The majority of Danada's horses are used in lessons and trail rides. The only horses that live there full time and aren't involved much in lessons or trail rides are the draft horses, because they are utilized for hayrides and sleigh rides in the spring, fall, and winter.

There are 28 horses at Danada that are used in lessons, trail rides, hayrides, and sleigh rides. Included in that number are 7 draft horses, and 11 mustangs.

Danada has adopted and gentled six mustangs to date. They are being used in our riding lessons, trail rides and summer camp programs. Our first mustang, Jefferson (a.k.a. Jeff), arrived at Danada in 1998. He was followed by Sundance, Chance, Smokey, Austin and Blackjack. They are part of the large herd that lives south of the main barn in the run-in shed. You can recognize them by the freeze brand on the left side of their necks.

Wild Horse Project 2005

The Danada Equestrian Center has also adopted four 3-year old mustang stallions. These wild horses were gathered by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) in September 2004 from the Cedar Mountains in northern Utah. For nine months they lived in a BLM holding facility. They were adopted on May 20, 2005 and arrived via trailer on June 9. These horses will be gentled and trained for use in our lesson, trail ride and summer camp programs.

What is a mustang?
Mustangs are wild horses that currently live in many of the western states. These horses are the ancestors of horses brought to North America by the Spanish explorers in the 16th century, as well as European horses that escaped or were freed by settlers, farmers or the Cavalry.

What is a stallion?
A stallion is an uncastrated male horse. A gelding is a castrated male horse. A mare is a female horse. These horses will be gelded.

Where do wild horses live?
Wild horses currently can be found in 11 states. Most live in Nevada and Wyoming, but they can also be found in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Montana, and California. There is one band left in Arizona and a few in New Mexico. There are also wild burros.

How many wild horses are there?
At the beginning of the 20th century, over 2 million wild horses lived in the West. Today there are approximately 26,000 – 37,000 still living free.

Why are the wild horses gathered?
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for managing the public land where many of the herds live. In order to maintain acceptable populations, they periodically gather up wild horses and make them available for adoption at various locations.

What is special about a mustang?
Any wild horse that survives in the wild will be a strong, resilient, intelligent animal. Because many mustangs live on rocky, uneven ground, they usually have very sound hooves that do not require shoes. Mustangs are living symbols of our country’s history.

Did you know?
Mustangs come in many colors including black, bay, dun, palomino, gray and spotted. They usually weigh from 800-1000 pounds and stand 13-16 hands tall at the withers (1 hand ~ 4 inches).

Each mustang is given a freeze-brand on the left side of their neck. This brand identifies where they were gathered, their approximate year born and a registration number.

A real-life mustang was the model for the cartoon horse in the movie Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron.

Comanche, the sole survivor of General Custer’s Battle of Little Bighorn, is believed to be of mustang descent.

What happened upon the arrival of these horses?
First we gave our new horses a chance to get accustomed to their new home and surroundings. They were under quarantine to determine if they had any communicable diseases that could be spread to our other horses. Each day they are exposed to new things including people, animals, vehicles, sounds, etc. On their first day here, they figured out pretty quickly that the barn provided shade and an escape from bothersome bugs. They also learned that the grass outside their fence was pretty tasty. We will continue introducing them to many new things that they may come in contact with in the future.

How do you gentle and train a wild horse?
The most important thing is to earn their trust. In the beginning, we limited our interaction with them to give them time to settle in to their new home. Each day the horses grow more accustomed to our being in their pen to clean and provide hay and water. We have begun approaching them to make contact, and we allow them to initiate contact. We have begun introducing the halter as a nice “brush” that can provide pleasant scratching and stroking on their bodies. There will be many more steps to introduce them to a saddle and eventually a rider. The old cowboy method of “breaking” horses is not used, as it breaks the spirit of the horse and can be unnecessarily rough.

How long will it take to gentle and train these horses?
Each horse will progress at his own pace. Much will depend upon the temperament of each horse and the time devoted to training.

