Sometimes horses, like people, need a leg up in life. That’s where Joe Misner comes in. Growing up in Alaska for much of his boyhood, the creator and director of the Wild2Ride Academy is no stranger to wild country. These days, in Missoula, Mont., he is offering the only wild horsemanship certification program of its kind anywhere in America.

While appearing as a panelist at the EQUUS International Film Festival four years ago in Billings, Mont., he heard about a horse facing a dire plight. The owner of a green-broke BLM Mustang was leaving town, and with winter just around the corner, he threatened to abandon the hapless colt in the mountain wilderness if someone didn’t come up with a better solution.

For a horseman who likes to live by the motto, “Come on and let me show you,” solutions are easy.

Misner was just starting to work with Melinda Corso and Montana Reins of Hope (MROH) when Janet Rose came to them for help. Rose was organizing a benefit for a local rescue, Horse Haven Montana, and told them how a foster option for the colt, Dante, had proved temporary.

“At that time, Montana Reins of Hope was still early in its formation,” says Corso. “Taking Dante in really solidified MROH’s commitment to the American Mustang.”

Horsemanship That Creates Second Chances

Creating second chances for wild spirits—both horse and human—is what Misner has been doing for the last decade. That has included connecting horses with high-risk youth; working with Wounded Warrior veterans and Mustangs; and offering Rio Cosumnes Correctional inmates in Sacramento, Calif., a certifiable skill after their incarceration while giving wild horses a chance to earn release from their own federal pens.

Misner discovered during his West Coast horsemanship clinics that people wanted to learn what he had to teach. But unless they went to jail, they weren’t finding his unique curriculum.

That’s how the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center Wild Horse Program, developed with the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department (one of only five such horse/inmate programs in the country), became the model for the curriculum now offered by Wild2Ride Academy at MROH.

Misner’s program in Sacramento County honed a successful wild horse gentling approach through retreat-pressure-release, which works with an untouched horse’s natural instincts. It also incorporates leadership horsemanship training for people, based on what he calls the five C’s: Calm, Confident, Caring, Clear and Consistent.

And Dante? As MROH’s first rescue horse and four-legged instructor, he has a forever home.

“Dante started it all,” says Corso, who has brought more than 25 years’ experience in children’s mental health and education to her role as Director at MROH. “We can make this world a better place for horses and humans through quality equine education programs that focus on building relationships with horses on a foundation of trust.”

That’s why Misner, considered one of the premier Mustang trainers in the country, is there.

Cross-Fit, Ranch-Style

A veteran of 16 Extreme Mustang Makeovers, with nine Top 10s, and 2014 NORCO Extreme Mustang Makeover champion (with Kenai), Misner has built a 90-day wild horsemanship certification course progressing through six levels.

After completion of a level, students earn a Wild2Ride Academy certificate. At the end of 90 days and all six levels, they are fully certified in the skills necessary to train wild horses.

The name, Wild2Ride, comes from Misner’s experiences in Mustang makeovers since the early days, and from firsthand experience.

“I’ve worked with ‘wild’ men and horses,” he says. “I’ve watched guys who have gone through lots of failures find something to feel passionate about in horses. Here, we teach from the ground up: with a pitchfork, cleaning stalls. I like to call it ‘ranch cross-fitness!’” All joking aside, the program has proven to be transformative for the living creatures that go through it.

“It’s life-changing for everyone,” says Misner. “You can get an organic transformation.”

Wild Horse to Rider Hours Ratio

It starts with his thought-provoking wild horse hours to rider hours ratio.

“Over a year, a horse runs wild for 8,760 hours,” says Misner. “In comparison, 90 days in training adds up to just 60 hours of human interaction.”

That’s 8,700 hours of wild left in an animal apt to behave more like a deer in horse clothing. Take for example a 14-hand, 3-year-old Mustang mare that Misner watched clear a 3-foot fence from a standstill as easily as any whitetail.

“Horsemanship with wild horses is a lot of oxymorons,” he says. “You learn to stay calm but are ready for chaos.”

His 90-day wild horsemanship certification program is also unique in its freedom from traditional semester formats. Applicants do not have to commit 90 days all at once. Like the training approach they hope to learn and apply to horses, students go through the program pressure-free, learning at their own pace.

“One of the most important things about this program is its flexibility,” Misner explains. “You can start any time. You can stop at any point and then come back for more. You can come for a week at a time.” For students learning how to relax a wild horse, it helps to show them they’re not under pressure either.

Riding Forward

Misner is excited to see more students scheduled to enter Wild2Ride Academy through the rest of this year. Two Academy graduates, Hayden Sunshine Kunhardt and John Sullivan (who left a job with the U.S. Forest Service to learn wild horsemanship), have come on board as full-time, paid assistants.

Misner estimates that since 2019, Wild2Ride Academy has seen two dozen burgeoning trainers enter the program and eight complete the full Academy, despite the pandemic.

“I know it sounds crazy, but COVID really got us going,” he says. “It’s been fantastic. People’s lives changed and more of them than ever want new and better connections.”

That’s on top of the hundreds of horses and inmates he estimates he has helped over his five years working with Sacramento County.

“My dad had a saying, ‘Aspire to inspire before you expire,’” he says.

It’s not something the quiet horseman brings up in casual conversation, but the courage and tenacity his own father displayed in life made an indelible imprint.

While born in Minnesota, 57-year-old Misner recalls how his father chose to take his family home to his own roots in Alaska. Misner was still a boy when his father, a heavy equipment operator, sustained a grievous spinal cord injury in an accident.

“My dad is my inspiration,” says Misner. “He was a veteran, and I saw what he went through as doctors held his spine together, as he went into rehabilitation to learn to walk again, and to hold his body upright. He showed me how you can do anything. To keep moving forward.”

A Horse Named Mohican

Another lesson about tenacity came from a “plain brown wrapper” of a Mustang, one of the last to go down the chute and into a BLM pen, who Joe nicknamed Mohican.

Reno, Nev., was where Misner was headed in 2009 to find his second Extreme Mustang Makeover project. He’d finished reserve champion with a horse named Laredo in the previous year’s Western States Mustang Challenge, and 16th nationally. Misner was feeling pretty good about his “formula” for training wild horses within limited timeframes as he stood along the pen watching a new herd of candidates emerge from a trailer.

But it got off to a horrific start. The horse he intended as his makeover candidate “ran right into the fence and broke its neck.”

Next to go was a 5-year-old gelding, taken from the wild a year previously and kept in a holding pen ever since, who was Misner’s resentful replacement. The horse was Mohican.

“He charged and grabbed my chest and front of my shirt as if to say, ‘I have four legs and teeth, and I’m not afraid to use them,’” recalls Misner. “‘Don’t tell me anything. Ask.’”

He had exactly 90 days to ask Mohican for a makeover and to travel from California to Texas to compete together.

For 59 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes, Mohican didn’t offer much progress. On Day 60, Misner mounted up and started riding in the round pen, but couldn’t get the horse that had once galloped free across the prairie to break into a trot.

“I tried one little spank,” he recalls. “He blew up, rolled over on me, and this time, told me if I ever tried that again he’d squash me like a bug.”

With not much progress to show for those last 30 days, Misner resolutely loaded Mohican and began the 1,200-mile trek to Fort Worth. If he was lucky, he imagined the recalcitrant Mustang would only humiliate and not hurt him in front of all those spectators in the Will Rogers Equestrian Center.

“I purposely entered the Intermediate division,” he says. “I wasn’t expecting much.”

Misner certainly wasn’t expecting what came next. If Mohican saw him as one terrible, two-legged predator, the Mustang’s eyes pretty much popped out of its head when he realized there were thousands of such predators outnumbering them in Fort Worth.

“He stayed glued to me,” Misner recalls.

Maybe it was Mohican’s “come to Jesus moment,” but it worked. Man and Mustang finished 8th nationally, while also performing a freestyle Misner could never have predicted with this horse: “It included jumping over a barrel while holding a flag in one hand!”

In the happiest of all endings, Mohican was purchased at the auction following the competition, raising money for the Mustang Heritage Foundation and finding a forever home.

“I told the woman who bought him that he was very … particular,” he says.

Roses From a Devil’s Garden

Horse Illustrated caught up with Misner the same day he was preparing to welcome five new U.S. Forest Service Devil’s Garden Mustang mares—with foals—to MROH.

Named for a 500-square-mile patch of dense brush and jagged stone so inhospitable only “the devil himself” would plant a garden there, the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory lies within Modoc National Forest outside of Alturas, Calif. According to the USDA and U.S. Forest Service, Devil’s Garden is the largest wild horse territory managed by the U.S. Forest Service in size and wild horse population.

“Devil’s Garden Mustangs have proven their adaptability, trainability and versatility since our first adoptions in 2018,” says Misner. “None of this would be possible without Reins of Hope and its 400 acres that house the facility and program. It couldn’t be done without them.”

It allows Misner and Wild2Ride to keep dreaming bigger and better, including filing for nonprofit 501(c)3 status and launching a fundraising campaign, because “we sure need a covered arena during these Montana winters.”

Mustangs need help, too.

“I know I can make a difference,” says Misner. “Mustangs gave me a master’s degree in empathy for horses, and for trying to do better, every day, with what I have to give.”

This September, Misner and his wife of 30 years, Missy, plan to compete a pair of 3-year-old BLM fillies in the Extreme Mustang Makeover in Fort Worth. A teacher for over 20 years, Missy is also curriculum co-creator of the Wild2Ride program.

“She’s been a huge inspiration in my evolution as a natural horseman,” says Misner. “Without her, I’d be a broken-up old bronc rider, for sure.”

Follow Joe and Missy, Wild2Ride, and the Devil’s Garden Mustangs at Montana Reins of Hope (available to forever homes after 90 days training) at www.montanareinsofhope.com and on Facebook @Wild2Ride and @MontanaReinsofHope.

This article about Joe Misner and his wild horsemanship certification program appeared in the October 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Joe Misner and His Wild Horsemanship Certification Program appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Run by the Mustang Heritage Foundation, the “makeover challenge,” as it’s known by many, launched in 2007 in Fort Worth, Texas. Since then, more than 16,000 Mustangs have been trained, adopted, and auctioned off to individuals across the country.

In 2019, Courtney Jo Wexler, a 28-year-old horse trainer and North Carolina native, won the Extreme Mustang Makeover in Lexington, Ky., and found a whole new life in the process.

Also Read: Norco Extreme Mustang Trail Challenge Raises the Bar

Ready for a New Challenge

Wexler has been on the back of a horse since she was 3 years old. A certified riding instructor through the American Riding Instructors Association, she’s also been training horses for the last 15 years and has done numerous equestrian disciplines.

For the past five years, she has managed a small barn in Williamston, a town near Raleigh, N.C., where she grew up. There, she led a riding lesson program for kids. Despite the satisfying work, Wexler was burned out and felt lost.

When her best friend, Carey Stewart, first said she was participating in the 2019 EMM and suggested they do it together, Wexler refused. But after careful research, she submitted her application to compete—just one hour before the deadline.

Her assigned mount was one of the youngest horses in the competition. Kayah seemed gentle and easygoing, although territorial. After picking her up, Wexler convinced herself that she wouldn’t get attached to Kayah. She’d compete in the makeover, her Mustang would be auctioned off, and they’d say goodbye.

The next morning, Wexler groomed Kayah’s mane and described how they would compete in the makeover in June. As she told Kayah about the auction at the end of the event, Kayah exhaled deeply and nuzzled Wexler. She started to cry.

100 Days of Training

“Some trainers felt comfortable enough to put first rides on their Mustangs early,” says Wexler. “I wanted to develop a deeper connection and understanding between Kayah and myself before I got on her back.”

On the fourth day, Kayah got a bath. As Wexler washed the mud from her body, Kayah nickered toward her and nuzzled her nose into Wexler’s neck. Wexler helped relax Kayah’s muscles using pulsed electromagnetic field therapy.

Ten days into training, a saddle was placed on Kayah for her first ride. A week later, on Kayah’s fourth ride, the pair participated in their first horse show, put on by the Inter-County Saddle Club in Edenton, N.C. When they were named champions of the ranch division, Wexler thought they might have something special.

“At this point, I became dead set on putting everything I had into this horse,” Wexler recalls. “For the next three months, Kayah and I participated in every event I could find. We were together every weekend for horse shows, trail rides, or clinics.”

She and Jesse Chase, an accomplished reining trainer who has worked with Mustangs before, helped them fine-tune Kayah’s circles, spins and steering.

“As Kayah became more gentled, I let kids touch her at training camps,” says Wexler. “We also visited barns to discuss the Mustang breed and the makeover challenge with the public.”

