Wild mustang mare Telluride and trainer Kari Crawford in the third week of training. The mares trust so early in the training process surprised and impressed Crawford.

For 100 days, I had the honor and privilege to build a relationship with Telluride, a wild mustang captured from the Nevada desert. This was part of the Midwest Mustang Challenge, held in conjunction with the Midwest Horse Fair in Madison, Wisconsin. The purpose of the Challenge is to showcase the beauty, versatility, and trainability of the American mustang, and to increase adoptions.

Last January, 60 wild mustangs went from a holding pen at the Bureau of Land Management wild horse facility in Ewing, Illinois, to the hands of 60 trainers from around the country. Each trainer received a mustang selected by a random drawing from a pool of 30 mares and 30 geldings, then was given 100 days to train the horse.

I met my new mustang partner on January 9, 2008. She was a 4-year-old bay mare captured from northern Nevada’s Twin Peaks Herd Management Area. I christened her Telluride to reflect my Colorado pride; I own a horse-training business in Parker.

Shes progressing more quickly than any other wild mustang that Ive started, Kari Crawford logs the second week of training (shown). By Day 10, shes accepting the saddle, bridle, and my sitting on her back and scratching her.

In my 20 years of experience as a professional trainer, I’ve worked with a number of wild mustangs. My gentle, relationship-based methods respect each horse’s individuality, and allow each to progress at his own rate. My threefold goal in participating in this event was to help give one mustang the opportunity for a better future, to help the Challenge achieve its goals, and to promote my training business.

I had no intention of being the "world’s fastest horse trainer." Rather, I hoped to demonstrate a trust-based relationship between a wild mustang and her trustworthy, respected human partner.

As training is my full-time profession, my work with Telluride was done in addition to training client horses. With the limitation of winter daylight, this meant that I was generally able to work with Telluride approximately an hour each day.

During the fifth week of training, Kari Crawford took Telluride on her first solo trail ride.

Here are the highlights and challenges of our three months together.

Week 1
Telluride is loaded in the trailer. I’m struck by how self-possessed and quiet she is as I pet and scratch her through the bars of the trailer gate. With the help of my gelding, who quickly became Tell’s new best friend, the mustang goes from being untouchable to my being able to approach, catch, and halter her in the pasture.

Week 2
Each horse is an individual and will progress at a different rate. Telluride continues to surprise and impress me with her decision to trust me so early in our relationship. She’s progressing more quickly than any other wild mustang that I’ve started. By Day 10, she’s accepting the saddle, bridle, and my sitting on her back and scratching her.

Week 3
Telluride and I are riding in the arena at the walk and the trot, and walking over and under a tarp. She’s accepting electric clippers. The significance of beginning this process in January without an indoor arena is beginning to hit me. The cold temperatures and knee-deep snow are a bit limiting.

Week 4
I’m pleasantly surprised by Telluride’s ability to retain concepts after just one exposure. While some of our domestic horses were still rolling their eyes at the tarp and clippers, Tell accepted them after just one confidence-building session.

Week 5
Telluride and I go on our first solo trail ride! Prior to this, I’d only taken her on trail walks, with me leading. She continues to impress me with her quiet confidence. I enjoy watching her trust in me grow every time she chooses to stay with me rather than to panic and bolt when she encounters something new.

Week 6
I continue to be frustrated by the snow and slick footing in the outdoor arena. I’m working on picking up Telluride’s feet, leading her over obstacles, such as a log, tarp, and bridge, and trailer-loading. We also continue to work under saddle at the walk and trot, and work on the reverse and leg-yield.

Week 7
Telluride enjoys her first and second trailer-in trail rides at nearby Hidden Mesa Park. We’re fortunate enough to be joined by an experienced horse-and-rider team to provide leadership and support. Tell crosses water, climbs up and down mountains, and greets bicycles and joggers with the same quiet confidence with which she’s met every new challenge. It’s cold, windy, and slick on the trails, but she navigates them as though she’s been trail riding her whole life. Another high point this week — the arena is drying up and we can begin canter work!

