Amazing Journey for BLM Mustang Smuggled from Mexico, finds Love in Arizona

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

January 7,2010

Contact: Dr. Pat Haight: 480-430-2294
Bill Haight: 602- 435-8369


True Symbol of the American West Finds His Forever Home after Amazing
Journey
_____________________________________________________________________

BLM American Mustang from Nevada Smuggled from Mexico finds Love with
Phoenix Family

(Phoenix, AZ) An American mustang with an amazing story has survived his
ordeal to find happiness in Arizona. Mi Muchacho Valiente (My Brave Boy and
AKA Valiente) has found his forever home with a wonderful Phoenix family,
Kathy Hamel, her husband Gordon and their children Emily and Andy Nelson and
Ashley Hamel. Valiente (Brave One) a five-year old bay is a true wild horse
who carries the BLM brand on his neck and who is a former BLM managed
American mustang from the state of Nevada with an incredible story of
courage and survival.

Valiente (Brave One) bears the BLM freeze brand of the true American mustang
and his brand tells much of his early story. Born in 2004 and gathered with
his mother from his ancestral home in Nevada while still a baby at his
mother’s side, Valiente subsequently was adopted out by the BLM and a year
later titled to that person. However, as fate would have it, Valiente ended
up in Mexico. In an incredible story of heart and survival we know that
Valiente was picked up with his mother as a baby during a BLM gather in
2004. He was adopted out by the BLM and titled to someone in the US in 2006.
Valiente then ended up in Mexico. A very good looking horse, Valiente looks
very Spanish and very much like an Azteca, the National horse of Mexico,
with low set tail, short back, and the heavy mane and tail of the Spanish
horses bought to this country by the Conquistadors in the 16th century and
characteristic of many American mustangs.

The person who had Valiente in Mexico took good care of him and appears to
have given Valiente some training to do tricks and to dance in the manner of
the Azteca. However, perhaps because of his specialized training and Spanish
appearance, Valiente was then stolen from his custodian in Mexico to be sold
yet again to a person in the United States. Smugglers were bringing Valiente
across the border from Mexico to the US when the US border patrol caught
them and seized Valiente. The smugglers literally were walking the young bay
mustang through the desert on a lead across the border to be sold as
contraband in the United States.

After being seized by the border patrol, Valiente was turned over to the
Arizona Department of Agriculture and went to auction where Cloud Foundation
board member, Julianne French, successfully bid on the young horse for the
Conquistador program. After a short time being fostered by compassionate
Marana horse people, Valiente was taken in by the Conquistador Program and
ultimately to his Phoenix home where he was adopted by Hamel and her family
after they fell in love with the friendly,loving, bright and talented horse.
Among his many talents, Valiente bows, give kisses, puts his head on Hamel’s
shoulder, does the lovely Spanish walk and generally is a wonderful and
loving ambassador for the true American mustang.

At this time, hundreds of Valiente’s fellow horses are being gathered from
their ancestral homes in Nevada by the Bureau of Land Management and their
herd areas closed with the imminent danger that these extraordinary true
symbols of the West may never again roam their Nevada homes. The
Conquistador Program continues to work with its attorneys to advocate for
wild horses currently on US Forest Service land in the
Apache Sitgreaves National Forests of Eastern Arizona and for BLM wild
horses across the USincluding the tragically dwindling numbers of Arizona
BLM wild horses in the only
two remaining Arizona herd areas, the Cibola and Cerbat herd areas. Those
herd area numbers are estimated to have dropped to only two hundred or less
BLM wild horses including only about 60 to 90 Cerbat horses whose history
places them as the original mounts of Conquistadors riding the Spanish Trail
in the 16th Century.

To meet Mi Muchacho Valiente contact the Conquistador Program.

###


The Conquistador Equine Rescue & Advocacy Program
A nonprofit 501c3 equine welfare organization
Federal tax identification #20-8776240
(480) 430-2294

Click on title above to go to website;

www.conquistadorprogram.org, contact@conquistadorprogram.org