Actually, nothing in my schedule has changed, I was always planning on doing the mustang project years in the future.
I’m now tossing around the idea of working my way up to that.
You can think what you’d like.
That’s interesting.
I’m curious, do people do much with the brumby horses there? I’m curious how it differs from our feral horses in the US.
My section D was spectacular. As was every one I knew or sat on growing up, many, like Taffy, were imported.
I bought mine as a basically unstarted six year old. While i knew the breeder, he had been passed around a bit and was quite badly handled and mismanaged. And starving. Also starving.
I spent a summer and fall working with him, lots of trails and riding out. He ended up very happily carting kids around in a local lessons program.
I think it depends a lot on the breeding and training.
My section D is awesome. We just got back from our very first h/j schooling show and she handled it all like a pro despite other horses spooking around her and people falling off.
OP if you search you might find some old thread about Welsh Cobs here. A few of us own them and some others are breeders.
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Growing up in continental Europe I never heard that any Welch was any other than very nice horses.
Now, Haflingers, those were a different story.
Some of those were, lets say, not that nice to work with you, if you didn’t make it their idea.
We did get plenty of those to re-train, not any Welch of any size came to us with problems to work thru.
I was surprised to hear some think the D ones are difficult as a group.
Then, yours I think is an especially nice one.
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I’ve seen one Welsh cob in my life, as a kid in the 1970s. Lovely dapple grey small horse with draft features. Wonderfully level headed since as I recall his rider was a heavy handed rather vicious little girl. I’d recommend a horse like that to any ammy rider.
I have also seen that in the US, lovely horses that keep on going, don’t decide that is enough and make life difficult for the less than polite riders.
Some kids do take advantage of those sweet horses and the horses let them.
Makes you want to wring some parent’s necks.
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This x 10. x 1000000.
I have seen nice horses ruined by people who thought they knew what they were doing-- but had no clue. Permanently lamed through bad riding, bad management, ignorance. A good horse person is first and foremost aware of their own limits and knows the danger— yes danger-- of transgressing them.
If you are interested in knowing how to train a horse, you should take on board all of the good advise that has been offered here.
Even calm and well trained horses can have a moment-- do you know what to do with that? My usually well behaved OTTB had a moment today when asked to walk past ( I was on the ground) something that had not been there an hour before-- a feed bag or something equally sinister. He got really tall in the way horses do when they are alarmed-- and he is a fairly big fellow anyway-- and I thought-- oh blank. But I calmly went to his shoulder and put him through a few steps of his groundwork and never made a big deal out of anything. His brain returned, and we were able to go past the feedbag. This horse has been handled every.single.day.of.his.life and has perfect (usually) ground manners. Feed bags are a daily thing-- but their sudden appearance is apparently something alarming to him. Who knows. It is a horse And that is the point. Any horse is an unpredictable animal with a strong instinct to flee danger, and can think that at any moment something is liable to decide it is a tasty treat.
I cannot imagine the difficulty of working with a feral horse.
It is best for you and any horse you might end up with to be realistic about your own experience. It is the horse that will pay the price for an overly romanticized naive self assessment of skills.
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Well I bought my mustang a good 300 lbs underweight, intact (stallion) but he had at least been started by a kid who got in over her head. He has turned out to be the one of the most level headed, easy, solid citizens I’ve had. He has that typical big ole head, short thick neck (and he’s been gelded now for 4 months; but, the neck really hasn’t changed), tons of bone, great feet, and lovely gaits. He also looks a lot like my Section D Welsh Cob stallion (well this guy actually now belongs to my daughter) who is also very sane, sensible and easy, easy, easy. The Welsh cob is ‘prettier’ with much more flash but both horses (15 hands) are who I pick to put the relatives on, the newbies, the re-riders and pretty much anyone who comes to visit that want to go out site seeing in the wild west LOL. I usually ride the Section C (Welsh pony of Cob Type) who is also an absolutely solid citizen that I can pretty much do anything with and take anywhere. None of them spook easily. My three year old Section D Welsh Cob is also proving to be very solid/steady between the ears type and BOLD.