Who will do the gentling and training?
A number of our staff members and volunteers will be involved in training the wild horses. These individuals already have previous experience working with wild horses or have shown a great interest and commitment to working with them.

More information regarding Danada's mustangs wil be posted as it is collected. If you would like more information regarding wild horses of the United States, visit the Bureau of Land Management's National Wild Horse and Burro Web page. Another good resource is KBR's World of Wild Horses and Burros.

Wild Horse Project Updates

-- April 2006 --

A group of staff members and current mustang volunteers recently met to discuss the status of the Wild Horse Project. Highlights of the meeting are provided below.

The major goals of the project are: to provide a learning opportunity, through hands-on experiences, for handling and training of wild mustangs; to evaluate and develop the mustangs for the Danada lesson program. There is no set timetable for the project.We currently have eleven volunteers actively involved in the project. With the number of horses needing handling and care, more volunteer involvement would be very helpful. Other interested volunteers will be invited to join (or re-join) the project. To provide additional time for training, more volunteers will be asked to assist with horse handling and stall cleaning during regular shift times. Staff and experienced mustang volunteers will provide support and coaching. With the addition of new handlers, it is expected that the horses will regress in their training. However eventually, the additional handling and training time should allow for accelerated progress.

To provide additional space for leading training, a 2nd round pen will be added adjacent to the first. Care will need to be taken to preserve the integrity of the turf (i.e. do not use during sloppy conditions). The 2nd pen is to be used for leading only ? not for turn out.

An email group will be established for those interested in the on-going status of the project. Interested volunteers should submit their email address to Vicki or put it in the wooden box in the office. Logbooks, like those used for Adopt-A-Horse, are also being maintained in the storage room in the lower barn. Project participants are invited to read and contribute to these as well.

-- May 16, 2006 --
(Gelding of Da Boys)

Well, today was the big day! All four of our boys were gelded and seemed to come through it quite well. The buckskin was first, followed by the black & white, the bay and finally the brown & white.

The vet approached the buckskin in the aisle with the shot, which he calmly stood for. Once inside the stall, he went down quite smoothly. All of the horses were very good about being approached by the vet and accepting the shot. The bay had a little harder time going down,and awoke much quicker than the other three - just as the vet was untying his leg! The entire process took about 15-20 minutes for each horse. Each horse also received a tetanus and antibiotic injection.

All but the black & white were eager to eat after coming to. The black & white quickly displayed signs of discomfort and distress. He had no interest in eating and continued to paw the floor of his stall. He is being closely monitored.

Prior to the second injection, each horse's weight was estimated using a weight tape. The buckskin weighed in at approximately 821 lbs., the black & white at 860 lbs., the brown & white at 874 lbs., and the bay at 916 lbs. The vet said they are to be kept quiet in the stalls for today only, to allow for clotting of the wound. After that, he recommended movement, including trotting in the round pen. This will help with inflammation and accumulation of fluid. He was complimentary of us and our horses, saying they were "better broke" than he expected. He was pleased with how things went.

-- June 9, 2006 --
( Hand Grazing and a Test Run for Mounting)

The mustangs are now being hand grazed for 30 minutes in the grass round pen. Most of the horses are leading in, around, and out of the pen quite well. However, the black & white has been obstinate when being led out of the grass pen. Matt provided a demonstration on using the lead rope to drive the horse forward. The ?go forward? cue learned from the ground will later transfer over to work under saddle.

Later in the gravel pen, Matt continued to prepare the black & white for mounting. He started by leaning on the horse and draping his arms and body over the horse's neck, back and sides. Then he de-sensitized the horse to jumping right next to him and holding onto his mane. He also put his arms around his neck and hung from his neck. Matt jumped up briefly onto the horse?s shoulder, then neck and withers. After many repetitions, Matt jumped on to the horse, draping his body over the horse's neck and upper back and hung there (on his stomach) for a short while. He also moved his legs while hanging on him, getting the horse used to rider movement and adjusting his balance. Matt explained that since a horse carries most of his weight over his front feet, he's better able to adjust to having additional weight over the shoulders. Eventually, the horse will be able to adjust to having more weight further down his back. After each attempt at "mounting", Matt would ask the horse to disengage his hindquarters (stepping away with the inside hind leg). He said this cue can prevent the horse from bolting off and may prevent the rider from getting stepped on should they fall. He repeated all of the steps from the other (far) side and worked his way up to "mounting" on that side of the horse. The black & white handled it all exceptionally well. He stood very still and quickly learned to spread his front feet and stand squarely to carry the extra weight.