Week 8
We continue building balance at the canter, and I introduce bareback riding. To my dismay, we get another snowstorm, and the arena is again suitable only for working at the walk and trot.

Week 9
Telluride and I continue to develop our relationship with more ground work. Under saddle, Tell takes quickly to sidepassing over a ground pole, and we enjoy incorporating work with the garrocha pole into our repertoire. (A garrocha pole is a 10- to 12-foot long pole with a loop at one end. It’s used by Spanish vaqueros instead of roping. Pole work has evolved into an art, a dance, and is seen at equine exhibitions.) I find Tell has a better understanding of rein aids when I incorporate the very direct noseband affect of the sidepull to the regular snaffle bit. Our biggest challenge continues to be the frozen, icy footing.

Week 10
This week, I’ve reserved a stall for Tell at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo in Denver. She spends her first days in a stall and meets many new friends. She keeps her quiet sense of self-preservation about her even when walking past moving trains. We make the most of the opportunity to work on developing her canter in the dry outdoor arena! When we encounter cowboys swinging ropes, I see Telluride display deep fear for the first time.

Week 11
I work on desensitizing Tell to swinging ropes and fire, and introduce small jumps. She displays her trust in me by her intentional self-assured response to my request that she follow me through flames, and her decidedly underwhelming reaction to jumping. Apparently, the neighbors are understandably concerned about the black smoke pouring from our arena, as evidenced by the arrival of the police. Fortunately, the arena has finally dried enough to be able to work at all three gaits!

Week 12
Everything is starting to come together. Telluride is accepting of the sound, feel, and sight of the swinging rope, and we’re routinely dragging the tarp and other obstacles from the saddle. I’ve incorporated a line of fire under our jump; Tell is so unimpressed that she treats the flaming, 18-inch vertical as a trot pole. Only when it’s on fire and more than 21 inches high does she deem it worth actually jumping. She’s particularly adept at conserving her energy. Unfortunately, this means that she lacks sharpness in the canter departs; I must also work to develop her impulsion.

Week 13
Telluride seems to excel at learning by choreography and routine rather than in response to cues. She revels in sidepassing over ground poles placed in an "L" shape (requiring a 90 degree turn) and cantering to a halt inside the flaming keyhole.

I introduce a ride-through archway filled with dangling pool noodles and the medieval game of tent-pegging, which involves spearing a target at a canter. Tell picks up quickly on the purpose of each game and enjoys each obstacle’s challenges. We travel to a cowboy mounted shooting practice. She again takes the new experience in stride, keeping her head about her despite the commotion and her first exposure to gunfire.

Week 14
We’re getting down to the wire in our last week training together, and I’m vexed by our entirely submerged arena. Tell and I are relegated to riding the neighborhood’s paved streets. She continues to impress me with her unflappable deportment when the school bus whizzes by directly behind her!

The Mustang Challenge
Telluride is becoming an extremely well-traveled mustang as we spend 25 hours in the rig en route to Madison for the Midwest Mustang Challenge. Unfortunately, upon arrival, the stress of the long trailer ride appears to have aggravated an old injury on Tell’s hind leg, as it’s hot and swollen, and she’s mildly lame.

Our competition plans are dramatically altered, as I elect not to participate in the riding portion of the event. Instead, I give Tell some phenylbutazone (a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication) to make her more comfortable. In lieu of competing, Telluride greets thousands of people from her stall and while walking the grounds.

With the help of ice, bute, and time, Telluride is moving well by Sunday and is sold at the auction. Her new owner, Ginny McDonald of Moab, Utah, is a current mustang owner who was impressed with Tell’s disposition when she met the mare at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo.

A New Home
One final trailer ride for Telluride! After a week of equine rest and relaxation in Colorado, I transport Tell to her new home in Moab, into the capable hands of her new human partner! I’m amply rewarded by seeing what a perfect match Tell and Ginny are as they ride together with the red sandstone cliffs as their backdrop.

Overall, the past three months have been an outstanding experience and a tremendous success, and I’m looking forward to building relationships with more mustangs in the future.