Welsh cobs have a very sharp sense of humor. They do not suffer fools well but that isn’t to say they’re flighty or dangerous. They just need and want a fair, leader. Once you’ve earned their respect there really isn’t anything they won’t do for you. I do agree that like every breed there are certain bloodlines known to produce certain ‘types’ both in character and in ability. There are some bloodlines I avoid. I’ve been lucky to have found the bloodlines that work for me and have started/backed/shown quite a few.
I’ve found my mustang to be very similar though he’s not as much of a goofball like most of my welsh cobs have been (mares, geldings and stallions). I started riding the mustang as soon as I had a bit of weight on him and didn’t geld him for almost 6 weeks. He was pretty much the same as my Welsh Cobs in terms of wanting a leader that is fair and even handed. He is extremely sweet and bonds with ‘his’ human(s). He’s a character and loves attention but I find the Welsh Cobs to be much more industrious. My Welsh Cobs can open almost anything, are always rearranging their furniture, wear buckets on their head, make toys out of almost anything, etc. The mustang is far more conservative in his antics and what he does in his free time LOL.
What I will say though is that both ‘breeds’ are built like brick sh!t houses with a post on each corner and sound, sound, sound, sound. The mustang is fulfilling his intended job very well and is fun to ride (and I’ve only owned him since the end of October and he’s so much more handsome now with all his weight on); but, I have to say that the Welsh Cobs are still what make my heart sing. That being said, I don’t think either are suited for everyone or just anyone. Like terriers (or any class/type of dog), you have to know what their traits are and be willing to embrace the whole package; otherwise, it’s a recipe for disaster.
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We do many things with brumbies, but it’s not all romance. I had lessons on a brumby as a kid, and he was a nice solid citizen. A friend owns a very cute one.
Politically brumbies fall between one of two views. Either they are our legacy of Australian legends of bush men and wild horses like the Man from Snowy River, or, they are a feral introduced species causing significant damage and should be eradicated at all costs.
There is no co-ordinated management, and individual National Parks have their own management plans.
You sometimes see brumbies at auctions in the eastern states; in central Australia they are more likely to be culled - along with feral camels and donkeys.
I suspect mine has some of the draft blood and Navajo and New Mexico are often one in the same I didn’t mean to imply that all wild horses are ‘sound’ in the conventional sense but I do believe that their typical build lends themselves better to survival in rough terrain and rough times and for the purposes that I need one, well, many are well suited. Horse’s don’t really get rickets so I suspect from your description your horse had epiphysitis at a young age for the reasons described. Soundness for survival and soundness for performance are not always one in the same. The survival instinct and level head is what I appreciate of the mustangs I’ve ridden but I’ve also had to deal with those traits (worked against those without the know) with mustangs that newbies have acquired and couldn’t manage. The point is that to maximize chances for succes, you have to understand all that you’re getting into and not do it for the ‘romance’. I will always pick a horse that looks to save itself because I know if I can hang on (and I usually can), we’re both going to be safe. I"m too old for twits or those that don’t ‘get’ the herd dynamics. True infirmities and unsoundness of mind are what lead to a shorter lifespan. Mustangs, again are not for everyone. Neither are the Welsh Cobs as already stated. Fortunately for me, I’m not new to starting/training/backing and when I go to look at one, the prepurchase exam is already done LOL. I could tell that despite being emaciated, draining tract in his neck from his microchip, battle scars, both testicles present, and pretty severe conjunctivitis there was a nice, smart, reasonable fellow…I probably wouldn’t have suggested for anyone else to buy him though…oh and I paid way too much but I’d been watching the situation since he was pulled off the rez and felt pretty strongly that he was worth a ‘real’ rescue. I had already looked at a few grade horses in the same age range (4-6 yrs) that I could tell I’d be dealing with lameness issues not too far down the road and this one, barring any unforeseen accidents has the best chances of carrying my guests all over the deserts of Arizona for many years to come.
