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My first horse was a BLM mustang and my current mare is a mustang/Tb
cross.  The BLM mare I had had been trained by someone else, then sold
to someone for their kids (she kept dumping them).  My neighbor got
her for her husband and proceeded to discover that she hated men and
would kick any man that came near her across the barn.  Then I came to
try her and fell in love even though I can not say that she was even
remotely behaved on that first ride.  I proceeded to foxhunt, do
endurance, and she also went on to do jumpers and low-level eventing. 
She was hot, spooky and had a lot of spunk but would do anything for
me and was the best trail horse ever even though I could never get her
to stop jumping small creeks and puddles.  She could also get out of
any stall and jump any fence if she so desired, so presented a few
management problems from time to time.  She also was a kicker, and
even though never kicked me, I was always very careful with her.  My
mustang/TB had another owner before me who had attempted to train her
but it didn't quite work out. When I got her, she was a minimally
handled 5 yo. who had learned all the tricks to get out of doing
anything she didn't feel like doing.  All she would do was rear, and
bust away from me.  I have had her 3 years now and she is finally a
fabulous horse-- trail rides alone, jumps, rides bareback in a halter,
and crosses any obstacle on the trail.  We even got stuck in quicksand
once and she managed to extract herself and was unphased by the whole
ordeal, even though I was petrified.  Because she is such an
intelligent horse, she can be very difficult because she is very
strong willed.  If we have a discussion, my only solution is to
calmly, outlast her.  No one can force Gala to do anything, she must
decided that that's what she's going to do.  I think that I was a bit
over my head when I bought her, but mustangs have a terrible
reputation here in the NE, so was unable to find a trainer to help me
with her, so I ended up doing all the training myself.  She is an
incredibly sweet horse and has never tried to kick or bite; however,
she makes it clear that anything she does is on her terms, and she's
the one deciding that she'll do it.  She can also be funny about new
people and takes an immediate dislike to certain people -- there is no
rhyme or reason to it that I can figure out, but she must know.
That said, I would only recommend that an experienced and extremely
patient horseperson have a mustang.  I have trained other horses and
find them a bit more straightforward to deal with; however, my
mustangs have taught me far more than any other horse ever has.  I
will extend that and say that no inexperienced horseperson should have
a green horse unless they have a lot of help from trainers, etc.  My
boyfriend was an inexperienced rider and we got him an unbroke 5 yo.
QH-- the previous owners had tried to break him and he kept ejecting
them.  With a lot of help from my parents and I, he has done a lot of
the training on his horse, and Tobi is now a fabulous trail horse. 
Yes, there are success stories of green horses and riders, but I still
would not recommend it.
Any horse, mustang or not, can kill/injure someone.  I always try to
remind myself of this with every horse that I work with, no matter how
well trained it might seem.  I have met plenty of very experienced
horse people who have suffered devastating injuries from horses that
were not mustangs.

Carol and Gala (who does not like rocks, stumps or signs but doesn't
mind volleyball nets or barking dogs)

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