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AOWHA Special FeatureToo Old to be Adoptable?By Willis LammWe don't often get to study the "adoptability" of older BLM mustangs. There is a prevailing notion that the public doesn't want to adopt mature horses and therefore older horses are typically held back from public adoptions. This policy, in turn, has generated a perspective that older horses are inherently unadoptable. Nothing could be further from the truth.While one may not be able to easily intimidate and "cowboy" a mature wild horse, these animals certainly are trainable, are physically mature, are clear headed and oftentimes learn faster and are more reliable than their younger counterparts. Our experience is based on Virginia Range mustangs. These animals live on the opposite side of the Carson River from the BLM horses. In fact some bands migrate across the river and it's impossible to tell whether they are BLM or nevada Dept. of Agriculture horses. Their main differences involve which agency actually traps the animals and the fact that the Nevada Dept. of Agriculture doesn't usually cull older horses from the adoption stream. Our example horse is Chancellor, estimated by the State to be ten years of age at capture. He was the "boss hoss" in the stud corral and he retained those characteristics after being gelded. Back then he was called "Simon" because whatever Simon said, the other horses did. Other folks called him "Spike" since he was such a tough guy. This horse was adopted by Kristi Fish, a first time adopter and horse owner who had minimal prior horse experience. By following proven practices for gentling and training older horses, and by taking advantage of help from volunteer Wild Horse Mentors, Kristi had Chancellor gentled and under saddle in about six weeks. |
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Kristi is currently training Chancellor to be a Civil War reenactment horse. He has been exposed to musket fire and some of the other distractions of battle reenactments.
Chancellor is not unusual. Since his training was documented we have a pretty complete case study. Furthermore plus his adopter used approaches that were appropriate for an "older" horse. Chancellor is well adjusted to domestic life, likes to interact with humans and other horses, and is a contributor to the local agricultural economy. To view Chancellor's complete case study from being wild to becoming a saddle horse, please click here. |
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