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Laura enters the Extreme Mustang Makeover

5K views 42 replies 15 participants last post by  Joel Reiter 
#1 ·
#5 ·
Does she get to keep him, if she wants to?
At the end of the event, the mustangs are auctioned and the proceeds go to the event sponsor, the Mustang Heritage Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting adoption of wild mustangs.

So if Laura wants to keep Rooster, she will have to outbid everyone who attends. She already owns Mesa, an enormous mustang mare she adopted earlier, and one of the nicest trail horses I've ever ridden.
 
#15 ·
Rooster got away! Laura said "he decided to be wild again." Fortunately Sweet Grass Montana is not a heavily populated area and they got him home without incident. He's now refining his trailer loading after the typically traumatic experience of adopted mustangs being herded into the trailers of their new caretakers.
 
#16 ·
What is the dominant breed ancestry of a typical mustang? Laura had Rooster's DNA tested by the genetics lab at Texas A&M. Horse Ancestry - Animal Genetics Lab

Here are Rooster's breed ancestries that showed the strongest genetic markers:
1. Hanoverian
2. Garrano (from northern Portugal)
3. Argentine Criollo

One of the surprises to me is that neither Hanoverians nor Criollos were established as breeds back when the Spanish were importing horses to the new world.
 
#18 ·
I am very interested in this program. The movie "Wild Horse, Wild Ride," will give anyone who's never seen these events a generalized idea of what goes on. I would be interested in adopting a mustang, but I have been told, more than once, that:

"Mustangs are wild, no amount of training will take that out of them."
"Mustangs are crazy, they'll damage your property."
"Mustangs are not for beginners like yourself, find a nice docile gilding instead."

Gives me the idea that these horses are really not for first-time horse owners. But looking for someone who knows more about it to chat with me.
Congratulations to your niece! I'm thrilled to see her doing so well. I like to see these mustangs go into the hands of loving owners instead sitting out at the BLMs pens.
 
#19 ·
It sounds like she has made good progress! I love Roosters color and build. is this the first mustang she has trained? she sure has made progress with him.

@Kyleen Drake: Mustangs are the NOT untamable horses, it may take several weeks (or months) of training but after that they are extremely easy and once you have their trust they will go through anything for you (Check out Elisa Wallace and Fledge winning the SC EMM in 2012 that is AMAZING!), My 2 yr old mustang gelding "Asher" is 5 mo out of the holding facility and is the best horse I have had so far! he lays down and bows on command plus all the basics.
As for damaging things, the only thing that has damage is my round pen, Asher kicked it simply because he was spooking over some fly spray.
I do agree with getting a calm horse for your first one, maybe with the help of a trainer you could get a already tamed, halter broke one from the facility in a few years. But for now I'd stick to an older calmer horse to learn on.:D

I may not be 100% correct with everything, but that is what I've picked up on my mustang! My sis and I each got one and it was the best experience anyone could ever have. Her gelding was more aggressive than mine but he is coming around, with lots of groundwork.:D
 
#20 ·
As for damaging things, the only thing that has damage is my round pen, Asher kicked it simply because he was spooking over some fly spray. .:D
LOL! That made me laugh. I can just see that horse doing that.

"Oh my gosh, what is that! Something touched me!" Kick! Horse looks behind him, "Oh it's you with some fly spray, okay, that's all right then." lol


I really, really, really love Mustangs!! But when I get a horse it will be my first one. I want to make an informed decision. Every I speak to who is a Mustang owner says they're best horses ever. Everyone who doesn't own one is telling me, "too dangerous for you!" Even the older ones.
 
#21 ·
LOL to be honest he still spooks at it:icon_rolleyes: But he has decided it isn't quite going to murder him!
YEP! I was told by 2 different guys that girls can't train horses much less a mustang:D I love the look on their faces when Asher lays down on command.:rofl: Both of them had little to no experience with any kind of horse:wink:.
 
#22 ·
There needs to be more mustang owners who'll speak up about them. New people, like myself, can get lost in the information. As much as I love Mustangs, a horse that has been trained and handled for years is probably the best choice for me. But for people who know more than I, I think they would be more open to owning a Mustang if they just had more information.
 
#23 ·
There needs to be more mustang owners who'll speak up about them. New people, like myself, can get lost in the information.
I know! Mustangs are amazing creatures.

I'm glad the EMM is becoming more popular, I think people are finding out that they are real good ranch horses, and awesome jumpers.

I think 2 or more yrs of experience is awesome for getting started with mustangs, although I have seen people with less than that train them, they just had a trainer and went very slow in teaching stuff.

And this gelding Rooster is sooo much like my guy, except for his coloring, their personalities seem a lot alike from what I've seen on FB and the blog.
 
#24 ·
Laura adopted two mustangs before she accepted the challenge of the Extreme Mustang Makeover. I went through the steps to qualify to adopt one but have not done so yet. It's true that mustangs can make wonderful, calm, quiet, willing saddle mounts. Laura's giant mustang mare, Mesa, has turned into a trail pounding machine. She is wonderfully relaxed in all circumstances and willingly goes wherever she is pointed. I was the first one to ever trim her feet and she was great. That's the good news.

