(From Maitland Sharpe - to Deanna Akin)

I'm writing to follow up on your efforts to facilitate the adoption
of six or seven wild horses by Ft. Riley, for use as cavalry 
remounts, in cooperation with BLM.

Your e-mail correspondence on this matter has come to my attention 
courtesy of Mr. Willis Lamm.

I would like to help you in this effort and conclude a successful 
adoption by Fort Riley.  The leadership of the Bureau is totally 
comitted to the success of the adoption program and to the 
success of our ongoing efforts to maintain wild, free-roaming 
herds of horses and burros on the public lands managed by BLM.

We welcome adoptions by any qualified adopter, but are especially 
interested in fostering adoptions by organizations or governmental 
agencies that will showcase the extraordinary qualities and 
capabilities of wild horses.  We recognize that adoptions of the 
sort you advocate can produce great benefits for the particular 
animals adopted and for the program as a whole.

I deeply regret the difficulties and frustrations you have 
experienced in trying to help make this adoption a reality.  Our 
goal is to be helpful, supportive, and service-oriented -- good 
partners to our adopters and cooperators.  I do not fully 
understand why the Bureau has not been more forthcoming and 
effective in working with you and Fort Riley.  What I can do at 
this point is apologize on behalf of the BLM personnel who work in 
the WH&B (Program for) what went wrong, so we can avoid similar 
mistakes in the future.

I also want to help you to get the Fort Riley adoption back on 
track, without further delay.  To that end, I will:

[1]  Contact our facility managers to locate any horses that meet 
the Cavalry's requirements:bay stallions, 4-8 years old, over 
15 hands);

[2]  Notify the BLM personnel in the WH&B Program that the Bureau's 
leadership wants to facilitate the proposed adoption and that they 
are expected to provide active assistence;

[3]  Contact Sgt. Atwood and leadership at Ft. Riley directly to 
express my regret at the difficulties experienced to date and 
convey our interest in working with them and you to achieve a 
successful adoption;

[4]  Determine through Sgt. Atwood, what characteristics of 
configuration and other attributes the Army looks for in its 
remounts;

[5]  Query the Bureau's horse specialists in the western states to 
determine whether we have particular herds that are most likely to 
provide horses meeting the Army's requirements;

[6]  Work to conclude a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Fort 
Riley that would provide a firm basis for concluding this adoption
and, potentially, others in the future, within the legal context 
established by the Wild Horse and Burro Act and the Department's 
regulations;

[7]  Try to arrange for shipping of the animals, once located, to 
Fort Riley,or for the Army to pick them up at a BLM holding 
facility;

[8]  Coordinate with Ft. Riley to secure frequent updates on the 
status and progress of the horses and to help secure positive media 
coverage of the Fort Riley wild horse troop.

It would be of assistance if you could forward the address and 
phone number of Sgt. Atwood.  I'm sure it would also be useful to 
be able to contact you by telephone, if that is agreeable to you.

Once again, my apologies for the lack of response you have 
experienced to date. We greatly appreciate your selfless 
committment and your preseverence in persuing this adoption.  
We want to work with you to make it happen.

Sincerely,

Maitland Sharpe
Assistant Director: Renewable Resources and Planning
Bureau of Land Management
1849 C Street, N.W., MS-MIB5650
Washington, DC

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