This is a non-commercial, independent website, owned and written by Nancy Kerson, for the benefit of actual and potential adopters of BLM Mustangs and Burros and similar animals.
DVD or VHS (2-DVD or 2-VHS set) almost 3 hours of instruction!
$39.95 plus $5 shipping/handling = $44.95 total
Lesley Neuman: The First Touch Gentling Your Mustang $45.00
Lesley works with 3 wild horses at a BLM adoption, and very clearly explains what is happening, what she is doing, & what she sees in each horse as it progresses. Study this video and you can learn "pressure and release" gentling techniques to gentle your own new mustang!
Help for Burro adopters! Crystal Ward Donkey Training
All the basics of gentling, handling, and training. A MUST for new burro adopters! Good for domestic donkeys, too!
CLICK ON A SUBJECT AREA FOR ADOPTING A MUSTANG (WILD HORSE):
Sparky: from First Touch to First Ride To First Show To 5-Day Wilderness Ride!
Genetic Vigor & Health - lack of inbreeding or selection for trivial features - and the diseases and weaknesses associated with inbreeding, line-breeding, & human selection with unbalanced emphasis on just a few traits (often with unexpected consequences like genetic diseases, reduced longevity, hoof & skeletal weaknesses, etc)
One man's experience: For the last ten years, I have been using my Mustangs as Mounted Posse horses, and they just work out great.
Once a year, our Posse takes a 150 mile ride across the old Mojave Trail. Each year that I have gone I have taken a Mustang. I even brought along another one for the Drag rider. After that trip, he was purchased by one of the riders, as she no longer wanted to ride her Arab. She has ridden him ever since.
I recently took a non believer to Nevada, and we got a mustang for him. He, too, has changed his opinion.
The real reason I chose these horses was the price, and the fact that they are part of our western history. It wasn't until I owned one that I found out what great horses they are. I can truly say that my horse Dot, a white leopard appaloosa mustang, is my best friend. Once you own one, they hook you!
- Doug Gorman, California BLM Volunteer
Sound Feet, Sound Minds "Mother Nature Breeds A better Horse" Wells Fargo Bank uses three BLM Mustangs in their stable of horses to pull their famous stagecoaches! They appreciate the mustang's soundness, never needing shoes, and their quiet minds.
Experienced horse people like mustangs because of their sound feet, hardy constitutions, and sane minds. Horses on the range, growing up in a functioning natural herd structure, are socialized in a way that few domestics can even come close to. They know their manners! They know where their feet are. They are masters of body language communication. They respect their leaders. They are wise and sure-footed in uneven terrain. They don't waste calories, their sense of self-preservation is much stronger than most domestic horses. Therefore they will never allow themselves to be spent out - they always keep a reserve, so they will get you back home again!
Chance, a mustang mare owned by Arizona Lindy, illustrates the versatility of the hardy mustang - she excels in both Endurance and arena competition
Mustangs generally excel at trail riding, being accustomed to wilderness and knowing where their feet are. Wind? They grew up in it!
The US Marine Corps Color Guard uses palomino mustangs exclusively
Sparky and Ruby, along with Tonopah and Charlie - all BLM mustangs, completed the 72-mile "Fearful Crossing" pioneer trail ride from Lovelock to Fallon, Nevada, with energy to spare and 100% sound feet.
SPOTLIGHT ON ENDURANCE:
Ladybug & Janet Tipton Ladybug does everything - English, Western, even harness driving. But she mainly does Endurance. Here is her 2008 AERC record:
Total – 630 LD miles and 50 endurance miles with no pulls
4th Place National Limited Distance
2nd Place Regional Limited Distance (Mountain Region)
1st Place Regional Limited Distance Best Condition (Mountain Region)
Jill Carr & Willow, her Endurance Mustang
Willow and Jill were honored at the 2006 AERC Convention for clocking over 500 miles in her firs season!
Char Antuzzi & Sir Galahad
Char Antuzzi competes each year in the Tevis Cup Endurance Ride, riding a mustang named Sir Galahad who was rounded up with other wild mustangs by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
"I like the mustangs because...the day they are born they do an endurance ride," Antuzzi said.
Many horseback riders pick Arabians because they are born in the desert. But mustangs are, too, and they have survival skills that allow them to expend the least amount of energy possible and stay alive, Antuzzi said.
"Because they always have a reserve, they'll never run themselves into the ground," Antuzzi said.
