Wild horses in their paddock at Butterfield Canyon
The difference in the horses' demeanor at second day at the Festival of Learning's mustang gentling is striking. They still blast out of the trailer like uncrated Tasmanian devils, but once they are back in their separate training zones, they settled right down. No more crashing into the panels or panicky loping the perimeter. Mostly they just stood calmly and waited. With appropriate direction, I got in the round pen with a gorgeous little buckskin on his second session, walked up to him and scratched his head.
I spent one session yesterday watching Brent work with an absolutely petrified mare in her first gentling session. For twenty minutes she tested every junction in the panel fence, worked herself into a sweat trying to run away from him, which is sort of hard to do in a round pen. Every time she ran away, in just a few seconds, there he was as she came around the circle. After a while, he started giving her direction: first to simply turn away, then to turn back, over and over until it dawned on her that he was controlling her movements. Then she began to relax, accepting him as the lead horse in the pen, and within an hour he had her turning toward him on a vocal command. The next step will be to convert that vocal command into slowing the turn toward him, stopping and facing him. Then he can start to approach her with the halter. It's slow, but I see how it works. The human must be the alpha mare in the herd (even a herd of 2) at all times.
In the evening, after a dozen horses had received their lessons and three new burros had been gentled, we went out to the Salt Lake Wild Horse and Burro Facility where some of the BLM's herd of horses is held for adoption. The manager gave us the full tour of the place, and then took us into a couple of the pens WITH the horses. The mustangs are separated by age and gender. The young males were kind of curious as we walked through their pasture, but the 2 and 3 year old females immediately surged toward us. I watched one of the trainers as the horses surrounded him, and he didn't have enough hands to give all the scratches and pets to everyone who wanted them. I tried to take pictures, but pretty soon I had four horses around me wanting attention. I had to keep reminding myself, these are wild animals. Easily spooked, but they were accepting us on their terms so long as we didn't act like predators. I didn't want to leave them, and they seemed to feel the same way, because about 60 of them followed us down the hill to the gate. If they had decided to rush the gate, it would have been interesting, but the handlers steered them off. We saw a few mares with new foals, having been brought off the range already pregnant, and 15 more burros.
If I had a place to take her, one of those mares who chose me would have gone home with me last night. She's healthy and doing fine in her herd, but she deserves an adopter who can give her a happy, useful life. This is a serious responsibility, and I respect the people who can do it. I also suspect that the reward of a happy mustang is worth the effort.
Comments (3)
I'm extremely jealous. Wish I could be part of this event.
My older horse has just entered retirement and my husband and I are debating whether we should get another horse so we can ride together again. Would love to give one of these mustangs a home, but I don't think I have what it takes to train it from the ground up.
Alas -- it takes more than space to give a horse like that a home. Maybe when I'm older and more settled down...
Have fun!
Posted by Maria | May 15, 2008 12:03 PM
Posted on May 15, 2008 12:03
Would love to adopt a mustang - but that will have to wait until someday when we get the land and energy to do something like that. I love the photos and posts - what an experience.
Posted by Kayla | May 16, 2008 9:38 PM
Posted on May 16, 2008 21:38
Ann thanks for taking such nice pictures of me and my horse My Desert Rose. I look forward to seeing you again.
Posted by Lori | June 2, 2008 3:43 PM
Posted on June 2, 2008 15:43