Interview with Todd Linder Continued
Todd: A couple years later we ended up buying a 2-year-old mustang gelding who had a halter on him a few times. We continued his training and soon decided to try getting a horse straight from the BLM. On the Online Corral auction in January, we bought a 4-year-old gelding and a 2-year-old filly. We did some training with both and ended up selling the filly after she was halter trained and titled. We still have the gelding, and he is my daughter’s favorite riding horse.
Last April we went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to pick up a filly that we had bought on auction for my daughter to train and sell. While we were there, we were looking for a second horse, planning on bringing home a big gelding if we could find one. As we searched through the available horses a big sorrel mare looked up and locked eyes with my wife. Her eyes are so intelligent and gentle, and she is a big, gorgeous mare. My daughter saw her separately and thought she was beautiful and well put together. Long story short, the whole family fell in love with Ruby and we brought her home. She was the tallest mare in the group of horses she was with and when we saw her, we knew she was the mare we wanted. Ruby is the fifth of seven mustangs that we have adopted. There was a lot of color when we found Ruby, and everyone was focusing on those and missing animals like her that are beautiful and have an intelligent face.
After we brought Ruby home, we started training pretty quickly. She was a bit standoffish at first but after my wife petted her neck one day she completely relaxed. We could touch her and halter and lead her with almost zero trouble. Ruby's biggest problem we encountered in training was that when we first started lunging she would rear a bit. She rarely spooks at new things but is more inclined to stop and stare at whatever attracted her interest. There have been very few things in training that have rattled Ruby. She is a calm and intelligent mare who absorbs her training very well. We rarely must teach her something twice.
Wild mustang owner Todd Linder shows off his well-worn Piceance Mustangs hat.
We are gladly going to send him a new one. Thanks Todd for sharing your experiences with us.
Jeanne: In my limited experience, I found that there was more need for desensitizing with my mustang, whereas with domestic horses, there might be proportionately more sensitizing exercises needed. Did you find this to be the case? Were there certain things they found more frightening than others?
Todd: One thing that we have noticed is that the mustangs have tended to be much more aware of their surroundings and less jumpy in general than the domestic horses. They tend to plant their feet, and it seems like they are actively trying to figure out what is going on, safe-not safe.
Within the first several weeks Ruby was eating hay, and we were walking our milk cow in for the night past Ruby and up came her head as soon as she noticed the cow, hay hanging out of both sides of her mouth with an astounded look on her face. She watched us walk in the cow the entire time. We were laughing at her the whole way.
Our biggest struggle with the mustangs has been getting that initial contact. It takes a while to get them relaxed to the point of touch. But we find that after you get that things go faster. Ruby seems very smart. The biggest problem we have with her, and other mustangs, is getting their feet moving. They do like to go but will plant their feet with stubbornness. They can be very intimidating animals when you are first starting them.
Jeanne: What are some of the unique qualities of your horse? Does she have any specific limitations in her acceptance of new things?
Todd: We have found with all of our mustangs, we have worked seven so far, that they seem to need desensitizing in different ways depending on the mustang. They all seem to have at least one thing that they really need to work on. One was a belly band, another tended to spook and sidestep a lot. Ruby seems to lock her feet and refuses to move. We find talking to them with a lively and lite joy pitch and cadence seems to help them work through things.
Jeanne: Have you been able to put her at ease; and if so, how did you do it?
Todd: Ruby would toss her head and do some rearing when we first started working with her and that is quite the sight when you are in front of a 15-hand mustang who is now high above your head. But with steady work she has stopped doing that. She has been saddled a few times and ridden twice now. She is one of the calmest horses we have worked on, very smart and stable. We are excited to see how she does going forward.
We do a lot of "12-year-old girl training" where we just go out for a while each day and just talk to them and be around them. That starts to get them interested in meeting us. Also, we have our mustangs right in the middle of our ranch and we are busy so they get to watch and experience everything that is happening on a day to day basis. With all of that we find that they seem to take to new things and ideas.
Of the seven we have had there has been one mare that has really been a struggle. We got her to halter broke and then sent her to a new home. She always acted like she wanted to run you over. We have tried really hard since her to observe the horses in the corral for a while when looking for a horse. Observe how they move and interact with the other horses.
Our advice for those thinking about getting a mustang is this: Read all the books you can and try to learn how they communicate. Observe how they interact. Don't get distracted by color.
Please know that you are going to get discouraged at times. Be willing to walk away for a day or two. Give yourself time. Going slow will build trust and friendship with your horse that you won't find elsewhere.