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Program Description
LRTC's Silver Springs Weanling Center
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A new project conceived by Ron Brayton, an employee at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, officially opened its corral gates on Wednesday in Silver Springs. The purpose of the project is to provide "continuing education" for orphaned mustang foals that are brought in off the range and from holding facilities. This project is a joint venture involving Least Resistance Training Concepts (LRTC,) the
Let 'Em Run Foundation and the Wal-Mart Foundation's Volunteerism Always Pays community outreach program. Through its VAP program, Wal-Mart provides financial assistance to qualifying non-profit projects in which Wal-Mart employees participate as volunteers.
The water tank at Wal-Mart Distribution Center No. 7048. "Horse friendly" and "team driven."
The need for this project is self-evident. Two groups, LRTC and Wild Horse Organized Assistance, have historically been the only organizations in the region equipped to provide critical care for orphaned mustangs.
This foal was found standing beside his dam who had died of West Nile Virus.
These BLM facility foals came from dams received in poor condition that could not adequately support them.
In the past two years these two groups received 43 injured and orphaned mustang foals. Caring for orphaned foals, some which are newborns, is labor intensive and the foals become extremely human-dependent. This dependance can produce undesirable psychological issues when they grow older if they haven't learned that they are horses, how to appropriately interact with people when they are no longer receiving constant attention, and how to successfully interact socially with other horses. Unfortunately, when orphan foal caregivers become swamped with critical care foals there isn't much time to provide necessary social development experiences.
The Braytons recognized this problem and encouraged the development of a project that would provide basic training for weanling age foals. The project's objective is to create an atmosphere where the foals can more successfully adjust to a typical adoption environment and where they can learn to socialize and interact successfully with other horses. Since orphans would not likely survive if turned out into the range, it is critical that they be emotionally prepared to thrive with adopters. The ultimate objective is for any adoption experience to be a positive one for both the horse and adopter.
The first arrivals - Valentina (Tina) and Sassafras (Sassy,) graduates" from orphan care.
Checking out a spacious new corral.
Visiting with their soon to be "mentor horses," one that was a former neglect rescue.
While the orphan foal project has historically involved collaboration and support from a broad consortium of horse groups, this particular element could have not gotten off the ground without the efforts of the Braytons, Wal-Mart employees and the Let 'Em Run Foundation coming on board as a partner organization.
This project is still under development. Updates will be posted as this project matures.
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