Mustangs 4 Us |
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What do YOU want to see happen with Wild Horses & Burros? BUY THE BOOK! For more information about the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program, please call (866) 4MUSTANGS or Click HERE
| "FREE TO GOOD HOME" |
 Okay, Soapbox time: Several times a week I get emails from folks asking me to help them place their no-longer-wanted Mustang - "Free to a good home." I do post their notice on the appropriate websites that I can, but it's starting to get to me. Even in bad times, a well-trained horse of any breed has value, and is always the last to be sold or given away, and is the most likely to find a good home. That's almost never what people want to give away. What people want to give away is the Pasture Ornament. Perhaps they adopted this horse on impulse, or perhaps they jumped in with romantic zeal after reading Monty Roberts or The Horse Whisperer... but it turned out to be harder than they expected and after awhile they lost interest... Perhaps the horse gentled down just fine, but they thought they could just "get on and ride" and it didn't work out... Or maybe their initial enthusaism as adopters devolved into Collector Syndrome, with too many mouths to feed and too many hooves to trim... Regardless of the reason for adopting, the reality is that the adopter failed to make a real commitment to the animal, and did not choose to seek - and pay for - appropriate help. Now they have a horse - often in its prime adult years between 6 and 14, that is, at best, barely halter-trained. "Friendly, curious, affectionate and sweet" they gush about the animal's positive qualities. But training? No - and at 8 or 10 or 12 years it is no longer a matter of "potential." The window of "potential" has closed. Most horses that age are seasoned animals in their prime. Not that older horses aren't capable of being saddle trained. Certainly they are. But in today's market, people looking for a green or untrained horse have a choice: They can choose from a huge pool of healthy "blank slate" youngsters with their lives ahead of them. And then, there are these older horses - animals who may already have spent half their lives, and may have suffered neglect in the hoof care and nutritional departments. Both types of horses will need equal amounts of training - which would you choose? The plight of the Pasture Ornament is the dark side of the Adoption program. Keeping a mustang as an untrained pasture ornament would be fine if you could guarantee that you will provide for the animal for its entire life, but how many people can honestly do that? And when the time comes that you either no longer can keep it - or no longer want to keep it - the mature untrained horse has no future - through no fault of its own. Folks, if you are thinking of adopting a Mustang - PLEASE - MAKE A COMMITMENT TO GET YOUR ANIMAL TRAINED in a timely manner. For most of us, that means budgeting the money to hire a trainer - or - if part of the reason for adopting is for our own growth and education - hiring someone to teach us how to train. Horse training is a highly skilled art. Do not adopt without considering training! Volunteer mentors can be helpful to get you get off to a good start, and to work through an occasional "bump" along the way, but you will need to accept responsibility for getting yourself and your horse the solid, in-depth professional training that your horse deserves. And that usually means paying for it. |
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