New Mexico's way of Handling Estray Horses

Right now I have five horses that were unclaimed strays. When horses are reported to the NM Livestock Board as stray, the NMLB picks the horse up. The livestock inspector contacts the owner if possible, but many times no owner can be found. After five days in holding, if no owner has stepped forward, the animal goes up for bid. The horse rescues try to bid on horses to prevent them being sold at prices that would make it profitable for the kill buyers.

I run a horse rescue. Most of the rescues are full, no one has room. But no horse rescue organization wants to see healthy horses ship to slaughter, so we all try to squeeze room and get a few to safety. My specialty is the wild ones. I take the wild ones and train them before I try to find them homes. I also train BLM and USFS mustangs and burros.

In my opinion, it is far better for the animal to be returned to the owner if the owner is taking care of it. I want to find owners and get horses back home without clogging up the rescue system. Now, really this is totally self-serving because it saves me from having to rack my brain about how to rescue some poor horse from the NMLB pens.