

Sandra Day. Credit: National Cowgirl Museum

The following is an excerpt by O’Connor from the forward of The Horse Lover, A Cowboy’s Quest to Save Wild Mustangs.

“When my brother, Alan, told me that he had agreed to keep fifteen hundred wild mustangs on his South Dakota ranch, I thought he had temporarily lost his common sense…

For more than 400 years, wild mustangs have existed in the region that is now the western United States. They fared well before the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 reduced their habitat. But even in the last century there were many pockets of public land in the West where they could live free, breed, and multiply. But the pressures of the multiple-use policy of the Bureau of Land Management and the restricted uses of national forest and national park lands meant that many of the wild mustangs would be captured, sold, or destroyed. The wild horse and burro law dictated that the Bureau of Land Management was to capture many of them and care for them until they could be adopted. Sadly, many of them were not suitable for adoption. This opened the way for the project Alan undertook. 

It is impossible to see a herd of wild horses running free without feeling a surge of excitement and enthusiasm for their vigor, power, and beauty. To watch them run with their manes and tails flying in the wind is to experience a sense of the ultimate freedom of motion. 

This book tells the story of the Mustang meadows project in a way that enables the reader to see and feel that excitement and to glimpse what was and what might have been with these splendid animals.”

Come early to see live mustangs at the museum in the sun dial plaza entrance. These horses from the Little Mustang Program, like those of H. Alan Day,  were also received from the Bureau of Land Management and are in need of adoption.

The Little Mustang Program in our area provides the opportunity for young horsemen to attain ownership of a wild horse (aka a mustang) and create their own positive and educational horse owning experience. This program is organized in accordance with the requirements set out by the Mustang Heritage Foundation’s Trainer Incentive Program and the BLM’s National Wild Horse Program. The horses are received from the BLM on a regular basis with a goal of adoption in 120 days. The adoption program is administered by V.E.T.S. Livestock Management Services Organization, Inc. 

HMNS Distinguished Lecture

Quest to Save Wild Mustangs

H. Alan Day

Thursday, April 30, 6:30 p.m.

Click here for advance tickets.