Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Bottom line--while some herds yield some good riding horses, in general the
horses are not worth the adoption fee or the time and effort that goes into
making them saddle horses.  Endurance riders who have ridden mustangs
successfully have gotten specific individuals out of specific herds, for
the most part, that had the appropriate characteristics.  It is much more
of a crap shoot than getting a quality horse from a competent breeder who
has spent the time and effort to raise a horse suitable to the job
intended.

Well everyone is entitled to their own opinion and so I am going to voice
mine.  I wholeheartedly disagree with most of this post.  I am president of
an organization here in the intermountain region (Intermountain Wild Horse
& Burro Advisors, Inc.) we mentor people in the area that adopt wild
horses.  The techniques we use can be used by even the newest horse owner
that is interested in learning.  We also gentle several horses for each
adoption in the state of Utah.  These horses are all gentled by volunteers,
many who do not own horses (some who never have) that want to learn.  And
we are getting great results.

Another group that I am part of (LRTC) www.whmentors.org, gentled and
trained 9 horses and 3 burros that were on display at the 2002 Winter
Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.  These horses and burros were gentled
by volunteers who didn't have experience but when all was said and done all
of these horses and burros stood in front of 20,000 people a day and never
once got sick.  Something I can't say for the domestic horses that were up
there for the Pony Express and sleigh rides.  We never had an instance of
colic.

When I adopted my first mustang I had one person express the same opinions
to me and told me that I should not be able to adopt a mustang because I
didn't have the experience with them.  Well guess what me and the first
mustang I adopted are now competing in shows, riding in parades and doing
lots of PR for the BLM.  We are also planning on starting our endurance
career next year.  I personally didn't have the money to buy a "high
dollar" horse but had the time to invest in training one myself.  I have
since adopted 4 more that are all doing great.  Anything you can find in a
domestic horse breed you can find in a wild horse if you take the time too
look for those characteristics.

I agree there are some rogue wild horses out there that you will be lucky
if you ever touch them but isn't that true of some domestic horses?  If
brought along in a nurturing and constructive manner these mustangs are
awesome horses that will give their heart and soul for their owners and
still have more left to give at the end of the day.

I don't know that I agree with having adoptions in conjunction with rides
for many of the reasons stated, putting a wild horse in a stock trailer
with a "high dollar" horse, can't use those slants for a horse that doesn't
know about them, etc. but think the BLM coming to rides and maybe having a
couple of pre-gentled horses that people can bid on etc would work.

So for those that have been considering adopting a mustang but thought you
lacked the knowledge, well it is all out there on the internet and can
easily be found.  LRTC has mentors in just about every state and IWHBA has
mentors in the Intermountain region that would love to help out in any way
they can.  So give these horses a chance you might be surprised at how
wonderful they really are.


Janet Tipton
President - IWHBA
www.iwhba.org




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