“These four young ones here, if we take our time and ease up on them, we won't spook them,” said Ray Field, as he carefully and slowly shuffled his feet towards the large animals in front of him.

“They're just as curious as we are. They want to know what's going on. They want to know why I'm here,” Field said.

With just a few inches between them, Field reached out his hand, and the mustang – with hay hanging from its mane and dirt covering its back – carefully sniffed it before allowing Field to scratch him behind the ears.

“Most people don’t understand is that, they’re given that title “wild horse”, and that they’re supposed to be spastic and something you can’t control. I’m sitting here and telling people all day long, take your time and ease up to them. They want that first gentle lesson with you. They want that first gentle touch,” Field said.

Field has been handling wild horses for many years at his Franklin ranch. He owns and operates the Wild Horse Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides a place for captured wild horses to have a temporary place to live until they can be placed with a new owner.

“Our number one goal and project here is to keep the wild horses protected and put them in homes,” Field said.

In states such as Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado, herds of wild horses still roam the open ranges. And those states, in order to control the population of horses, have enacted programs to safely capture the horses and ship them off to adoption farms such as Field's.

But with recent government cutbacks and the agriculture director of Nevada, Tony Lesperance, proposing to suspend the program in an effort to cut costs, Ray is worried that the horses could soon be killed freely by land owners who deem the horses a nuisance to their cattle or land.

“You can’t have a child and suddenly say well at 10 years of age I’m just going to throw him out into the street. It’s immoral and illegal. And now the government is trying to neglect their responsibility here by saying it costs too much money. Well there’s a lot of programs you can name that cost too much money, but these are horses. All they’re asking for is a place to feed, a place to eat, and to call home,” Field said.

If the program is suspended, that would mean that Field would see less and less shipments of horses to his ranch, which would eventually shut him - and other organizations like his - down.

And that isn't the only thing worrying Field. A decline in donations from the public and the rising cost of hay has made running his wild horse farm slightly more difficult, but Ray says he plans to try and keep finding homes for the wild horses that other states don’t want, as long as he can.

“Without the wild horse, we wouldn’t be where we are today. They’ve carried us all on their backs across this country, and haven’t asked for a thing in return except to feed and water them.”

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More Information:

- Ray received a shipment of 36 mustangs on February 17

- The Wild Horse Foundation claims to have a high success rate of finding homes for the horses

- Ray said that they will provide training to anyone who isn't sure about how to handle a wild horse

- The Wild Horse Foundation will accept back any horses that have been adopted out, and that the owner can no longer keep

- The Wild Horse Foundation operates mostly through donations from the general public

- Ray said he has had many conversations with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Congressman Chet Edwards about keeping the program alive and getting appropriate funding for it, and said that both have given him their support in his cause

- For more information on how to help the Wild Horse Foundation or how to adopt a horse, visit their website by clicking the link below the story