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$19,000 for a mustang -- the wild, 4-legged kind photo by Bob Pennell His wild Kiger mustang, left, stands aloof as 91-year-old Bob Smith visits with his ranch-bred mustang and Stinky, his pigmy goat. Steep bidding couldn't drag him away By Paul Fattig of the Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT -- Retired biologist Bob Smith freely admits he was smitten when he first laid eyes on her. Smith It could have been the filly's deep dark eyes. Or perhaps it was the way she tossed that beautiful brown mane with the blonde tips. "I could tell by her face that she was highly intelligent," he said. "She had the conformation, the color, all the markings. "I looked over the whole field and she was the pick of the lot," he said. "Apparently, I wasn't the only one who wanted her. When she came up for auction, why, everybody held their card up." But when the dust had settled at the corral in Burns last October, Smith was the high bidder for the wild Kiger mustang, paying $19,000. It was the most ever paid for a wild horse rounded up on Bureau of Land Management rangeland in the United States, according to Tom Jacobs, rangeland management specialist for the BLM's Medford District. A 1932 Dartmouth College graduate, Smith, who worked throughout North America for what is now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before retiring in the late 1960s, figures the wild mustang was a bargain. "People pay twice that much for an SUV that ends up in the junk pile," he observed. "It's just a matter of values." And Smith, at 91, still puts a high value on wild horses. "I grew up with horses back in Iowa," he explained. "One summer when I was a teenager, I `buckarooed' out at a ranch in South Dakota. I've always been interested in horses. And I've always wanted a mustang. "I thought there weren't any real ones left, that all the wild horses were just feral horses of various breeds," he added. That all changed when he found out about the Kiger mustangs, whose ancestors included horses brought to the New World by the Spaniards centuries ago. The mustangs are named for the Kiger Gorge on Steens Mountain in southeastern Oregon, where they are found on BLM rangeland. "I think they are superior," he said, comparing the wild mustangs to their long-domesticated cousins. "They are very intelligent. They learn fast." The Kiger mustangs are very similar to wild horses found in southern Portugal and Spain, he said. "The Kiger mustangs are some of the last true wild Spanish mustangs," he added. "They seemed to have pretty strong genes. They are still here." Kiger mustangs typically have small feet with hooves as hard as nails, Smith said. Other unusual qualities include a dark dorsal stripe down the middle of their backs, zebra stripes on their knees and dark hair on the outer tips of their ears, he said. Most are dune or gray when they are fully grown. "Their manes and tails are predominately dark with light borders," he said. "And they are all deep, narrow chested with high withers." Jacobs agrees the Kigers are special. "It's a unique breed," he said, noting that DNA testing has demonstrated that the different characteristics are in their bloodline. But he figures all the wild horses and burros found on the range are different. In addition to coming from original Spanish stock, the wild horses found on the BLM rangeland came from cavalry mounts that escaped or were turned loose by pioneers, he said. The BLM periodically thins the herds through a roundup to protect the rangeland as well as the animals, he said. "We're projecting we're going to be way above management levels," he said, noting that the herds reproduce at the rate of 18 to 20 percent each year. Since the Wild Horse and Burro Act was enacted in 1971, the agency has placed more than 150,000 horses throughout the West, he said. To make sure the animals are not mistreated, the agency randomly checks the animals after they are adopted, he said. Smith, who has lived on his sloping pastoral land overlooking the Rogue Valley for some 45 years, now has two wild horses from BLM rangeland as well as the descendant of a wild horse born on a ranch. All three are fillies. "I go out there and give them a treat -- carrots and apples -- and scratch their ears," Smith said. A neighbor is training the Kiger mustang Smith bought last fall. The horse -- which doesn't have a name -- already accepts a halter. "These horses are being trained, not broken," he said. "You want to train them as companions rather than imposing your will on them." The Kiger filly probably will be slate gray when she is fully grown, standing about 14 hands high, he said. She'll be a year old this spring. "I'd like to ride that Kiger mustang at some point down the road," he said, then added, "I might need a little help, but that's what I want to do." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA