1st Time Horse Owner Adopts Wild Mustang

Recipe for disaster? According to many, yes. But it's a scenario that gets played out over and over again.

She's never owned a horse before.

She visits the Wild Horse Corrals.

"That one's a pretty one."


You're cringing, aren't you? Admit it!

A few weeks ago I received an email from someone in the Puget Sound region asking if I'd be willing to take in her mare. She tells me the story; she visited the corrals, spotted the lovely buttermilk buckskin, and had to have her. The lovely mare was five years old...and bred, of course. The following spring this new to horses owner found herself with a black colt alongside the now six year old mare.

Of course, I've long advocated that an open mind and willingness to learn will get a newbie in the horse world farther than a closed minded person with 40 years of horsing around behind them. I asked a few questions, wondering just what I was going to be faced with. The mare had been ridden, but the owner was just to that spot where she couldn't really progress. The mare was a bit bracey, she said, and had gotten in a bit of a habit of racing off when they were cantering down a trail.

Well...okay. Let's see what we can do.

The owner came out to visit me and see where her pretty little mare would be living, and then said she'd like me to take both of her horses, if I could.

Well...okay, let's give it a try.

And so it came to pass that Jupiter, a pretty buttermilk buckskin mare (now 11 years old) and her black four year old son have come to live with me for a month in hopes of getting a bit of an education.

The first thing I'll tell you is that these two horses have exceeded my every expectation. They unloaded from the trailer just as nicely as any professionally trained horse would...or better. Their ground manners are impeccable and they respond willingly to each request to move this way or that.

The biggest hang up they've both got is a fear of ropes dragging around their legs. Being that I've got long split reins that hang down past the elbows, this simply will not do. So this is where we began our lessons.

In addition, Jupiter has never worn a bit. Stubborn, that sweet looking girl is! She clamps her teeth tight and refuses to let her muzzle be handled. Or at least, that was her plan. Persistence has paid off on my end. I just stand there at her head and refuse to give up, rubbing her muzzle and eventually slipping fingers inside her mouth. She threw her head around quite a bit at the thought of the bit, so I substituted her rope lead. Much softer on the teeth and surely safer for me when she began flinging her face into the air.

A few days of working without the bit and as of yesterday it's slipping in and out. She plays with it a lot, of course, as is only natural for any horse just introduced to a bit. I stood on her left side, lifted up the right rein and began playing with direct pressure, pulling her nose to the right until she began to turn around. Her hips slipped under my arm and her tail swished past my body as she followed the pressure of the rein, stopping when she found herself facing me.

She appeared a bit stiffer to the left than right, so I tied the left rein to the saddle. Not tight, just a bit of tension. The right rein was left loose so that she could tip her nose to the left easily.

This was not an exercise Jupiter liked, but as I walked away and behind her, she learned to follow and that giving to the pressure was easier than fighting it. Before long she was standing contentedly with her nose tipped just enough to avoid the pull, which is exactly what I wanted her to do.

Up until now, Jupiter's mom has ridden in one of those rope halters tied with a rope in mecate fashion. This is a great way to start a young horse, but one of the things Jupiter's mom wanted was support in transitioning to a bit. This is a smart, smart move on her part. An educated horse is one that will have more options in it's life. We can all say we'll keep our horses forever, but for some of us, forever for us isn't the life of the horse. We need to give them every opportunity to be successful in life should we find ourselves in a position of needing to rehome them.

Jupiter learned a lot today. I rode her with the bit and asked her to give to a pressure she's never felt before. At first she tried to avoid me, but we soon worked out the sticky gears and were trotting circles, giving to the bit, stopping nicely and even, just a little, bending around the leg. And on top of that, she wasn't frightened of the long reins slapping about her elbows and legs.