C3i—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 6,1980 ■=-
Wild mustangs run 66 free"
on
BY SHEILA MILLER ... I did a little. I jus< In order to put some flesh
DAMASCUS, Md. When didn’t want to see them on their ribs, Oland said he
young children dream about destroyed.” tried to feed them gram
the wild West, pictures of His “little” effort was during that first Winter,
cattle drives and cowboys, adopting and caring for “They wouldn’t touch the
buffalo and Indians slam- three mustang mares and a stuff they didn’t know
pede through their minds, stallion. Oland recalled how what grain was. They also
And, not to be forgotten in he contacted his wouldn’t eat hay at first.”
any little one’s imagination congressman who got him in Now the horses have
are the herds of wild horses touch with the Department learned to munch hay when
galloping proudly across the of Interior’s Bureau of Land forage is scarce or covered
open plains. Management, the Adopt-A- with snow. They feed side-
MiUard A. Oland, now 65 Horse program ad- by-side with Gland’s corn
years old, had a dream of mmistrators. mercial cattle herd with
wild that became Then in October of 1974, he whom they share the
a reality six years ago. In received word that his pasture. The easy-keepers
1974, this Maryland farmer horses could be picked up in have grown “fat as but
and landscaper became the Bums, Oregon. They had terballs” just on pasture,
first Easterner to bring the been gathered in the first Oland pointed out.
wild mustangs home. wild horse roundup con- What does Oland do with
According to Oland, his ducted in the Kiger Gorge his wild horses? “Nothing
interest m the wild horses area in southwestern ••• I never did nothing with
was spurred by the con- Oregon. them. They’re still wild.”
troversial slaughter of the His son and business Since they arrived on the
equines that took place in the partner, Dorcy, flew out for Oland farm in 1974, the
early 1970’5. the horses and trucked them horses have been allowed to
“I got upset when I heard back to the 135 acre roam and retain their wild
over the radio and read m Damascus farm. spirit. Even the foals are
the papers about how people Oland remembered the allowed to remain “free”
were running the horses over horses as being “skin and until they are given away to
cliffs and selling the car- bones” when they arrived at good homes,
casses for dog meat,” Oland the farm. Other than that, Of the four original
explained. “Although I they looked like any other mustangs that were trucked
didn’t do a whole lot to stop it horse but wild. East, only one remains on
Curiously scenting the air, the new born foal stays next to Mom and stretches I
his growing muscles. Safe on the Oland farm, the colt no longer needs to depend I
on his speedy, spindly legs for survival as did his dam who was born in the wild. I
I FARMERS’ FRIEND 111
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the farm, explained Oland.
Just this past summer, one
of the mares was killed by
lightning and the ongmal
stallion was given to another
farm near Frostburg,
Maryland.
To replace the transferred
stallion, Oland said he
arranged to gef” another
mustang stud through BLM.
About two years ago, the
white stallion that now runs
with his mares arrived.
Oland said his interest in
horses began when he
worked with the draft teams
on his family’s farm near
Brookville. “I had a show
team of Percherons then,”
he recalled. “I always liked
horses I still do.”
But now, said Oland, he
has to be happy just looking
at them. A smile crossed his
face as he mentioned the
two-week-old foal he checks
on every day.
“It’s a sorrel colt out of the
original bay mare. The first
time I saw it I thought it was
(Turn to Page C 39)
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