They can also recognize danger faster than many other horses, she said. On one trail ride, Sir Galahad stopped, his ears perked up and he started quivering. Antuzzi did not understand why he would not go anywhere until she saw what lay in their path.
"Around the bend there was a pack of coyotes," Antuzzi said. "And the horse behind me was clueless."
These equines stay aware of the dangers in the wild and sustain themselves water hole to water hole, she said. Nine-year-old Sir Galahad has covered 1,000 endurance miles, finishing 15 minutes past the cutoff two years ago and earned his buckle last year. Riders earn a Tevis Cup buckle if they complete 100 miles in the time allotted.
"Mustangs are consistent," Antuzzi said. "They don't go fast, but they trot up a hill, down a hill, over logs, through creeks. They just maintain this forward momentum."
For many horsemen, this is the most compelling reason. When you adopt a Mustang, you are getting "pure horse" as Nature intended, without the overlay of a past with other people's mistakes. When you start with a wild horse, earn its trust, and participate in the training, you know that horse at a deep level that is rare with domestic horses. This is a horse with no prior training, no prior mistakes, no prior spoiling or human-caused bad habits.
Contrary to the commonly held opinion that mustangs are inbred, Mustangs actually enjoy the highest level of genetic health of all horses. This could change in the future, as herd sizes are reduced in response to other pressures on the land. But for now, this is the case. The Mustang gene pools are healthy and vigorous, with excellent genetic variability. No HYPP here. No Doc-O-Lena Disease.
Range-hardened mustangs are tough and inclined to good health. Countless adopters can relate tales of mustangs surviving terrible injuries and illnesses that would surely have killed the average horse within a short time. Due to hundred of years living in harsh conditions, they are "easy keepers" - seldom requiring expensive supplements or rich feeds. Living on the range, mustangs have learned, generation after generation, not to waste calories. In this way, they tend to be level-headed, calm, easy-going animals - not the skittish, flighty creatures often conjured up by the word "wild."
Horses that can look this good when they live HERE will thrive with regular feed, water and shelter and vet care
Efren Segura's new mustang from Calico Mtns can already perform tricks!
Many people, like myself, find that the experience of earning a wild horse's trust, and then training it to become a wonderful saddle horse & companion is an exciting and meaningful experience that enriches their lives tremendously. An adventure begins: A newly-adopted mustang is loaded into the trailer
You can't beat the price! (starting at $125 - occasional "specials" - and re-assignment horses are even less- as low as $25 each!)
But BEWARE!That's barely even the deposit, let alone the down payment, when you consider everything you will need to put out over the years for feed, housing, fencing, training, veterinary care, hoof trimming, saddles, tack and equipment, trailer/transportation, etc.
Please understrand that horse ownership can be expensive. In addition to housing and fencing (or paying a monthly boarding fee), food, and veterinary care, wild horses will need training! I firmly believe that anyone can gentle a wild horse who makes a personal commitment to learn and "keep showing up". But eventually the horse needs training. Training for the saddle does, in most cases, require professional help for a good outcome. Budget for it!
If price is the main attraction, think hard about whether or not you can actually afford a horse.
On the other hand, the low price is not necessarily a bad thing! Since I was not already a "horse person" when we got our first mustangs, and not at all in a mindset to pay thousands of dollars for a horse, it is unlikely we would ever have adopted in the first place - and certainly we would not have gotten as many as we now have - had the price been higher. Of course, once we got them home, we fell in love and are deeply committed to providing the best feed and care and training for them.
Many people report that the low price originally attracted them to mustangs, but what really hooked them was how great the horses turned out!
Many people find a thrill in owning "a Piece of History," "A Living Legend." From the Spanish Conquistadores, through the Great Native American Horsemen, explorers like Lewis & Clark, Mountain Men, pioneers, homesteaders, ranchers, "Buckaroo" and "Vaquero" cattlemen, and the Military Remount Program, as well as the Dust Bowl-Depression Era tragedies, and the coming of the tractor, with its concurrent decline in horse-ownership during the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's - IT'S ALL THERE - coursing through the blood of America's wild horses.
Use the "Gallery of HMA's" to see the photos of horses from each HMA, grouped by state and BLM district
since August 23, 2007
copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Nancy Kerson, all rights reserved - I'm happy to share, just need to be asked and have credit given where due.
Disclaimer: Horses are inherently dangerous. Use the information contained within this website at your own risk.
Sir Galahad is a regular participant in the Tevis Cup & other Endurance events
MUSTANG LADY has won many Endurance honors
