![]() She hopes someone will provide more spacious land for them to live out the rest of their lives. Property owners have let her horses roam in previous years, but that’s not currently the case. ![]() She dreams of the horses having a few hundred acres to satisfy their main needs: grass and freedom. Shaded by four large oaks and cooled by a gentle breeze through their manes, Sir Gallant and the others who can’t be adopted have a peaceful place to live, though Delano wishes she could give them more. He is 21 now and never took to being haltered. Delano has had the bay horse since he was 2. Delano adopts between 22-35 Mustangs a yr.įor those who can’t be gentled or who come in at an older age, though, the center becomes their sanctuary, their retirement home, the equine equivalent to The Villages, just 25 miles north.Ī dozen sanctuary horses fed in an enclosure at the center one day last week, including Sir Gallant, who is blind in his left eye. View Gallery: Most of the horses come from the Bureau of Land Management and from kill pens out of Louisiana. The center’s staff and volunteers even have to use a giant teddy bear as a riding dummy to begin their training. Most adopters want horses they can ride, but not all horses want to be ridden, especially considering their wild origins. The goal for the horses entering Delano’s care is adoption. The dogs are adamant about greeting visitors, fetching, chasing hens and squeezing under gates to fraternize with the horses, who all have varying levels of comfort with the canines and humans. There are 14 dogs, two miniature horses, a couple dozen hens, goats, cows and a few ducks, including a Muscovy duck that was babysitting a puppy last Wednesday during the Star-Banner's visit. Though mustangs are the highlight, of course, there’s no shortage of other animal friends at the Wild Horse Rescue Center. ![]() Ocala breeders' sales: Spring Sale record set with help of $1.5 million colt A temporary sanctuary Opinion: Marion County should protect a unique resource: its horse farms “They say, 'If you build it, they’ll come,' and they keep coming,” Delano said. The rescue became an official nonprofit organization in 2007 and moved to its current property in 2019. She began the Wild Horse Rescue Center informally in Mims, about 45 miles east of Orlando, in 2001 after acquiring some mustangs. “I’ve been involved with wild horses for a lifetime,” Delano said, pointing to an article about mustangs she’d clipped from a newspaper in 1993.ĭelano has worked with wild horses for 31 years. Paintings and posters of mustangs and burros hang on her walls, several collectible model horses line her shelves, and about 60 live mustangs roam her 42-acre ranch in this rural Sumter County town. She has collections of old movies and books about wild mustangs and how they were rounded up. WEBSTER - When it comes to mustangs, “wild, wild horses” literally could not drag Diane Delano away, as the Rolling Stones song goes. Watch Video: Wild Horse Rescue Center: Most of the horses come from the Bureau of Land Management and from kill pens out of Louisiana.
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