Competing in the Makeover

After hundreds of hours of training, Wexler, Stewart, and 33 out of the original 70 trainers arrived in Lexington, Ky., for the EMM. After two days of competing, Wexler had won 9th in ground handling and conditioning, 2nd in maneuvers, and 1st in trail.

She had the most points of any competitor in their first Mustang event, so she also won Rookie of the Year. Stewart placed 12th and joined Wexler’s friends in the stands to watch the freestyle routines.

When Wexler made it to the top 10, she realized that she hadn’t prepared a freestyle performance. She had no props, song or outfit. Competitors rushed in to help. One of the volunteers was named Justin. He had come to watch the competition with his father, who owned and trained Mustangs.

“Justin and his dad were so kind,” says Wexler. “Justin held himself so well and that drew me in. He also had one of the best smiles, and every time he looked at me, it caught my breath.”

Impromptu Freestyle

Wexler choreographed her freestyle routine only two hours before the performance. Her routine had none of the tricks that other riders had built into their routines.

To start the routine, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” blared through the speakers.
Wexler and Kayah, who was wearing a large tarp, walked toward the center of the arena. Wexler stripped off the tarp and mounted Kayah as the crowd cheered. Kayah traversed a bridge and then sidepassed poles.

Wexler used a pole to pick up another tarp and dragged it behind Kayah. Then the pair maneuvered around a 3-foot inflatable ball, followed by a 5-foot ball, which Kayah then pushed around with her nose. They trotted over a final jump and sprinted to the center as the song ended. It was enough to secure the win.

But Kayah was scheduled to be the first horse auctioned off.

“Not even five minutes after I had won the makeover, I was holding a paddle in the air and bidding on Kayah,” says Wexler, who used the $4,000 she’d won as the makeover champion to buy her horse back.

Finding Two Loves

A few weeks later, she and Justin began dating. In 2020, Wexler moved to central North Carolina to be closer to her family before moving to Louisiana to live with Justin.

She completed her bachelor’s in business administration—the first in her family to earn a college degree—and now runs her business, Absolute Pulse Therapy, which offers PEMF to speed recovery in injured horses and people.

Kayah and Wexler have been giving lessons and offering demos to promote the American Mustang, which Wexler calls “America’s horse.”

“Competing in the Makeover Challenge was my destiny,” says Wexler. “I was supposed to take part in it. I was supposed to find Kayah. To meet Justin. The real star in this story is Kayah, though. I wish she could tell everyone her side of the story.”

This article about one Extreme Mustang Makeover trainer’s experience originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Lloyd Hayden, who is a double amputee, has been able to ride his Percheron-Friesian cross gelding, Bo, in the fields around his farm. For Cathy Florman, riding Heffner’s Mustang, Grace, gave her a wonderful escape from debilitating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) symptoms.

Building a Foundation

Heffner grew up on a horse training farm in New Jersey. Passionate about horses, she started taking lessons at age 7 and got her first horse at age 9.

“I would ride all summer and learn how to ride all different types of horses,” says Heffner. “That was probably the best education I could have gotten—learning that every horse is different.”

Heffner learned from Dottie Orzechowski how to ride in a variety of disciplines, “learning something well before you skip to the next thing.” She’s done everything from western and English pleasure to barrel racing, pole bending, team penning and other events—many of them on her horse, Clay.

“I try to stay really well-rounded,” Heffner says.

When she moved to Indiana in 1996 at age 20, she immediately got plugged in with horse people, starting with a woman named Sandy Blackburn. Blackburn was pregnant and needed someone to get her horses ready for a youth to show at the local 4-H fair. Heffner was able to get the horse prepared, and it was the start of a great training relationship, as well as friendship.

Blackburn helped Heffner buy her first small property, and the former massage therapist soon started her horse training business. She has since moved to a bigger equine facility, called Double H Horse Farm.

Mustang Makeovers

In 2008, Heffner learned about Extreme Mustang Makeover events. Horsemen take an untrained Mustang, and within 100 days, train the horse to ride, go over trail courses, and load in a trailer. The top 10 finishers also perform reining maneuvers and a freestyle. Heffner was intrigued and saw it as a great way to promote her colt-starting training.

Heffner has now done three Mustang Makeovers. The mare she worked with for her second event in 2012 was Grace, who placed fourth. Thanks to the mare’s talent and temperament, Heffner says Grace is her training ambassador.

“She does all kinds of tricks,” Heffner says. “She’s done western, English, barrels and poles. She has been in my house—she’s just amazing. I trust her with a lot of things. She performs at liberty, too. She’s taught me a lot.”

