Oakley equine rescue shifts focus to mustangs
Jan 21, 2025
His orange-reddish coat is dappled with white spots, a striking silhouette against the snowy backdrop of this mustang’s new home.Fennec, named like the small, orange fox, arrived at Rescue Ranchito early this January, driven from a kill pen in Colorado by the rescue’s founder Erin Brown herself — and her three dogs. His arrival at the equine rescue nonprofit based in Oakley is planned to be the first of many mustangs who will undergo in-house training for trail riding and eventual rehoming. It’s a plan that Brown has decided will be best for the small organization, and the horses, both.The nonprofit, officially launched early 2024, is the result of Brown’s and sister Casey’s longtime passion for equines. They dove into learning about the dark side of the horse industry — equines getting shipped across U.S. borders to be slaughtered for consumption, donkeys being killed for their valuable hides — and began rescuing as many animals as they could, horses, donkeys, mules, ponies.Soon, their 3-acre property in Oakley was well at capacity. Now, they’re looking and establishing a more sustainable path for the rescue.“We have to pick a lane because there’s so much need,” Brown said. “We’re going to do Mustangs that are trail horses, like badass, trail-riding companions. … Honestly, I think that is what Mustangs are awesome at, the endurance riding, or just, head up into the mountains. I mean, that’s what they do in the wild. So, we’ll just tap into that sort of innate (strength).”Brown said having lived most of her life in the West, she’s always been drawn to mustangs, or wild horses, whose treatment by the Bureau of Land Management has a long and controversial history. Rescue Ranchito founder Erin Brown Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordLoose sale auctions are a common place for mustangs removed from lands due to herd thinning, said Brown. They’re run through the auction ring without providing information about these animals’ level of training, temperaments or health conditions. Lack of strict protocol when selling these animals also means many are quickly sold at auctions where they can be picked up by kill buyers and shipped across borders to be slaughtered for meat. “I think for people out West, it hits home a lot harder when we talk about mustangs ending up in those situations,” Brown said.Fennec was in that situation, she said, later learning that he was rounded up off a BLM herd management area in 2017. The rest of his 17-year life story, she’s still piecing together. Right now he’s adapting to his new life on the ranchito, adapting extremely quickly, Brown said, guessing he’s more familiar with people than many mustangs come. Already he’s comfortable being touched and even lifting his feet for inspection.“Sometimes the unhandled-to-handled (process) can take four months or something, depending on the horse,” Brown said. “I’ve heard so many different things with the mustangs, like, sometimes the older ones are easier to train because they’re more mature, (or) sometimes the ones that have been in the wild longer are harder.”Erin Brown of Rescue Ranchito recently purchased mustang Fennec. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordBrown said they’ve rescued a handful of mustangs before, many who have needed extensive, patient training. After outsourcing trainers, she’s decided to learn herself, so they can begin doing training in-house.“I’m doing this mustang gentling course, it’s called Mustang Gentling Blueprint. It’s this couple that really is solely focused on mustangs, and they’ve been doing it for 30 years or something out of Snowflake, Arizona,” Brown said. “They also just get mustangs and gentle them and then train them to be endurance horses, like trail horses, which is exactly what we want to do. So they’re a good match.”Through the course, Brown will progress through first touch, picking up all four feet and then proper loading into a trailer. Fennec was meant to be her first attempt, but he’s proving to be an easy subject, Brown admitted with a laugh. Though standoffish, he’s already hit most key checkpoints for gentling. But, the quicker a horse chooses to trust, the better it is for a rescue to find them a good new home. Having in-house training (literally, right behind Brown’s home), should help speed the process along with more attention. Plus, it’ll make it easier to share the progress through the nonprofit’s social media and newsletters.“People can be more invested in their journeys,” she said, explaining that it’s been hard with some of their horses in training in other states. “You kind of miss out on that whole story with them. So that’s why I think it’ll be cool: People can really be invested.”To learn more about Rescue Ranchito and follow along with Fennec’s progress, visit their Instagram, @rescueranchito, and sign up their newsletter at rescueranchito.org.Fennec is being gentled by Erin Brown but may not be as wild as originally thought. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordThe post Oakley equine rescue shifts focus to mustangs appeared first on Park Record.