BURROS AND MUSTANGS PUT UP FOR ADOPTION.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

For some it's the sheer bargain - at $125 a horse. Others are drawn by the promise of a wild mustang with an incisive intellect and sturdy composition.

But the veterans of the federal Bureau of Land Management's wild mustang and burro auctions will tell you it's the mustangs' uncanny ability to bond with humans that will keep the dozens who bought horses and burros on Saturday content.

``Once you get a wild horse in your blood, you never get it out,'' said Phil West, a volunteer trainer who put on an awe-inspiring ``gentling'' demonstration for a few dozen potential buyers.

Never handled by humans, horse no. 4781 easily stepped up to West, who joked with the audience at Conejo Creek Equestrian Park that this is not the norm.

``It's not always this easy,'' he said as men and women in straw cowboy hats snickered and the horse took a step toward him. One man shouted ``I better leave before I get me another.''

The 44-year-old Mono County sheriff, who a few years back put together an interagency police calvary, points out the wild mustangs are unique from domestics because they have never had human contact.

``It's not liking bringing a dog home,'' he said.

The 80 wild mustangs - from palominos to bays - and 20 burros that stood behind six-foot railings Saturday came from vast government-owned lands from Nevada to Wyoming. Nearly 40,000 mustangs roam those lands in wild herds. The BLM, who oversees the herds on those lands, adopts out thousands each year as a way to prevent overpopulation and starvation.

Behind the rail bars Saturday their nature could be seen as the sleek horses, pressed tightly against each other, ran round and round in the stall with ferocious strength.

Carolyn Simmons, owner of Spirit Dancer Ranch in Moorpark, said she had ``so far purchased two (horses).

``They are so beautiful and so many die every year because they don't get rescued,'' she said.

But, cautioned the veteran horse trainer, the commitment to these animals should not be taken lightly.

``There's a lot of training and time that goes into them. They don't mix well with young beginning riders and you shouldn't get them just because it only cost $125.''

Their cost was one of the allures for Thousand Oaks resident Shelley Booth.

``Where else can you get two horses for $295,'' said Booth, who outbid others on two yearlings.

The lifelong rider can recall her horse trotting down Ventura Boulevard and she ``parking'' it outside Baskin-Robbins.

``I can't believe what I have just done,'' Booth was telling her neighbor as her 10-year-old son ran up to her.

``We got it, we got the horse,'' he proudly told his mother.

She responded, ``Well, somebody has got do it.''

The auction continues today on a first-come, first-served basis until 5 p.m.

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) A boy pets a horse set for auction at the Conejo Creek Equestrian Park in Thousand Oaks. Bidders at the BLM auction post their offers on clipboards. The sale concludes today.

(2) A couple watches a pair of mustangs nuzzle each other at a BLM silent auction of wild horses and burros.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News