Special Training Leads to Healing with Horses

Drawing on skills she gained as a massage therapist, Heffner’s intuition has helped her sense when a human or an animal is in pain—and help them find healing together.

“With horses, I can look in their eye or see the way they’re moving and try to fill in the holes of their backstory,” she says. “I can see when something isn’t right. It’s been a learning process. I used to think training maneuvers had to work if done right; now I know a horse has to be able to do them physically, just like we can’t all be gymnasts.”

Heffner believes groundwork and a good foundation set a horse up for success under saddle. Grace is a great example of the kinds of horses Heffner enjoys bringing along in her program.

“The horse has to be kind and forgiving, and gentle,” she says. “I’m not saying my Mustang doesn’t make mistakes, but if she knows that I’m calm too, she’ll stay that way.”

Because of her experiences with the Extreme Mustang Makeover, Heffner also trains Mustangs and burros for the Bureau of Land Management.

“Through the makeovers, I saw what great horses the Mustangs really are, and how they need their stories to be told,” she adds.

Back in the Saddle

Lloyd Hayden has ridden horses and farmed all his life. After retiring from ironworking, for the last decade, he has managed his farm in Thornton, Ind. 

In October 2018, he lost both his legs below the knees in a combine harvester accident. But the loss has not kept Hayden from caring for his land—or from riding. He’s able to walk on his knees and use track vehicles around the farm. And by the following spring, he was back in the saddle, regularly trail riding in his fields or nearby state parks with his wife, Sue.

The Haydens raise Friesians and Friesian crosses. Four-year-old Percheron/Friesian Bo was bred and raised on their farm, and the couple trained him to ride prior to Hayden’s accident. He’s been able to ride Bo, but would need to get on from the bed of a truck, and it was difficult.

Knowing she’d taught Grace to lie down on command during the Extreme Mustang Makeover, Heffner was approached about training Bo to do the same thing. Because every horse is different, Heffner did not give a timeline and said the maneuver couldn’t be forced. 

It was a challenge for both horse and rider over 30 days of consistent training. Bo went home with the Haydens as they continued to practice, trying to get the mechanics right. Heffner worked with Bo a few more days, and finally, he was ready. She says the key is doing the maneuver in soft arena dirt.

“It’s a very vulnerable position for a horse to be in,” Heffner says. 

Heffner began training horses to lie down on command after watching John Lyons training videos; he told a story of how he taught his horse to lie down after breaking his leg on the trail when he couldn’t get back on. She thought it would be a neat trick—she didn’t realize it would be so helpful in allowing healing with horses.

“I always remember that story and how this skill may come in handy,” says Heffner. “Lying down has been mostly a novelty until now.”

Hayden says Bo’s new skill has made riding much more convenient.

“We’re thankful she did that for us, and we really enjoy riding,” he says. “[Bo lying down on command] really makes things easier for me.”

Amazing Grace 

Cathy Florman grew up on a farm and owned her own horse as a teenager. She got back into horses when her daughter, Rachel Griffin, became interested as a child, and last rode about six years ago. Griffin is a lifetime horsewoman and has taken lessons from Heffner in the past. 

When Florman began declining after her diagnosis with ALS—a progressive disease affecting the nervous system—Allison Sherrill, a Florman family friend and Heffner’s best friend, suggested a riding opportunity for Florman. Talking through mobility challenges (ALS depletes muscle strength and other important functions), Heffner knew that Grace’s ability to lie down and stand up on command would be essential.

“We made sure that [Cathy’s] head was safe, and we were supporting her,” Heffner says. “Once she was on, she couldn’t believe how much more mobile she felt than when she was walking on the ground. She had the greatest time.”

With Grace able to lay down, the last barrier to Florman being able to ride was removed.

“It was a great joy to go to the barn and see the horses,” says Florman. “It was so precious to me to be able to ride. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know I would be able to do it, and I didn’t know how wonderful it would be to ride.”

Once in the saddle, Florman remembered her years of riding and felt renewed, despite her debilitating illness.

“She just had that easy, familiar rhythm from walking,” Florman says of riding Grace. “There’s nothing that moves your body so naturally like moving with a horse. Before I got sick, one of my greatest pleasures was riding a horse. So being back [in the saddle], it felt normal. Like I wasn’t sick anymore. I could sit up taller. I could do it, just like I used to.”

