Mustangs as Model Equids

For the last 3 years I have been working with recently captured wild horses in a project called Mustang Camp. In the first year I was had initial success with training through positive reinforcement, then I was thrust into an environment where I felt pressured to use pressure/release. The results were disappointing and frustrating, so two years ago I began replacing elements, one by one, as I found more effective practices. At this point in time almost everything is done with positive reinforcement, even teaching the animal how to respond to pressure. We recently shaved our training time by a full third by going into the regiment of short session training. We go from pen to pen with timers, pens, clipboards and alfalfa. It is a place now where the cowboys feel out of place. Tranquility and purposeful activity is the order of the day.

I would like to use this blog to talk about the application of animal behavior technology (ABT) to wild horse gentling. This technology has been around for many many years, but the traditional practices of horsemanship pose a barrier to this technology from taking a foothold like it has in the dog world. Agility training and the democratization of the trainer profession has rocketed ABT into the mainstream. The horse world is going to get dragged along behind, kicking and screaming in protest, simply because of the evolution of ideas in the popular press. Young people learning to train their dogs are not going to question application of the same protocol to their equid.