Mustangs trained by inmates available for adoption Saturday | The Sacramento Bee

Mustangs trained by inmates at Sacramento County’s Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center will be offered for adoption Saturday in Rancho Murieta.

Four saddle-trained horses and two halter-gentled horses will be available. The horses, two geldings and four mares, are all 3 to 4 years old. Former inmates who trained the horses will be working the animals.

The Bureau of Land Management horses will be available to preview from 9 a.m. to noon, with an auction at noon, at the Rancho Murieta Equestrian Center, 7200 Lone Pine Drive. Bidding will start at $125 each for the halter-gentled horses and $300 for the saddle-trained horses.

The BLM California State Office entered into a partnership with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department to operate a wild horse holding and training facility at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove. The facility uses inmates to train wild horses for adoption and provide a short-term holding facility for horses removed from the rangeland. Trained horses are available for adoption from the facility in a program similar to other BLM prison-training partnerships in the nation, according to a BLM news release.

The Bureau of Land Management periodically gathers horses and burros to control herd populations on ranges shared with wildlife and domestic livestock. The agency reports that more than 230,000 animals have been placed in private care since its Adopt-a-Horse-or-Burro Program began in the early 1970s.