-- July 15, 2006 --
( Two Mustangs Escape)

The subject probably got your attention and concern, but don't worry, it was a planned and controlled escape. The Buckskin and the Brown and White went on walks today to paddock 2. Both did very well. Both were grazed for a little while on lead. We didn't want them running in this heat. If we would had released them, I'm sure they would have been running all over. They still seemed to enjoy the new area even though they were on lead.

We started out this morning, just planning to take the guys outside the gate and back. Vicki had us walk each of the Mustangs to the road and back to the front barn a couple of times. All the Mustangs did pretty well. It seemed like the Brown and White did the best. He was real curious about everything, but stayed alert. He even went up to the board and looked at his picture. I think the Buckskin did second best. He was pretty comfortable. All of them loved eating the grass they have been looking at for months. The Black and White was fine until I got him back in his stall. He wanted to get back out there.

Two interesting things occurred in the paddock. The Buckskin investigated the drinking fountain. He was surprisingly curious and not scared at first. He actually took a drink, but when the water automatically started to flow he spooked a bit. Not much of a spook, but he probably won't want to drink there for a while knowing him. The other thing involved the Brown and White. He actually rolled while on lead. When he got up, he gave Lisa a little bit of a hard time, but she got him under control. All in all it was a great day. It was nice to see the Mustangs out of their usual surroundings. I can't believe no one had a camera today! Oh, well, there will be other photo ops in the future...

(Update compliments of Phil) SPECIAL NOTE: One thing to remember: when leading the horses, at ALL times, but especially to the paddock, the leader has to have a wide eye. You need to see what's going on in front, in back, on the sides, ALL OVER. What potentially is going to spook the horse? Bike riders, runners, strollers and other horses (both being ridden and in the paddocks and arena), need to be dealt with. Don't walk too close to things or in between "tight spaces" (think like the horse). Also, the leader MUST BE IN CONTROL the entire time. If the horse is going too fast, too slow, walking in front of you, stopping, circling, grazing when you don't offer it, YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL.

-- August 13, 2006 --
( Free At Last!)

The black and white mustang finished out the week in Paddock #2. His return to the lower barn was uneventful (the desired outcome, of course).

Then it was the bay mustang?s turn! Matt led him out to the paddock early Sunday morning. He was well behaved and followed Matt calmly and willingly. Once in the paddock, Matt gave him a ?tour? of the new digs. He introduced him to the waterer, concrete trough, and several sewer covers, so that he would be aware of them during the anticipated ?first run.? Matt turned off the waterer, so the water refilling would not spook the horse when he ventured to take his first drink. The bay was quite sure the sewer cover was waiting to pounce on him. He snorted at it quite a bit and one time jumped backwards away from it. Matt held on to the lead rope, and the horse responded by giving to the pressure. Good boy!

While touring, the bay was allowed to graze. After about 5 minutes, Matt took off the lead rope and left. The bay continued to graze another 5 minutes or so, then he exploded and ran like crazy around the paddock! He bucked a number of times and galloped all over (boy, he?s got a big buck). At one point, he charged towards Vicki and I at the gate while we calmly suggested he slow down. He came to an awkward, sliding stop, then stood near us snorting and quivering with excitement! He also displayed an impressive extended trot while checking out his new surroundings. After that, he quickly settled back into grazing and then rolled in the dirt.

More information regarding Danada's mustangs will be posted as it is collected. If you would like more information regarding wild horses of the United States, visit the Burea of Land Management's National Wild Horse and Burro web page. Another good resource is Burea of Land Management's National Wild Horse and Burro web page.