How to feed a yearling oregon mustang and more...

Hey everybody! I am teenager seeking to participate in the teens and oregon mustangs program next summer. To ensure I am fully prepared I am trying to understand and calculate the cost of keeping a horse like this for 3-4 months. First of all, what and how much of it should a horse like this be fed in general?

Any tips and advice as to the gentling of a wild mustang yearling?

Also anyone in portland, oregon area willing to help in the way of boarding?

I am fully aware of the challenges and risks of this activity. I have been thinking about it for two years now and I think it's time for me to jump in. My mom is fully supporting me. Thanks in advance guys!

2-3%bwt in low sugar/starch roughage(grass hay) & good nutritional supplementation to ensure a balanced diet.

Slow & patient in a non-confrontational way, with lots of positive reinforcement.

First off, howdy and welcome to the forum .

I agree with the grass hay, though I would probably also throw some alfalfa in there just for the added protein. Whatever you feed them, you'll want it to be very fine stemmed and/or leafy. The coarser and thicker the stems are, the more likely they are to develop a hay belly, especially as a yearling.

One thing that does concern me though, how much training experience do you have? Does your mom have training experience? Will there be a trainer involved with this "program" that you can call on if you start having trouble?

Only reason I ask is that trying to train an unhandled horse isn't something to just jump into if you've never done it under the watchful eye of a trainer before. Unhandled horses, especially Mustangs, can get very aggressive if you push them even a little bit too hard and I would hate for you to get hurt.

Im sure that If I don't have help it will be porvided and there is no way I would just try this without some sort of guidance. A woman I know said that wild horses, even yearlings need to be treated/trained differently than your captive-born horse. Does anybody have any further explanation in this way? Does thier brain work differently? This just perplexed me a bit...

They haven't been bred for temperament or ease of handling, so in theory, they're a little more 'horse' than a domestic one, but then I don't think most domestics are bred with that consideration either. But 'captive-born' horses are generally well handled & have learned that people aren't all that bad, long before it comes time to 'work' them. Wild horses first have to be taught that humans are not as bad as they smell before you teach them other stuff.

Here in Oz, brumbies generally have the reputation of being easy to train. I'm 100% positive it depends on the approach though.