For the other side of it, go back to Laura's blog and watch the video of the day she picked up Rooster. Watch the poor wild-eyed wild horse get run into the chute so a cowboy can get a halter on him. When these horses come in off the range they are nuts. They can adapt to being in the holding pens, but they are still wild horses who see humans as funny looking wolves or cougars. They expect to be eaten every second of their lives. They might injure themselves trying to jump over or through your fence, but so what? They think they're about to die anyway, so they have nothing to lose. They might attack a person who enters their enclosure because it beats being eaten.

The BLM has some pretty strict guidelines about what kind of corral you need, and even if you do everything right things can still go gunny. Laura's first mustang seemed to be coming along fine, but the first time she let him out into a larger enclosure he waited until nobody was watching and decided to head for the hills. He ran into a smooth five-wire high-tensile electric fence at full speed. He was thrown backward with such force that he flipped over backwards and smacked his head on the frozen ground. He was killed instantly without a mark on him.

So the two questions you have to ask yourself before you adopt a mustang are 1) do I really have the facilities to keep this wild horse contained until I get him tamed, and 2) do I have the skill to work through the gentling process? Once you get them properly socialized they can be trained like any other horse. Gentling can take five days or five months or if you aren't good enough, never. To succeed without damage to you, the horse, or your property takes some extraordinary combination of setup, luck, determination and skill. Love isn't all you need.
 
#25 ·
So the two questions you have to ask yourself before you adopt a mustang are 1) do I really have the facilities to keep this wild horse contained until I get him tamed, and 2) do I have the skill to work through the gentling process? Once you get them properly socialized they can be trained like any other horse. Gentling can take five days or five months or if you aren't good enough, never. To succeed without damage to you, the horse, or your property takes some extraordinary combination of setup, luck, determination and skill. Love isn't all you need.
Well said Joel. I have always been enamored with the idea owning a mustang and was fortunate to be able to be up/front and personal watching/taking pix & video when my trainer competed in the 2008 Western States Mustang challenge (he did a blog on it). He named his horse Luna. My trainer had years of experience in working with Mustangs, so while he made it look "easy", at the start he always impressed how dangerous they could be until gentled. After all, they were WILD horses.

I followed some of the other competitors/trainers online, too, just to see what they were doing. When we got to the finals I was impressed with the progress the trainers had made and how far some have come in 90 days. But all the trainers put alot of work into and had the skill to gentle their horses.

Of course, since the first two competitions, it has grown into its various incarnations you see today. I am happy it has and still would love to own a mustang, but would probably get a TIP one. Don't have the energy to start one on my own!

I love hearing about Laura's experiences and know she's giving them a good start! Can't wait to hear how she does in the competition.
 
#26 ·
This is a wonderful read.. Thank you.

After these horses have been worked with, past the 100 days, and others want to adopt / buy them.. Any stories about that? I have read a few so far.. warms my heart. Love hearing them having good owners. BLM only provides the bare minimum for them, so hearing they're getting cared for in this way - wonderful.
 
#28 ·
After these horses have been worked with, past the 100 days, and others want to adopt / buy them.. Any stories about that?
I can tell you about Luna. The way the 2008 Challenge worked was that the trainers had 90 days to work with the horses then came together to compete in an in-hand trail course, a horse course (riding a trail course & with required maneuvers such as getting on the correct lead, backing, mounting/dismounting, gate work - just foundational stuff) and got scored on body condition (Luna apparently liked captivity as she grew FAT under Matt's care, LOL). I think only the top 10 went to the finals, which was a freestyle event. Matt and Luna came in 3rd in the competition. Right after the finals & announcement of placements they auctioned off all the horses. I think now the trainers are allowed to keep their horses for a small fee. Then if the trainers wanted their horse, they had to bid along with the public.

Before the competition even started, though, when they first got to the Expo, a couple approached them and said they were going to bid on her. They were an older couple who basically did trail riding and took their horses camping. They actually don't live too far from Matt (maybe 2 hours?). They ended up winning the auction on Luna and took her home. Matt got her back a few months later when the Mustang Heritage Foundation asked him to bring her to the 2008 Trail Blazer competition in AZ. They went (video is in my post above) and had a good time and then Luna went back to her owners. She is still with them and, although they don't ride much any more, she is living like a queen. I would love to see her again, but have not made it out there ... yet. :)
 
#30 ·
Two weeks from now the competition will be over and the auction will be happening and Rooster will be off to a new owner. He certainly cleans up nice compared to his scruffy early appearance as a five year old stallion off the range.


If you go to Laura's blog, be sure to find the video of her work with a trainer over the Fourth of July weekend. Rooster - Extreme Mustang Makeover Idaho 2016
 
#32 ·
Joel, I really have enjoyed Laura's blog and your thread and am rooting for her and Rooster!

We adopted an injured horse from a ranch where she had been running on 100 acres in a herd without any human contact in her life. Just touching her was difficult. I ended up using a back scratcher tied to a long dowel so she would let me touch her with it. Then I moved my hand down the dowel a little more each day, then the back scratcher until it was finally my hand. It took 10 days just to touch her! Then, it was impossible to get a halter on her until I went into her pen mounted on my mare and rode alongside her.

We had been riding her for a couple of years until her old injuries resurfaced and now her front right "knee" is "restructuring itself." I really miss riding her because she is my kindest, gentlest horse.

I really appreciate how much patience Laura must have to do this! Go Laura and Rooster!!!
 
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