One thing I suspect I will never get the chance to do — mostly because I live in the UK — is work with an untrained mustang, which is a shame, because I read Monty Roberts’ The Man Who Listens to Horses when I was very young and thought immediately that that might be one of the coolest projects you could ever possibly undertake. Even though I know I’m not going to get to do it myself (although never say never, amiright?), I still really love absorbing information about these unique, clever little horses — from how they interact with one another to the intricacies of the training process. That’s why I really appreciate that Elisa Wallace always puts so much time into detailing her own process each year going into the Mustang Magic Makeover, and why I’ll be that person writing ‘first!’ in the comments on every video of this year’s recruit, the flaxen-maned Dior.
This, the first instalment, is all about the little things: first contact, and working towards wearing a headcollar for the first time. It’s pretty fascinating stuff, and actually, even if your horse isn’t a feral mustang, there’s a tonne of horsemanship tips and tricks we can all take and use with difficult or anxious horses, so I’ll be taking notes!