Florman says her experience was truly life-changing.

“Something happens when you get on the back of a horse,” she continues. “Anybody that rides knows this. If you’ve had a bad day and you go ride, it transports you away from those problems. It’s just you and the horse at the rhythm of the walk. There’s something transformative about that.”

While she was on Grace, with Heffner and Sherrill beside her, Griffin rode another horse, and mother and daughter enjoyed each other’s company as they rode together.

“It was really nice to be above the ground, above my problems, riding beside Rachel, just walking and talking,” Florman says. “It was like life was how I wanted it to be.”

Dismounting was also a challenge, but Grace was up for it. Florman says Heffner’s calm personality helped her feel safe during the process. 

Florman also says training a horse to perform these maneuvers is an incredible gift for a disabled rider that can enable healing with horses.

“Teaching your horse to do this is one of the most loving and kind things you can do—it’s very much appreciated,” Florman adds. “There was no other way for me to be able to get on the horse. I am so grateful.”

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The Mustang Heritage Foundation (MHF)’s virtual 2021 Kentucky Extreme Mustang Makeover concluded on Sunday, June 27, after five days of exciting performances and a successful auction. Originally slated to be held in Lexington, Ky., the event’s virtual format brought the action-packed excitement to Mustang fans and horse lovers from around the world.

Adult and youth competitors showed the trust they had built with previously untouched wild horses in approximately 100 days of training by submitting videos of their performances. Complete class videos, which are available to view online free of charge, were scored by a panel of judges to determine who would take home top honors and more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.

Katie Ketterhagen of May, Texas, earned the 2021 KY Extreme Mustang Makeover Champion title for her work with Like a Champ, a 4-year-old gelding gathered from Little Owyhee. Ketterhagen and Champ also received the horsemanship award for highest combined score in the preliminary classes and the overall champion title.

Isidro Espinoza of Concho, Ariz., claimed the reserve champion title with Pelos, a 4-year-old gelding gathered from Devil’s Garden Plateau, and Cat Zimmerman of Archer, Florida, earned the horsemanship reserve placing with Stitch, a 4-year-old gelding gathered from Paisley Desert.

In the Youth portion of the event, Dixie Marrese of Munfordville, Ky., took top honors as the Youth Champion with her 2-year-old gelding Smudge, who was gathered from Frisco. Receiving the youth reserve champion title was Maleah Redmann of Athens, Wisc., who trained Tally Mark, a 2-year-old mare gathered from Antelope Valley.

Find complete results and watch class videos online at www.mustangheritagefoundation.org/watch-ky.

In addition to the competition in the 2021 Kentucky Extreme Mustang Makeover, competing adult horses were available to approved bidders in an online auction hosted by Champion Horse Sales. The high seller, a 4-year-old bay gelding named Pelos, sold for more than $22,000, and the sale average was more than $9,000 per lot. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each horse goes back to the horse’s trainer, while the rest helps the Mustang Heritage Foundation achieve its mission of helping Mustangs find loving, permanent homes through events like this Extreme Mustang Makeover.

Extreme Mustang Makeover events are produced by the Mustang Heritage Foundation, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild Horse & Burro Program, to showcase the versatility and trainability of the American Mustang. The Mustang Heritage Foundation is dedicated to facilitating successful placements for America’s excess wild Mustangs and burros through innovative programs, events and education. For more information, visit www.mustangheritagefoundation.org.

The BLM removes wild horses and burros from public lands to ensure a healthy balance of land and animals. Since 1971, the BLM has placed more than 250,000 wild horses and burros into good homes nationwide. Partnerships, like the Mustang Heritage Foundation, provide the BLM with additional opportunities to place animals into good homes. Interested applicants can attend BLM offsite adoption/sales event, visit a BLM Off-Range Corral, or participate in an online adoption/sales event to apply to take a wild horse or burro home! To learn more about the Wild Horse and Burro Program, please call 866-468-7826 or visit www.BLM.GOV/whb.

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Proud, majestic and—most of all—free. These are the characteristics people cherish about the American Mustang, the wild horse that has lived off the land in North America for centuries.

Although equines originally lived on the continent, horses had become extinct here by the time Spanish explorers arrived on the shores of the New World in the 16th century. The ancestors of today’s horse had traveled across the Bering Land Bridge into Asia, where they thrived.

