How to Decide if a Mustang is Right for You

 

Copyright 1993 truth-or-consequences

2688 words precisely

Published by "The Western Horse" Magazine, 1993

I hear it all the time: "Mustangs are bad. Stay away from them."

I hear it even from old timers who ought to know better.

There is a line in Lonesome Dove in which Gus questions Call's decision to keep fighting with a nasty, biting mare called the "Hell Bitch". Gus asks Woodro why he's still breakin' horses when there's plenty of gentle ones in the world. To try and explain why folks take on the rough ones, I guess it's a case of: "If you don't know, I can't tell you".

Honestly though, how can you be sure that a mustang is right for you? The idea of adopting one is certainly romantic. After all, it's not every day you can lay claim to a piece of living legend. This is a horse that epitomizes the real west, the wild west, the wind across the plains and the starry starry skies of the open range, the dusty cowboy, the jingle of spurs along the boardwalk, the­­ well wait a minute.

In the first place, any blood that might genuinely be called "mustang" is so diluted with that of domestic escapees that the critter we see today on the western ranges can barely be called "mustang". So from a strictly purist point of view, when you adopt a mustang, you're not really getting a mustang. You're getting a Heinz 57 mix, a composite of all the domestic saddle ponies that either escaped or were turned out over the years because no one wanted them. You're getting a mutt, just as if you picked one up at the pound. True, in recent years some concerted efforts have been made to purposely turn out a higher quality breeding stock with the hope of improving the "ugly little mustangs" so that they would be easier for the government to adopt out. And a few ranchers have turned out good breeding stock with purely altruistic motives, and they're to be commended for their efforts. But still in all, what are you really getting from the BLM adoption center for one hundred and twenty five bucks? One old timer said, "You're gettin' one hundred and twenty five bucks, and that's about it."

I don't agree.

Well, the fact may be that you are, actually, getting a tiny remnant of true mustang blood and perhaps a little is better than nothing at all. And you are getting a horse that has run absolutely wild and utterly free on the range at least for a time­­ and perhaps that has aesthetic value too. In point of fact it has practical value as well, but more on that later.

Most importantly you're getting a horse that has survived some degree of natural selection, and that's no small feat, and that means that in most cases you're getting one tough hombre.

But this is both good and bad. The benefit to the horse (and subsequent owner) is that the horse who has been selected by nature to survive will be less affected by disease to some larger or smaller degree.

He will almost certainly be an easy keeper because eventually nature sorts out those animals who take too much feed and who "burn hay inefficiently".

This "mustang" will often be less bothered by extreme heat or cold because the animals that can't take the extremes tend to die off.

A wild horse will generally have tougher, more durable and problem-free feet, because those horses with weak, troublesome feet won't be able to keep up with the herd. Therefore they won't make it to water often enough. They won't be able to outrun predators as well as other horses. They won't make it to the distant feeding grounds as easily as the others, and as a result they'll have a tendency to die off earlier, and so will be denied the opportunity to pass those "bad feet genes" along to their babies. However, it must be remembered that your adopted mustang may have some genes in his recent background from local domestic stock­­ and he may have therefore inherited any manner of deficiencies and weaknesses (or strengths) that nature has not had time to sort out.

The down side of adopting a horse who has survived some period in the wild, and I mean that his ancestry may have survived it­­ is that his wits will be a little sharper, which means he may be tougher for you, the trainer, to outsmart in some circumstances.

He will be more wary, as the stupidly trusting horse soon gets eaten by a lion, and therefore is not given the opportunity to continue to breed any more stupidly trusting horses.

Your BLM horse will be capable of existing on his own­­ after all, he's been doing it, right up until the time he was rounded up. He won't "need" you as a security blanket the way many domestic horses do and that means that if he gets away from you on the range, he has little incentive to go home on his own, at least not until he has been in your care long enough to have developed a strong habit of eating grain and not being bothered by wild animals in his cozy stall at night. And by the way, most mustangs won't know what grain is until you spend some time convincing them that it's good to eat.

