Courage AND Wisdom

"Courage is being scared to death
...and saddling up anyway." 

~ John Wayne

Wanna hear the story?

So, my trainer gentles Mustangs. For fun. :)

In 1971, the United States Congress recognized Mustangs as “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West, which continue to contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people.”- Wikipedia

One of the consequences of Mustangs being protected by law is that there’s not much that can be done to control the population of the herds when they get too large. It’s a big ole’ controversy and I am not about to get into it right now. If you’re just dyin’ for more info, you can go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustang_(horse)

In an effort to raise awareness and to adopt out the Mustangs, The Bureau of Land Management holds contests in which a horse trainer is given a Mustang fresh off the range. Usually, these Mustangs are relatively young and healthy and a good prospect for gentling. After a set amount of time the trainer returns with the Mustang and competes against other trainers to see who has done the most with their Mustang. Then, the Mustangs are auctioned off to new homes. It’s a cool thing. This year’s contest was in Ft. Worth.

So, after four of these contests, my trainer has done so well at this that she was invited to do “the next hard thing,” - take an older Mustang and see what she can do with it.  The Mustang that she received was RANK ( I think using this term, “rank” which actually means “smelly or bad odor,” to describe a horse that is really unwieldy comes from the times when unbroken, unwieldy, horses really were rank (smelly) because they‘d just come out of the wild and the two things become synonymous. A wild horse is a rank horse, in more ways than one.) He’d spent 4 years as a stallion running the backwoods of Nevada.  In short, my trainer was going to have to contend with one stubborn ass of a horse.  Every reason that he’d managed to stay alive in the wild - he was smart, stubborn, strong-willed, determined to survive, he had unbelievable reflexes - all of this was going to be in the way of him learning to trust humans.

She’d spent several months and done an amazing job with him but then she’d hit a wall.  The horse could not be mounted. She'd tried everything but as soon as the person attempting to mount, who was already behind him, got above his ears he freaked out. “Above and behind,” he could not handle. Normally, she does everything necessary to gentle a Mustang herself, start to finish. But this time, she needed to be on the ground to handle him. He needed her to be on the ground for his own confidence so who’s gonna ride this beast?  Enter me.  Back in the day, I’d done this. I’d started several horses for a couple of different barns. I had the guts to try and the experience to know what I was getting into.  Well, let’s just let the pictures speak for themselves:

Nov 28, 2010

I wasn’t even trying to mount all the way, 

we were just going to get half-way up 

and see what his reaction was. 

Well, he wasn't too happy. :)

The next week I got a bruise to match on the other side.

<snort> Evil saddle.

Hmmm, I’ve gotten a little smarter with age. My body ain’t what it used to be and I don’t want to get hurt.  She wants this done right, not just done. We both know that,

Wisdom says, “Don’t be stupid, people.”

Back to the drawing board. Finally, she talks to our farrier, a guy with lots of experience doing things old-school and they come up with a plan to stop his pattern of bucking.

It worked.

Dec 19, 2010

Three weeks after my first attempt at riding him, I’m up there. He has on a nifty device called a “buck-stop” which keeps him from putting his head down to buck, one of his legs is tied up and she has the lead rope but I’m sitting pretty. Was he happy? No. Did he still try to buck? Yes. But it was manageable and not at all as ugly as it could have been. His pattern of bucking was broken and he learned new ways to react. In less than a week, I was riding him on-line without his leg tied up - walk, sit trot and post trot. The next day, she could get on him by herself, no more bucking.  By the middle of January she took him to Ft Worth and competed. They did very well, all things considered.

End of story. Not all of it, by any means, but enough.