WINNEMUCCA - Taming wild horses is something local horse trainer Tom King does every day;
in fact, he is so good at it, that he has entered into the Mustang Heritage Foundation's Extreme Mustang Makeover Challenge.
King is one of 100 trainers across the country that will compete in the Extreme Mustang Makeover Challenge.
The trainers each received a wild bay or sorrel mustang gathered from the hills of Nevada with the help of the Bureau of
Land Management and the Nevada Wild Horse and Burro Commission. All the horses are of a similar age, size and
condition and are assigned randomly to the trainers, who will have until late September to train the animals. The goal
for trainers is to transform the wild mustangs into suitable horses for ranch work or recreational riding.
On Saturday, Sept. 22, trainers will compete with their horse at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center in Fort Worth,
Texas, in a test of basic horsemanship skills. The competition will include a judging of conditioning, groundwork and a
Horse Course, which represents maneuvers and obstacles found in trail and recreational riding situations
according to a MHF press release. Prizes for the winners total $25,000, with $10,000 going to first place.
The competition will be aired on RFD TV's Wide World of Horses show beginning in August.
The horses that compete in the event will then be available for adoption through an auction on Sunday,
Sept. 23. King, who received his wild mustang on June 6, was riding the horse in only 11 days and said
his mustang is training well."I've dealt with some domestic horses which were wilder," he said.
King said he felt that training a horse was about mutual trust and compared it to teaching a child.
"It's a delicate line between being too tough and too lenient on them," he said,
adding, "It's a situation of a follower and a leader. It's a partnership.
You want the horse to think for himself, but to trust you.".
King said if he wins, he will use his prize money to pay bills. But he is mainly looking forward to the competition.
"It's worth the trip just to see 100 wild mustangs trained by 100 different people across the U.S.," he said.
To learn more about the Extreme Mustang Makeover or the Mustang Heritage Foundation,
visit the MHF Web site at:
mustangheritagefoundation.org
Jimmy: at the BLM pens
Tom and Jimmy: Mustang Challenge, Fort Worth - Texas
