This website is owned and created by Nancy Kerson, a private citizen. Information about BLM adoptions is offered as a service, to help mustangs find homes and to promote public appreciation of wild horses and burros.
Please direct adoption questions to the BLM, not to me.
And we sure as heck are not a Mustang car dealership!
This website: Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 All Rights Reserved. I am happy to share, but please give me a credit when you "borrow" things off my website! Thanks! Just say, "author, Nancy Kerson www.mustangs4us.com "
DVD or VHS (2-DVD or 2-VHS set) almost 3 hours of instruction!
$49.95 plus $5 shipping/handling = $54.95 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!
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Can't do Paypal? No Problem! Just Call TOLL FREE 1-877-345-6748 (1-877-FILMS4U) If you don't want to buy online, Call TOLL FREE 1-877-345-6748 (1-877-FILMS4U)
Note: A lot of the video clips on this page start playing immediately, so you may hear a cacophony of videos at first. Put each one on PAUSE and then wartch the one you want.
I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the Pine Nut Ponies, ever since I first saw them in - I think it was 2003 - at Palomino Valley. They are believed by many to be descendants of a Shetland breeder who released them after the bottom fell out of the Shetland craze in the 1950's/'60's.
Another explanation is that they are descendants of ponies used in the Comstock area mines, where animals had to go deep into long tunnels to bring back the ore, and ponies were the right size and temperament.
Another somewhat conflicting explanation comes from a retired brand inspector who grew up in the region. He says they were never mixed with Shetlands or anything else, and are likely an unrecognized pure strain of Old Spanish horses.
Any of those explanations is fine with me - at any rate they are small, short-coupled little horses, usually growing up to be between 12 and 14 hands, occasionally slightly taller. Most people don't want them due to their size. And they have a reputation for being feisty biters and kickers, which I feel HAS to be due to improper handling - no horse is inherently mean!.
Anyway, Edona Miller told me about three Pine Nut ponies that were at the Colusa adoption. The others got adopted but the little bay didn't. I said, shoot, I would have taken him had I been there. And then I went way out on a limb and said that if ever she or Jason or anybody else was up at Litchfield and had room in their trailer, I would take the colt if they brought him down. Well, right before Thanksgiving 2007, Edona was up at Litchfield and she had room in her trailer...
So that's how I got the Pine Nut Pony. I couldn't figure out how a Pine Nut colt happened to be in captivity at all, let alone in California, because they didn't gather the Pine Nuts this year. Edona said Viddell told her it had something to do with LRTC. So I wrote Willis and got the scoop. It seems a small band of Pine Nut Ponies had wandered into an upscale neighborhood and upset the residents.
So BLM came out and caught them but instead of taking them to Palomino Valley, they placed them with a group called the Fish Creek Posse, a volunteer wild horse advocacy group - I had never heard of them until now. That group brought them into California, hoping to get them adopted at LRTC's Brentwood adoption in October. One did, and the others were picked up by California BLM and taken to the Colusa adoption, where, as I already said, the bay was not adopted. He went to the Litchfield Corrals, and Edona brought him to her house and we went and picked him up.
Pine Nut comes home - met by the Welcoming Committee Oh, Boy! This is EXCITING!
Here he comes!
Let the Gentling Begin! For the first couple of weeks we did this dance of asking him to turn toward me and yield his hinds, and rewarding that and then asking again.
Pretty soon he began to catch on and would take a step or two toward me. After about two weeks or so I was able to get a soft rope around his neck and to makeshift a simple halter to begin teaching leading and other ground skills
A couple of days after Christmas, I got a real halter and lead rope on him
With a real halter and lead rope I could begin teaching all his ground skills
Piney's first time having a halter put on him and firest leading lesson with the halter and lead rope
What goes on must come off.
Here is "real time" (Not edited much) video footage of my first time teaching Pine Nut how to move in a circle while on a halter and lead rope.
Pine Nut exhibits a common problem with wild horses in the early stages: he just wants to "face up" and makes it very difficult to get on his sides, and it is very hard to get behind his shoulder to teach him to drive forward.
Note that although it starts out pretty western, it quickly gets smoother and easier as Pine Nut begins to understand. Also note that "Side Two" doesn't take quite as long as Side One.
Since a horse's brain is very "two-sided" I had to teach the other side, too.
In January I began taking him out for walks.
In mid-January I was able to take him to a Jerry Tindell Colt Starting CLinic. We made so much progress in just two days, it was great!
By mid-February he was doing tricks!
Piney's First Bow:
Most of the spring I worked Piney only occasionally and lightly, mainly just let him settle in with the herd and "be a horse."
In July I started training him again. He has matured a lot, gotten more comftable and relaxed, and learns so quickly! He wants to please, and he usualy "gets it" in just a few tries.
Here are Piney and his "big brother" Sparky, doing some round pen liberty work as a warmup to a training session.
copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Nancy Kerson, all rights reserved - I'm happy to share, just need to be asked and credit given where due. NOTE: This is NOT a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) website. For BLM, click HERE
Disclaimer: Horses are inherently dangerous. Use the information contained within this website at your own risk.
LINKS TO FRIENDS AND RESOURCES:
www.WildHorseBurro.com Get Great Mustang stuff - and help support wild horses & burros in BLM holding facilities!