This horse will be more willing to stand up for himself and that means that he may be more willing to stand up to you. When thrown in with domestic horses he's not likely to have many manners, at least not the way we think of them, and will often go straight to work asserting himself as king, ruler, and El Presidente for all time, in your heretofore peaceful little domestic herd. True, he will generally learn some civilized ways after awhile, but he may always be a bit of a black sheep, if taken off the range at a later age.

Initially your new horse will have little respect for you­­ only fear. The most common error made with mustangs is to mistake their fear for aggression. He'll want nothing to do with you, but why should he? You must teach him that there are advantages in liking you-- at least in respecting you, and that he can trust you implicitly. If he doesn't learn this he will never have any incentive to do more than barely tolerate your presence. Many domestic horses are bred with these instincts already implanted. Try training certain colts from the Doc Bar line for instance. They'll almost show you how to do it and they'll wonder why you don't catch on quickly enough.

The BLM now offers only mustangs under two years of age (depending on local supply). The price includes all shots, and gelding, if desired. I adopted the first mustang to be gelded under this program in Nevada.

The price includes an initial hoof trim, however at many BLM stations they'd be better off not to bother. The BLM often hires folks to trim hooves on a per horse basis. To them, time is money, and some of the most embarrassing and incompetent trim jobs come from that arrangement. It will be awhile before you can get a hold of your mustang's feet to straighten out the butcher job­­ and so in that time the feet will grow crooked, which means that in the end even more corrective work has to be done. It's a bad situation.

A BLM representative will often come to physically inspect your fence. Older mustangs can easily clear a five foot suburban fence and often do. An eight or ten foot high round breaking pen is the best choice for the first few weeks, for the mustang in his new and terrifying environment. If you don't have adequate fencing and are not prepared to build it, you'll either be denied an adoption permit, or you should choose to cancel the project yourself. Your horse will just go over the fence and leave you with a substantial liability.

The age of a mustang has a lot to do with the percentages of successes. A weanling or yearling should be considered pretty easy to deal with. But then, of course, you'll have to wait a couple of years to get any riding from the animal.

A two year old straight off the range may be something of a handful, but with the proper techniques and patience he can be worked into a good, calm and reliable horse.

From three years and up a bit more devotion is going to be required to make a usable pleasure horse out of the mustang, but it surely can be done. He'll be more set in his ways. His natural suspicion of humans will often be more pronounced and entrenched. He may be more accustomed to fighting to get what he wants, or to get away from what he doesn't want. If he's a stud, he'll be less likely to enjoy being told what to do, especially in the company of mares. If it's a mare, she's learned by now that life is not a vacation in the Caribbean, and it will take some time to convince her otherwise, especially at the feed trough.

If you can find a thin and hungry mustang in the older age group, you may be better off if, indeed, you're set on an older horse. They'll be a bit easier to deal with while they're weak, and there may be something to the notion that they appreciate the person who saves them and brings them back to life. In any case you'll get some satisfaction in seeing the horse fill out and blossom back to health, and that may help you like the horse, and that's an important component in working with the animal. If you don't like a horse, no matter how well you try to hide it, he'll know it­­ and you'll be doomed from the day you start.

The gentled mustang will always tend to be a little more alert and quicker to react than most domestic horses. Meditate thoroughly before deciding that you can put up with an "alert" horse. Some people call them spooky, though they are often that way only for lack of competent training, especially in the area of sacking out.

A Mustang that has enjoyed much life on the open range will often have a tendency to revert back to a semi­wild state if left alone for any period of time. You must be in a position to work with the horse often, as in five days a week, if you want the horse to remain on a domestic wavelength and not turn flighty if he's not ridden for a week or two. The longer he's been "domesticated", the longer he can be left alone before regressing.

