WILD HORSE AUCTION: GETTING A PIECE OF THE WILD WEST

JACKSON, Mo. -- Friday the 30 wild horses and 10 burros had only numbers and a pen. When today is done, many of them will have homes and maybe even names.

The Wild Horse & Burro Adoption begins at 7 a.m. today at Flickerwood Arena and continues until 5 p.m. Those who haven't yet registered with the Bureau of Land Management can still bid on horses today after the auction for registered buyers.

More than 100 prospective bidders came to the arena Friday afternoon to look over the animals. A sign on all the pens reads: "Parents, please watch your children, these animals are wild and unpredictable."

But wild horses also are highly intelligent and trainable, says Art DiGrazia, supervising wild horse and burro specialist for the BLM.

"Once you have gentled them, it will give you goose bumps when they take their first step at you."

Barbara and Junior Johnson drove the two hours from Jordan, Ark., with their grandchildren Cassie, 10, and Matthew, 6, hoping to adopt a couple of mares.

The Johnsons already are using some adopted wild horses as brood mares and they want some more. They don't train their horses because they have two domestic palominos to ride. They just like having horses on their 45-acre farm.

"Once you bond with them they really love you," Barbara says. "They're like dogs.

"It's also rewarding to feel like you played a part in giving a home to these wild animals," she said.

A Bollinger County woman named Linda was at the arena Friday because her horse, Copper, died recently while giving birth.

She didn't particularly like any of the mares but saw a stud colored a similar combination of buckskin and bay as Copper.

Gabriele Thompson, a wild horse specialist for the BLM, says stud horses are easier to work with than the wild mares, which are more independent and protective. "To them a human is a predator," she said.

But the studs have been running with a bachelor herd and are used to being told what to do, she said.

The horses and burros all have freeze brands on their necks and can't be sold for slaughter or commercial exploitation such as being used for rodeo stock. They are protected by federal law.

DiGrazia says these horses are wonderful athletes that sometimes have to travel 20 miles to get food and water.

Most come from Nevada, where they are rounded up with the use of helicopters after the BLM determines how many the environment can sustain and how many need to be adopted. Many are descendants of cavalry horses or ranch horses. Many of the burros are descendants of animals set free by miners after the industry became mechanized.

"It's kind of like having a piece of the Old West for your very own," DiGrazia says.