Some wild horse advocates are attempting to find a common home for the oldest of the 57 Pryor Mountain mustangs that will be offered for adoption on Saturday, but it hasn't been easy.

"It's been very frustrating because it's not enough time between the roundup and the adoption," said Laura Pivonka, of Billings, Mont., who is hoping to keep the older horses together on one ranch. "We have had to scramble around to try and find a suitable property for those horses."

Now that she's located some acreage, Bureau of Land Management officials have to approve the property for more than four horses. The agency, which is in charge of the horse range and manages the herd, requires that anyone adopting more than four horses have the property approved in advance.

"Ultimately, we want to keep these families together," Pivonka said.

Bidding on Saturday

The adoption begins at noon Saturday. Gates to the BLM's Britton Springs corrals, north of Lovell, will open at 8 a.m. The competitive bidding for each animal starts at $125, or $250 for the three mare and foal pairs.

The adoption marks the end of what has been a controversial roundup of most of Pryor Mountain's 180 horses. The other 125 have been released back onto the range after many of the mares were treated with a contraceptive, the horses were freeze-branded and hair was collected for DNA testing.

Although some horse advocates have voiced concern that no one will adopt the older horses, interest in the adoption has been high, according to the BLM's Nancy Bjelland.

"I'm overwhelmed with phone calls right now," she said.

Saturday is also National Wild Horse Adoption Day.

The 57 Pryor horses up for adoption include much of the band that lived on Custer National Forest lands to the west of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range. The oldest horse is a 21-year-old mare known as Grumpy Grulla. A 19-year-old stallion known as Conquistador is also up for adoption, as are two daughters and a son of the stallion called Cloud. Cloud has become famous in two documentaries filmed by Ginger Kathrens. Her third movie on the Pryor mustangs is set to air on PBS in October.

Clinics offered

Prior to the adoption, Ken McNabb, a Cody-based horse trainer who also hosts a national television show, will conduct horse training clinics for potential bidders. The clinics will be held at Britton Springs at 1 and 5 p.m. today and again at 9 a.m. Saturday.

McNabb said the clinics will be directed at informing buyers how to get to know their new mustang.

"I'll be trying to explain to people that long-term relationships aren't built overnight," he said.

The horses see humans as predators, McNabb said, and it takes time to prove to the horse that the owner is not out to kill it.

Once the horses are halter broke, he said, they're easy to work with.

"They're real smart, good, solid horses."

Former adoptees

Bess Carnahan, 68, of Fort Laramie, will be one of the bidders at the adoption. She said she has adopted about 10 Pryor Mountain mustangs in the past 10 years.

"They're extremely intelligent, have an extremely good gait for riding and they bond to the rider," she said. "They're not as aggressive as domestic horses. They have a very kind disposition."

She has about 20 wild horses and their offspring that she keeps on 350 acres of pasture, breeding them and selling a few. She said the mustangs are easier to take care of than domestic horses in part because they eat less.

Jim Edwards, of Fishtail, Mont., said the Pryor mustangs also tend to be healthier than domestic horses.

"They're a beautiful horse - healthy and hardy," he said.

Edwards has adopted about a dozen Pryor horses, beginning in the 1980s. He lets the mares and one stallion run wild on his pasture, selling off the occasional colt to ensure the herd doesn't get too large.

The attraction for Edwards, who is also a board member for the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center in Lovell, is two-fold. He likes the horses' unique Spanish heritage and he sees a connection between the Pryor mustangs and author and artist Will James. James, who died in 1942, became famous for his Western-themed books and cowboy artwork. He also owned a ranch in the foothills of the Pryor Mountains.

Disagreements simmer

Some horse advocates have continued to criticize the BLM roundup and adoption of the wild horses, especially the older animals.

Trish Kerby, 67, of Billings, adopted yearling Pryor horses in the 1990s. But she opposes the removal of older horses from the range.

The view of "those of us who speak for the horses" is that "older horses are not adoptable and not adaptable," she said.

Edwards, Carnahan and McNabb support the roundup, saying they'd rather see the horses adopted than struggle to survive on range that experts have said is overgrazed. But McNabb said he wouldn't want to be the one to break an older stallion like Conquistador to halter.

"In my mind, at that age, he deserves to be wild again," McNabb said. "I'm working hard to find the older horses long-term preserves where they can be turned out in basically a wild, private environment."