--- title: Uncle Sam Will Give You $1,000 If You Adopt A Wild Horse description: The Bureau of Land Management will pay you to adopt a wild horse or burro canonical: https://time.com/5558081/uncle-sam-will-give-you-1000-if-you-adopt-that-wild-horse-you-had-your-eye-on/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-25T16:36:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:19.770Z og:title: Uncle Sam Will Give You $1,000 If You Adopt A Wild Horse og:description: The government is looking for a few good wild horse and burro owners og:url: https://time.com/5558081/uncle-sam-will-give-you-1000-if-you-adopt-that-wild-horse-you-had-your-eye-on/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe45eb6a66452543/6989474997cdffc0966b78de/wildhorse.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Horses family og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Uncle Sam Will Give You $1,000 If You Adopt A Wild Horse twitter:description: The government is looking for a few good wild horse and burro owners twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe45eb6a66452543/6989474997cdffc0966b78de/wildhorse.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Uncle Sam Will Give You $1,000 if You Adopt That Wild Horse You Had Your Eye On > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=41488e3f-a1e7-403d-9e9e-e721ce109c57&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Mar 25, 2019 4:36 PM UTC  Adopt a wild horse and government will give you $1,000 Adopt a wild horse and government will give you $1,000 MarcC /Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Mar 25, 2019 4:36 PM UTC If you have ever dreamed of riding through the American West on your very own [wild horse](http://time.com/5551302/the-mustang-movie-review/) in a _City Slickers-meets-_[_Westworld_ ](http://time.com/5237447/westworld-is-finally-back-and-its-women-are-ready-to-take-over/)fueled fantasy, now may be the time to make the commitment—or just get the Rolling Stones [song about them](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQTHB4jM-KQ) stuck in your head. The Bureau of Land Management [announced ](https://www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro/adoptions-and-sales/adoption-incentive-program)that they will give up to $1,000 to people adopting a wild horse or burro with the idea that cold hard cash will “encourage more adopters to give a wild horse or burro a good home.” The [Adoption Incentive Program](https://www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro/adoptions-and-sales/adoption-incentive-program) was created to help reduce the department’s “recurring costs to care for unadopted and untrained wild horses and burros while helping to enable the BLM to confront a growing over-population of wild horses and burros on fragile public rangelands.” According to a [statement from the agency](https://www.tsln.com/news/blm-announces-wild-horse-adoption-incentive/), the department cares for approximately 50,000 unadopted and unsold animals every year. Wild horses have “no natural predators” in the U.S. and the number of wild horses, mostly in California and Nevada, has been growing for years, causing some to [call for culling](http://time.com/4494497/wild-horses-cull-us/) the animals’ numbers. Culling is unpopular with the public, though, making adoption a better alternative. Under the program, people who adopt a horse or burro are eligible to receive $500 within 60 days of the adoption, and another $500 within 60 days of titling the animal. People interested in the program can adopt and maintain four wild horses or burros each year. The BLM isn’t handing out horses and burros to just anyone though. Adopting a wild horse or burro isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. Animals require care, kindness, and plenty of room to move. To qualify, would be wild horse owners and burro wranglers must be over 18, have an appropriate shelter, be able to feed and care for the animal, have no convictions of inhumane treatment of animals or for violation of the Wild Free-Roaming [Horses](http://time.com/5004313/horse-photographs/) & Burros Act, and meet the other qualifications [listed here](https://www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro/adoption-and-sales/adoption-faq). The [adoption](https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/modoc/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=FSEPRD512471) application cost is $25. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5558081/uncle-sam-will-give-you-1000-if-you-adopt-that-wild-horse-you-had-your-eye-on/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5558081/uncle-sam-will-give-you-1000-if-you-adopt-that-wild-horse-you-had-your-eye-on/"},"headline":"Uncle Sam Will Give You $1,000 if You Adopt That Wild Horse You Had Your Eye On","datePublished":"2019-03-25T16:36:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:19.770Z","description":"The government is looking for a few good wild horse and burro owners","url":"https://time.com/5558081/uncle-sam-will-give-you-1000-if-you-adopt-that-wild-horse-you-had-your-eye-on/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe45eb6a66452543/6989474997cdffc0966b78de/wildhorse.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe45eb6a66452543/6989474997cdffc0966b78de/wildhorse.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Horses family","caption":"You can get $1,000 if you adopt a wild horse","creditText":"MarcC /Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5558081/uncle-sam-will-give-you-1000-if-you-adopt-that-wild-horse-you-had-your-eye-on/","name":"Uncle Sam Will Give You $1,000 if You Adopt That Wild Horse You Had Your Eye On"}}]}] ```