One benefit of adopting a mustang is that, in a sense, they come "pre­trained". They already know how to move. They already know how to place their feet on rough ground. And they know how to cover ground. They'll usually be completely desensitized to natural phenomenon like trees, bushes, water, rolling tumbleweeds, rustling leaves, blowing sand, darting jackrabbits or buzzing rattly snakes. They will, however, be far more sensitized to man­made items such as clothing or cars, radios and flags, flying hats, flapping slickers, or ropes.

Their memories are far more developed than horses who've been barn raised. Mustangs have been forced to remember the way to various watering holes, or to the best grass. The consequence of forgetfulness is death.

The mares and lead stallions often seem to be more intelligent than their domestic counterparts. At least that's a personal opinion.

And lastly, mustangs sometimes tend to be "one man" horses. I suspect it is partly that since they don't really like people or have any use for them in the first place, they avoid cultivating relationships with them. If you, however, as the owner or trainer, can be the first contact your horse has with humans, he'll usually go ahead and make the bond, but he'll sometimes appear to want to make it his last­­ which has always been fine with me. Still, that may not be suitable for a family who wants an all 'round family horse that anyone can ride. I will admit, however, that I've worked with many mustangs in dude strings, and in a number of cases they've proven to be the most calm and reliable horses in the string, often reserved for apprehensive kids and beginner riders. Usually these are mustangs that were taken off the range at earlier ages, or are horses that were worked by more patient trainers..

The mustang, as well, is accustomed to answering only to those horses which clearly prove themselves to be "above" him in the chain of command in a wild herd. If you accomplish that as a trainer, he'll likely respect you for it, and you alone. All newcomers, however, must first prove their superiority over him, in order to earn his respect. This is not always the case, but it's true often enough to be worth mentioning. Many mustangs, however, can't be distinguished from domestic horses in any way, after they've been in a domestic setting for a period of time.

Older mustangs probably aren't the choice for a young daughter's first horse, for example, although in the right circumstances the right horse, with the right training, ridden by the right young daughter, can be a superb match.

They'll require a bit more patience than most domestic broncos, and they'll require a better understanding of how the little equine brain functions, but it has always been more than worth it to me. Still, training mistakes with mustangs sometimes bear greater consequences, and more work to overcome, than the same mistakes made on domestic horses.

Mustangs can be a fine friend and companion, not to mention an exceptionally tough and tireless workhorse, if you're willing to take your time with them in early gentling sessions. The majority of mustangs­­ I just read a figure that claimed up to 70%­­ end up being turned out and let loose after the mandatory one year of ownership is up, and that's a depressing statistic. I suspect the real figure is significantly lower, but it might be argued that there is no valid excuse for turning these horses out at all, except that the American public seems bent on collecting critters they aren't prepared to care for. At any rate, about half of that percentage of turn-outs, no matter which figure is most accurate, are owners who should never have adopted a mustang in the first place, as they don't have the time, the patience, the temperament, the training knowledge, or the facility for the horse. I suspect that a high percentage of the mustangs that get turned out have been beaten, out of the frustration that comes when a mustang is approached by a trainer not familiar with their ways. Hitting a mustang is always a death sentence to the relationship between a man and his wild bronc. In this new age of women beaters, child beaters and poodle beaters, it would be naive not to realize that we have raised, as well, a bumper crop of horse beaters.

The other half of that percentage should have perhaps adopted the horse but should have taken more time with it. They should have read books on training and they should have made more of a moral commitment to the animal in the first place. Too many folks make a cursory attempt at gentling and training their wild horse, but when things don't progress rapidly or smoothly enough as compared to the progress a domestic horse might make, they subconsciously give up, and the horse spends its life in a paddock somewhere, half broke and half wild, forever.

I suspect, as well, that there is a large percentage of horsemen who should adopt a mustang but who have not, perhaps because they're intimidated by the "bad rap" the animals sometimes get at the hands of those who simply do not know.

Unfortunately we live in a society of folks who are conditioned to think that all things are disposable. But living, thinking, breathing creatures are not. Understanding how you see and interact with the world in general, will help you answer the question for yourself:

Should I adopt a mustang?

 

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