There's big news to share in the mustang community! The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has cut ties with the Mustang Heritage Foundation. Thus, the Trainer Incentive Program (TIP) has also come to an end. This announcement made headlines earlier this month. Trainers and storefronts are scrambling to find homes for their mustangs.

Ending A Long Partnership

The MHF and BLM have been working together since 2006. They united with the goal of increasing adoptions of wild mustangs and burros. The MHF organized the Trainer Incentive Program to further their mission. In 2022, the TIP program paid out $3.7 million to TIP trainers and storefronts. They placed 3,505 mustangs and burros into homes. In 2023, they had more record-breaking numbers!

Cary Scholtes, Interim Executive Directory and Director of Training Incentive Program for MHF comments,

"I am heartbroken to announce that the Bureau of Land Management has decided not to renew the partnership with the Mustang Heritage Foundation for the fiscal year 2024. Due to this decision, MHF no longer has the funding or access to animals needed to successfully run the Trainer Incentive Program."

There isn't a lot of information on why the partnership ended, but trainers and storefronts have until September 30, 2023 to return their mustangs to the BLM or adopt them out.

If you are in the position to adopt a mustang, now is a wonderful opportunity to do so. All TIP-trained mustangs are halter broke, lead, pick up their feet, and load into a trailer.

wild horses COWGIRL magazine
A herd of wild horses roaming. Photo by Edward Paterson.

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