Wild Horse and Burro Festival raring to go

SOUTH JORDAN — The 11th annual Wild Horse and Burro Festival, hosted by the Bureau of Land Management, will be Friday and Saturday at the Salt Lake County Equestrian Park, 10800 S. 2200 West.

The festival gets underway at 4 p.m. Friday. Adoptions follow at 6:30 p.m., with 20 halter-started horses and three halter-started burros available. This year's horses were started at the Central Utah Correctional Facility's Wild Horse Program in Gunnison.

Horses not adopted Friday will be available on a first-come, first-served basis all day Saturday. The two-day festival offers a variety of events, including an Extreme Trail Challenge Class Friday evening and a grand entry Saturday by Aces Wild, a group of local riders on wild horses who perform at parades and rodeos statewide.

All the horses used by Aces Wild were adopted from the BLM.

Decreasing fuel and hay prices have led to 60 percent increase locally in adoptions, with 150 wild horses and burros adopted this year compared to 65 by this time last year.

— Amy Joi O'Donoghue