Equine Behavior Issues

Extreme Mustang Makeover Win Goes to Deacon

Written by Edited Press Release

Win garners a $2,500 paycheck

Georgetown, TX - It’s the quiet ones you’ve got to watch out for. The Deacon, a well-made American Mustang trained by Gary Wedemeyer of Winton, CA, seemed to come out of nowhere to preach a sermon on the talents of a wild horse with 90 days training. It was a sermon one could believe in as the five-year-old gelding went on to take the win in the $9,000 Extreme Mustang Makeover Trail Challenge in Norco, CA.

Mustangs Adopted, Headed for Extreme Makeover

Written by Edited Press Release

Georgetown TX – The Mustang Heritage Foundation (MHF) placed 108 six-year-old mustangs with adoptive horsepeople April 24. Drew Olsen of Georgia claimed the high-adopting mustang, a bay gelding, for $3,700. Cindy Branham of Kansas came in close behind taking a striking buckskin gelding for $3,500.

The adoption was carried live on RFD-TV through Superior Livestock Productions in Fort Worth and the bidder lines were smoking.

Adopters for the event were pre-approved for their chance to claim one of the wild horses and for their chance to enter the $100,000 Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover August 13-14 in Fort Worth, Texas, where $50,000 is guaranteed to the winner.

It's Not the Bit

Written by Ryan Gingerich, The Behaviorist

Question:
I am an English rider and I ride with the local foxhunting club. My horse is a sweetheart and does not buck or do any bad things,

Noninvasive and Loving Approach to Imprinting

Written by Liz Mitten Ryan

De-sensitization and imprinting, crucial to efficient handling of our horses, are found in every trainer’s tool box. From a human perspective, interaction with horses is safer and less stressful when horses have been imprinted and/or desensitized. Are our horses enjoying the relationship, or are they simply dead to the stimulus?

Imprinting can be loving and helpful rather than disruptive and invasive. Harsh imprinting methods advise taking the foal away from its mother at birth and performing a series of extreme de-sensitizing exercises designed to deaden the foal’s reaction to simple procedures, including trimming and shoeing by tapping the soles of its feet hundreds of times, and veterinary treatment by inserting fingers in all orifices.

All of this forms the foal’s first impression of the world while its mother is restrained and not allowed to welcome her own baby.

Tips to Change "Jigging" Behavior

Written by Ryan Gingerich

How many of you have cursed under your breath, or sworn so loudly that the next county can hear you — when your horse starts jigging and it feels like you’re riding a rocket that’s about ready to explode? Here’s an explanation of that behavior and how you can change it.

Buck or Run: Which is Your Horse More Likely to Do?

Written by Madalyn Ward, DVM

When your horse panics, is he more likely to buck or run? Can you tell? If so, you can better prepare yourself to deal with it. What about if you have a new horse; how can you determine whether he is more likely to buck or run ... before it happens?