BTW Bluey, yours looks a lot like mine so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I think yours is quite handsome 
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Wow, interesting. Very different from the US, then, except for the controversy.
Actually, that’s pretty much exactly the same conditions as in the United States.
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“There is no co-ordinated management, and individual National Parks have their own management plans.”
Trust me, there’s no great coordinated management of mustangs, hence all the issues. That we have a BLM certainly doesn’t mean everything is uniform across the board. At all. There is chronic infighting, let alone issues outside of the BLM about how to deal with what is really a crisis.
Ok, argue that if you’re so inclined. Controversy? With the BLM? Goodness gracious, I’ve never heard of such a thing! My comparison was between a single government body that is in charge of the management of feral horses, versus no one singular federal program in charge of management. As I have said before on this thread, I know that there are differences between the way various states, facilities, etc. run things. But the BLM itself is one federal body that is in charge of managing the feral horses. It doesn’t sound like it’s that way in Australia.
It’s OK if you interpreted it differently than I did, we don’t have to argue over every little thing on here.
With regard to the reservation horses out of Warm Springs, some are quite nice, and when I was working on the res, I noted that the horses in the Seekseekqua (south res) area were much nicer to my way of thinking than the horses in the Simnasho (north) area. There was a group working to rehome res horses, particularly young stock, and you can search them out if you’re interested. There was a very attractive Appy around Seekseekqua that I watched a lot, and I toyed with trying to buy him, but he was an older horse, and if totally unbroke, would have probably been too much horse for me now. I saw him later on video as a participant in wild horse races. He was a nice sport horse type except for a rather short neck.
If you buy/adopt from the tribes, there are no rules, regulations, or anything to comply with (unless you deal with the organized group). Right now, if you drive the res roads (stick to the paved roads and don’t go down driveways), you’ll see a lot of horse bands and the new foals. Sometimes they’ll run right across the road in front of you, so be cautious. Their value goes up a lot if you hit one.
There is a huge overpopulation of horses, and most have never been vaccinated, had their feet touched, or been wormed. Since most are roaming in large areas, the above issues aren’t significant, as the mountain lions take care of the weak and sickly ones. Some have been branded.
If you go there, the tribal members are cowboys with a great sense of practicality. There’s no romantic nonsense about the mystical bond between horse and man. The poverty is extreme. You’ll be doing the horse a favor if you take it home. These horses aren’t even living as well as the BLM horses, who get good grass hay and alfalfa. These get nothing most of the time except what they can find out on the desert.
There was talk about starting a horse slaughterhouse to deal with the excess population of this reservation and many other areas. It’s never gone beyond talk so far.
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This is really interesting. I know almost nothing about non- BLM mustangs.
So how does that work? You just hang around the area and pick one, then make sure you can legally take it and that the local government’s OK with that? See, I know nothing. Just trying to imagine the differences between BLM and other situations.
No, you aren’t TAKING the horse. If you spot one you like, contact the tribes and tell them you’d like to buy a horse. The reservation is a sovereign nation, and you are a guest. You would probably get referred to Jason Smith regarding the negotiations to buy a horse. There are several Warm Springs horse groups on FB, and you could get a feel for things out there. If they are having a horse sale this year, that would be the ideal way to see a group of horses without wandering around too much. If you explore independently, stay on paved roads leading to the regular tourist destinations, such as Kah-nee-ta, or Lake Simtustus, and remember that it’s ALL open range, with cattle and horses roaming the pavement at will.
You don’t have to rely on highway roulette to find horses you like. You can save time and tires by getting a referral to ranchers with horses for sale. You may make a great friend for life who can refer horses to you in the future, or you may get shown the horses that are aimed at the bucking horse sale.
I also noted this website about the Oregon ranges, with excellent information about the bloodlines and types for each area. http://www.mustangs4us.com/HMA-Section/oregon.htm#LIGGETT%20TABLE%20HMA There are horses in range condition and a few pictures of domesticated horses.