When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas on his second expedition, he had
horses with him. These Iberian-bred horses were the first of their kind to set foot on the continent since the species had disappeared in the Americas thousands of years ago. 

Within 200 years, the horses had flourished on the North American continent with the help of the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest. Responsible for caring for the Spaniards’ horses, the Pueblo people secretly learned how to ride. 

When the Spaniards were expelled from the Southwest during the Pueblo Revolt, many of the horses remained. The Pueblo tribes became adept horsemen, and over time, horses spread north to the Plains tribes and those in the Pacific Northwest. By the 1800s, Native Americans throughout the West had made the horse an integral part of their culture. 

As the horse spread through North America, individual animals escaped into the wild. By the 1800s, the mountains, deserts and prairies were full of feral horses, all descendants of the original Spanish mounts brought to the New World.

The Mustang Today

The descendants of these great Spanish herds, along with thousands of horses that escaped or were set loose during the 1800s, still roam free in the American West. Once the victims of people who rounded them up for slaughter, today’s wild horses are protected by the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses & Burro Act. That law charged the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with the management of the wild herds.

In order to manage the number of wild horses living on 26.9 million acres of federal land across 10 western states, the BLM conducts regular roundups within 177 herd management areas. These horses are put up for adoption to the public through the Wild Horse & Burro Program.

Anyone can adopt a wild horse as long as the adopter meets certain qualifications. You must be at least 18 years of age, must be able to provide a minimum 400 square-foot (20′ x 20′) enclosure per horse, and be able to prove you can provide adequate feed, water, facilities and humane care.

Since the wild horse adoption program began in 1971, approximately 245,000 Mustangs have been adopted out to new homes. While most of these horses have been enjoyed as trail mounts, recreational riding horses and companions around the country, many have gone on to successfully compete in a number of different disciplines, including dressage, eventing, gymkhana, cow work and more.

Mustang Makeovers

To help promote the reality that adopted wild horses make great mounts, the Mustang Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organization developed to help increase the number of successful BLM wild horse adoptions, started the Mustang Makeover project in 2006. 

The first Extreme Mustang Makeover event was held in Fort Worth, Texas, featuring 100 horse trainers and 100 previously wild Mustangs. The trainers were given 100 days to gentle and train their Mustangs then showcase what the horse had learned at the Fort Worth event. The horses were then auctioned off to adopters.

The event was a huge success. Since the first Mustang Makeover, such events have been held in 15 different states, showcasing the talents of adoptable wild Mustangs before thousands of horse lovers. The Mustang Heritage Foundation has since added youth, veteran and trainer incentive programs to help promote adoptions. 

In 2013, the Mustang Heritage Foundation held the Mustang Million event in Fort Worth, featuring $1 million in prize money for the training of BLM mustangs. Trainers and adopters were able to select and adopt the Mustang of their choice from one of seven adoption auctions around the country. 

Trainers had just over 120 days to prepare the horse for classes and divisions of their choice. When it was all over, 562 Mustangs, yearlings to age 6, were placed into adoptive homes through the Mustang Million. 

Today, the Mustang Heritage Foundation continues to promote the training and adoption of wild horses through its various programs. So far, nearly 10,000 Mustangs have found homes through the organization.

Mustangs have a rich heritage; their ancestors were Spanish war mounts, homesteader workhorses and Native American ponies. They helped tame the Wild West and are living symbols of America’s romantic past. A product of their natural environment, they are also incredibly hardy and rugged, with tremendous endurance and an instinctive intelligence. These traits all add up to an extraordinary equine companion, no matter your discipline or sport. 

AMERICAN MUSTANG FAST FACTS

Height: Predominantly 14 to 15.3 hands; some individuals shorter or taller.
Color: Any horse colors and patterns are acceptable.
Overall Appearance: American Mustangs have different body types, depending on their ancestry. Heavy draft horse build, compact Spanish type, and well-muscled Quarter Horse types are all seen. 

ASSOCIATIONS

Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse & Burro Program
www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro

Mustang Heritage Foundation
www.mustangheritagefoundation.org

North American Mustang Association & Registry
www.namarmustangs.com

U.S. Wild Horse & Burro Association
www.uswhba.org

American Mustang & Burro Association
www.ambainc.net

 AUDREY PAVIA is a freelance writer and the author of Horses for Dummies.

This article originally appeared in the July 2019 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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