This 5-year-old Maverick-Medicine HMA horse came to us temporarily after being re-possessed by BLM. He was still intact (but very humble, not studly at all), and he arrived with much worse feet than this picture indicates.

He was very sweet and mellow, although I would say only about half way through the gentling process. He was up for title but instead of issuing title, BLM decided to take him back, because the people didn't want to keep him and had just relegated him to a small pen out back.

Ordinarily, this would be a fairly straight-forward training situation. It was complicated because he showed obvious pain and lameness on about the third or fourth lap around the pen when you try to work with him, so it hardly seems fair.

It was impossible to evaluate whether that is a permanent condition or just the result of feet that need to be trimmed. I would think "bad feet" except that my old Lewis and Clark had horribly over-grown feet and never limped, and the reason stated by the prior adopter for giving up on him is that he went lame. So - injury that will repair or permanent limitation - who knows?

Our problem was: For us to have our vet out to geld him and keep him under anesthetic for hoof trimming would cost us about $300. And that doesn't include tests to determine the cause and possible treatment for the lameness issue. That IS the right thing to do, from the point of view of the horse, but it would be a sacrifice on our part, though not completely impossible.  If not for the lameness issue, I would do it in a heartbeat because he would be very adoptable with just a little more halter training - if gelded and trimmed. He's very pretty and sweet tempered.

BLM could take him back to Litchfield, where they could geld and trim. But once back there, at age 5, his chances of being adopted would be slim. He would likely just be a 3-Striker in the making (already has one).

Enter Mustangs of America Foundation. They provided financial assistance to get this horse the veterinary and farrier care he needs, and now we are continuing to gentle him while looking for a new home for this poor fellow with the haunting eyes.

Another very wonderful thing that happened is that our vet, Dr. Lisa Atkinson, was so touched by this fellow that she has offered to work on his case for a much reduced fee,  which allowed us to use the MAF money to cover more services for this fellow!