Here’s Blanca, the bestest, fluffiest, toughest and cutest old mare, putting up with a young Mustang, DG Petrie, while getting a job done.
Petrie is a coming 3yo filly out of last year’s load of Devil’s Garden Mustangs from the Double Devil Wild Horse Corrals. We’re currently working on the new load… We’re only a teeny tiny bit excited
The last few nights when I was out feeding and checking on the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador herd (minus Lacy, who’s still on sick leave), I was thinking about how much more there is to really getting a Mustang acclimated to living in our world than just gentling or what we might consider basic handling.
There are so many firsts for them, so many things we take for granted in domestics – who often get handled from birth, getting used to humans, their pets and kids, the many weird objects humans keep around and the goofy things they do – that a wild born horse has never seen, heard, smelled, felt or experienced before.
In addition to that, habituation takes practice. Good, effective practice and useful repetition. That’s something I have to remind myself of over and over after turning a newly gentled Mustang out with the herd.
It’s easy to treat that horse as “one of the grown-ups” when in reality they are still so, so green and will forget how to be caught, how to pick up their feet etc if we let them sit and forget to practice because the horse has already graduated basic training.
They also need to learn to be alone with us, which is why I take Petrie, who thankfully is pretty independent, on walks without the other horses. Of course I’d like to just pony her because it’s fun, but I want her to be looking to me, not the other horse, for guidance and direction, so that when the time comes I’ll have a partner that’s confident riding out alone.
Here’s some food for thought: Imagine getting abducted by aliens and taken to Mars. You get put in a classroom, alone or with a small number of other humans, and for the next 4 to 8 weeks you stay in that room or building, learning a few words of Martian, getting used to how your teachers look, talk, dress and move, and to the objects that are in that building.
After that they kick you out into Martian society that’s full of stuff you never saw in your first few weeks, and expect you to know your way around with your limited vocabulary and exposure to all things Martian. You finally meet some humans again, who happen to speak your language, so you’re at least relieved to have that and you don’t worry so much for a while although you still find your surroundings rather unfamiliar and strange.
Then after another few weeks, the Martians pick you up out of your group and take you to a different building, again with different objects, and expect you to understand them after not having practiced what little bit of Martian you did know, and to go to work doing something that’s not making any sense to you.
You watch them get frustrated while you’re totally overwhelmed with the sights and sounds around you, you miss your fellow humans and are desperately trying to remember what Martian you did know so you can maybe get an idea of what they want from you.
That doesn’t sound fun now, does it? That’s probably about how our Mustangs feel if we don’t give them the consistent attention, understanding, time and exposure required to facilitate a successful and seamless transition into living in our world.
That’s also why there are so many project Mustangs looking for new homes and hardly any really seasoned, well adjusted ones.
Once they do get comfortable with their new life and have had lots of practice with all that’s expected of them, most can eventually be treated like a domestic in that they will stay ‘tame’ and ‘broke’ even if they sit for a few weeks.
But the first several months or couple of years, depending on how much time you spend with your wild one(s) and how much of our world you’re able to show them during that time, you want to be prepared to support your once wild horse if you want them to be successful and become the partner you envision.
