Horse trainer Erica Knight gives instructions to her students on proper display technique when in competition. The mustangs were taken from the wild only 90 days ago.
Marcus Larson/News-Register

Student Jo Smilove leads her Mustang, Mazie, over a blue tarp, an exercise designed to desensitize the once-wild horse to situations that once would have caused it to overreact.
Marcus Larson/News-Register

Prev Next Enlarge

Although she’d had a lot of experience with horses already, Jo Smilove wanted to work with one that had never known human contact. The new Oregon Teens and Mustangs program sounded perfect — it would pair the Carlton teen with a yearling filly from a wild herd.

Wild was right. When Jo received Mazie in late May, the young mustang was both frightened and frightening. The horse struck out at the strange human, and even kicked her in the head.

“I couldn’t even touch her or go near her — she would take off,” Jo recalled. To tell the truth, she said, “I didn’t like her much at first.”

But Jo, 13, had agreed to spend the summer gentling the filly. So she patiently sat in Mazie’s stall for hours, letting the horse become accustomed to her. When Mazie allowed her to get close, she petted her and talked to her, telling her everything would be OK.

Soon she was leading her around the barn and pasture at FitzGerald Farms in Yamhill, where the horse is boarded. Eventually, Jo even rested her weight on Mazie’s back and the filly seemed to like it.

Now, Mazie is tame as a puppy. “Now I can do anything with her — put a tarp over her, take her over bridges or around cones, sit on her,” Jo said.

And Jo is going to miss Mazie — a lot — when the filly is auctioned off following the public Teens and Mustangs show on Saturday, Sept. 5. She knows it will be a great thing for Mazie to have a permanent home, but still, it will be hard to say goodbye.

“I fell in love with her. I really love her now,” she said. “She’s going to be a really good horse.”

———

Jo is one of 15 youths participating in the first Oregon Teens and Mustangs program. Organized by Erica Knight, a Yamhill horse trainer, the program’s goal is to build teens’ horsemanship skills and to encourage the adoption of Oregon’s wild mustangs.

The horses involved in Oregon Teens and Mustangs come from the Alvord Tulle and Sheep’s Head regions of Oregon, which are part of the Oregon Bureau of Land Management’s wild mustang management program.

Mustang herds are common in Eastern Oregon and neighboring areas of Nevada. About 30,000 wild horses run in the two states.

The herds date back to the 19th century. Some are descendants of pony express horses; others came from work horses that were released by Depression-era farmers who no longer could feed them. Some show evidence of Spanish heritage, as well.

Most commonly, they are descended from sturdy horses that were bred for the U.S. Army.

The herds now are managed by the BLM, which culls some of the horses each year in order to keep the numbers from growing out of control. The BLM also monitors genetics and makes sure no in-breeding occurs.

“They make sure the horses are sound and healthy,” said Knight, who runs FitzGerald Farm with her husband, Josh FitzGerald.

The BLM offers mustangs for adoption, but there are many more horses available each year than adoptive families.
Knight and her husband became involved with mustangs several years ago when a friend approached them about training three Oregon mustangs that she had gentled. The trainers were reluctant at first.

“We had a bad perception of mustangs,” Knight recalled.

Their perception — which turned out to be a misconception — had come from seeing animal lovers adopt the wild horses from the BLM, but not understand how to give them the proper treatment.

“Novices think they’ll adopt them, rescue them, give them love and they will be beautiful,” Knight said. “But they’re wild as feral cats.”

Wild mustangs have a strong wariness of anything that can harm them — including humans. They must be given a great deal of attention and allowed the time they need to gradually come to trust their human owner.

After they worked with Robin’s mustangs, their friend convinced them to go one more step: participate in the “Extreme Mustang Makeover” program, which pairs 4- and 5-year-old mustangs with professional trainers. The trainers have 90 days to make them rideable.

Both Knight and her husband received mustangs fresh from wild herds to gentle and train. It was a challenge. “They were biting and kicking and striking. Their flight instinct is so strong,” Knight said.

She was bitten four times in the process, but she understood that her horse wasn’t biting with malice. “That mare taught me so much,” she said. “She taught me that these horses have an incredible ability of self-preservation. They’re savvy and smart.”

At the end of the 90 days, her mare — named Robin, after her friend — had a great temperament. In fact, Knight liked her so much, she bought the horse herself.

“A mustang doesn’t need you, nor necessarily want you. So to gain a wild horse’s trust ... that’s special,” she said. “Now my mare trusts me and is fully willing to do anything I ask.”

The experience also started Knight thinking about how she could incorporate mustangs into her lessons for kids, in addition to helping encourage the adoption of the wild horses. And that’s how she came to start “Oregon Teens and Mustangs.”

The program, supported by the Mustang Heritage Foundation, pairs young but experienced horsemen with yearling mustangs.
For this first year, she set out to match 12 teens with horses. But after receiving 25 applications, she ended up choosing 15.

All have worked with horses before in 4-H, FFA or at home. “We wanted to make sure they would be safe,” she explained.

As another measure of safety, she matched them with yearling fillies. The young horses are smaller and less aggressive than the 5-year-old mares and geldings that go to the professional trainers.

The fillies all are plain brown or bay. Knight said those colors are less likely to be adopted through regular programs than those with pretty markings or unusual colors.

Trask Ward was among the teens who received their horses at the end of May. His mustang, Brinley, wasn’t quite as temperamental as Jo’s Mazie.

“The first three days, I just fed her grass out of my hand. Then she started coming to me on her own,” the Carlton boy said.

At 13, Trask already had quite a bit of experience with horses. He rides the horse that belongs to him and his dad, and the family has three other horses, as well. He signed up for Teens and Mustangs to learn training skills.

“I like horses. We kind of connect,” he said. “I like them better than motors and stuff.”

Like other teens in the Teens and Mustangs program, Trask spent the summer gentling Brinley — getting the filly used to people and distractions and training her to walk on a lead. He also taught her to jump barrels and to lunge, running in a circle as he stood in the center, holding her rope. “Now as soon as I give her the signal, she goes,” he said.

Brinley has become a really nice horse, Trask said. “She has a really good mind. She does anything I ask her to do,” he said.

At a show on Saturday, Trask, Jo and other the teens will demonstrate what docile, trainable horses the mustangs have become. “Must of them have become like dogs: they’ll follow the kids around,” Knight said. “They’re not wild anymore. They act like they were born in captivity.”

The teens will show off their mustangs’ body condition, walk them through an obstacle course and compete in a showmanship category. The winner will receive a souvenir saddle, and first- through fifth-placers will win ribbons.

And immediately after the show, most of the mustangs will be auctioned off. Bidding will start at $25, Knight said.

Buyers can purchase the mustangs to be trained for riding or to keep as pets. Bidders need to be able to care for the horses, and have a place to board the horses or keep them in a well-fenced enclosure.

The teenage trainers get to keep proceeds from the auction, less the BLM’s $25 fee. Teens also received $200 at the start of the summer to pay for food and other expenses.

A few teens in the program plan to buy their mustangs themselves.

Any mustangs that aren’t purchased in the auction will be returned to the BLM. But Knight doesn’t want that to happen; she’s hoping all are adopted.

“I love the fact that these horses are getting homes. We’ll have saved 15 horses from being euthanized,” she said. “And I love that it’s teaching youth about mustangs and about horses in general.”