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Mustangs as eventers

Came back to add, if you are only looking for straight forward advice on where you can source a bigger, more athletic mustang straight from BLM, I would find a local mustang specific FB group and start networking. PM trainers and participates to find out more information on the herds and holding pens that are most likely to have the type of mustang you are looking for.

I worked for an Eventer that had a 16 plus hand mustang mare. She was a bit drafty in her build but a real power house. She’s now doing Prelim.

I also know Cayla Stone, someone linked to her above. She always has lots of mustangs (right now she has a really cool, really talented but smaller gelding.) She puts a really good start on her horses.

I definitely recommend working with a trainer who is familiar with mustangs.

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Plenty of sane mustangs out there, and many that are good jumpers. Your best bet would be to look into a mustang already started by a TIP trainer. They will be able to guide you towards a horse with the personality and skills you are looking for.
https://mustangheritagefoundation.org/tip/

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Awesome, thanks. I started looking through some of the links and I think combined with some of the other posts I can start networking to find some people who gentle these guys. It’s hard to know where to start and whom to talk to! There is definitely a large gray area in between for feral mustangs climbing the walls and being readily amenable to gentling/domestication. I just have to find the people who can help me find the right fit.

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There is a woman in south Alabama that has been gentling/ working with mustangs and she is very good at it. But it is a skill above and beyond regular horse training. You have to have the ability to read horse behavior very well and wild horse behavior even more. I watch her posts on Facebook but I have no desire to imitate her. I am amazed at some of her success stories after seeing how wild they were when she got them.

Some of her mustangs have had problems with the humidity and the gnats around here because they were adapted to a more arid climate. This might not be an issue where you are located. She also has one with PSSM related issues. When nobody in the pedigree has been ridden in many many generations it is hard to know what is lurking below the surface. Most of the success stories I know of involved people that had a lot of experience with them getting them gentled and started.

I’ll add that I have never seen anyone being unpleasant about a mustang. My upper level dressage trainer suggested selling mine as a dressage pony, saying that she rode like a tiny warmblood and could easily do upper level dressage. My grand prix jump instructor called her a wonderful creature and a treasure and exactly the horse every ammy needed.

Something that was captured young and then spent a good deal of time in professional training is the easiest way to go.

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The mustang I adopted from the BLM when she was a long yearling I started when she was 3ish years old. She was (and is) a peach. When I decided to get back into eventing, (thanks to COTH), I took a look at the stock I had available and said “Z, you’re it.” Luckily she loved jumping and would do it for fun on her own when she could. We moved up the levels to novice and I sold her to a lovely family for their daughter who was just getting out of ponies. The two of them killed it in the jumpers. This chubby little 14.2 hand mustang took home the tri-color at the Evergreen Classic (an AA show) in the .90 jumpers, beating out all the big horses. The girl’s mother rides her now and they just adore her and has a home for life.

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Something like this would be perfect for an ammy who can’t tackle a wild horse but wants a mustang, I’m local but I don’t know the horse or owner.

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Unfortunately this is not what I’m looking for. I have taken infinite pleasure in working with my horses from green to solid citizen. Ideally a halter broke or lightly/ green broke. Thanks though.

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He seems like he’ll make a very fun horse for somebody! And lol, I love the rider’s facial expression :rofl:

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I hope he can measure as a pony.

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Also check out Camille’s Mustangs YouTube channel, where she shows sequential training videos for several horses. She is very talented with gentling and also often seems to pick good ones out of the pens. Recently she has started training for others–she will assist with selection and then do the initial handling. I have no connection to her, just enjoy her videos.

A friend of mine bought a mustang from the northern Nevada prison mustang program that she was really happy with. They seem to have taller horses- they put a light start on them and auction them a couple of times a year. If you don’t want something that has been started under saddle it might be worth while checking out horses gathered from the Nevada HMAs for taller stock.

If you want to watch a fun mustang documentary, check out “Wild Horse Wild Ride”.

The BLM website has a wealth of information about how the round up works. When I went to the Burns, Oregon facility it was because they had recently brought in a herd of mustangs from the Steens Mountain HMA and were ready for adoption. When horses are brought in, the trailer backs up to a barn that has a long chute which has a number of gates where different procedures are done before being sorted into pens. They age the horse at one station, using two poles to separate the lips, if the horse needs farrier work, the horse is tilted on a table so the feet can be worked on, then the horse is vaccinated, and any other vet work that needs to be done is tended to. They are then run through and come out at the end of the barn where they are sorted into different pens according to age and gender; weanlings, yearlings, two year old and up, etc.

I adopted a long yearling and yes, I am an ammy, but I did all the breaking myself, taught her to jump and evented with her for a few years. Luckily she has a good mind and loves to jump. She now lives with another family and they just adore her; I see her on occasion as we’re in the same ponyclub and she’s still going strong.

Yes there are people who have no business adopting a feral horse and these so called “horse whisperers” do no favors when you see them at adoption events and they “break” a horse is just a couple of hours. The neophyte thinks they can do the same thing and the next thing you know, there’s a glut of mustangs for sale or free because they can’t handle them.

Get on the BLM site and find out when the next adoption event is occurring in your area. Make sure you have the required facilities beforehand and get approved to adopt. If attending in person, bring a notebook and write down the tag numbers of the ones you are interested in. It took me several hours to watch how they interacted with each other, how they responded to humans nearby, if they were afraid or if they were curious. I had six I was looking at and kept shuffling the numbers until one kept appearing at the top. Then the adoption (the one I went to) is an auction. Luckily, no one else was interested in my horse and got her for the grand sum of $125. You have to have a trailer with a swinging door, no ramps, no dividers. The horse is run into the chute, haltered with a halter you provide, and run down into your trailer.

Good luck with your endeavor. sorry for the book and if any of the above was already answered.

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