Is it Easy to Catch a Wild Horse?
It is just a matter of a few days, you have to take slow, and steady steps towards its coaching. As soon as you are done with it, you will realize that it was the best decision of your life to become a horse owner. The key is to make your wild horse trust you first. Once the trust has developed, the horse will become your most devoted friend.
There are many techniques for taming a horse; I am going to tell the horsemen’s favorite.
When it comes to catching a wild horse, you simply cannot. The first reason is that it is illegal. The second is that you might hurt yourself in an attempt to catch a wild freely roaming and grazing horse. So, it is recommended to instead adopt a wild horse from the Bureau of Land Management of your area.
Method 1: Peer Attraction
Most horses do not like being left alone. If you leave them to themselves, they feel unsafe and start acting crazy. So, if another horse, one that you have tamed already, comes in contact, the wild species starts to feel safe with the owner by seeing the affection between you and the fellow horse. As a result, this sight and feeling of comfort help manage and calm most of the wild mustang.
Method 2: Get closer to your horse
Keep getting closer to your horse gradually. The animal might act violently and rush around the area to scare you away. But approaching it slowly and steadily will make it admit your affection and finally give in and choose to trust you. Then, it will start to discipline.
Take care of the blind spots
Horses have some blind sensors on their body
- Over the nose
- Below their heads
- And at the tail area
Ths, make sure you are not making any loud noises or prominent movements away from their sight; it will terrify them.
Make adequate eye contact
Eye contact is a part of adequate body language and is essential to dealing with animals or humans. Thus, try your best to make clear and direct eye contact with your horse while communicating with it. Maintain your facial expressions during the process. If you are looking somewhere else, it makes the horse very conscious.
Observe the horse’s body language
When the horse’s ears are bent backward, it shows that he is fearful and does not want you closer. On the contrary, if his ears are open and facing forward, he would not jump back and show welcoming behavior towards your movements.
Look confident
While taming your horse, do not look timid and anxious. Often, these animals can quickly tell that you are eager by the look on your face. Show the horse delightful facial expressions and make gentle moves. The more calm and relaxed you are, the more flexible the horse will be. Do not try to run behind them because it makes you look like danger. Besides, you could never catch them anyway.
Trust is the key
As you finally get hold of your horse by following the steps above, try to gain its trust. Make the horse come closer to you and smell you. Make the horse feel safe. Patting and caressing the shoulder works excellent with them.
Give your time
A horse is an animal that wants to be loved. These beautiful wild beings wish to your attention and compassion. The more you give importance to their existence, the more they will present themselves to your service. So make them feel loved as much as you can. They have feelings, and they can also sense yours.
Feed them
When the horse gives itself up to you, try feeding them with something they like, i.e., hay, oats, and concentrates. They will feel encouraged and rewarded by this deed of yours.
Play games
Wild Mustangs cherish playing around with their fellow horses. To make them used to be around you and habitual of yourself, start playing Parelli natural horsemanship games like
- Friendly game
- Porcupine game
- Driving game
- Yo-yo game
- Circling game
- Sideways game
- Squeeze game etc.
Headpiece or Halter Shank
Once you have succeeded in taming your horse, adorn them with a headpiece or halter shank. Doing this will help you with training your horse. The horses will no more feel wild and will always walk or move when somebody leads them.
Getting a wild horse and suppressing it down is a first and kind of easy step compared to the training stage, which takes a lot longer and is a grinding process.
Why do people catch wild horses?
Humankind has used horses for traveling most of the time in history and even in wars. Since then, horses have become elite, and most wanted animals.
Now that they are not used, people keep them just because of interest. It has become a fancy animal and those who own them and know horse riding is considered privileged. It went on with the ages, and their curiosity leads them to keep ‘wild’ horses as pets. Sadly this has become a hobby now.
Adopting a wild horse
Nowadays, if you have to adopt a wild mustang, it costs you 1000 dollars, and after a year government gives you 500 dollars back after checking that you have kept the horse and taken care of the horse properly. The purpose of this is to reward the person because they are somehow contributing to the conservation of wild creatures therefore its domestic friendly.
Protection of wild horses
Wild horses do not like being trapped and kept in a closed enclosure. They repeatedly suffer because they can no more wander around willingly. And it significantly affects their psyche.
Most native cowboys started catching, taming, and then selling them to people of interest. Their meat was also very popular as pet food in the 20th century.
Therefore 1n 1971, a law was passed to protect wild horses, which though we’re not at risk of endangerment at that time, but their number was decreasing rapidly. According to the law, the Bureau of Land Management got the duty to save and protect them from harm.
Benefits of keeping a horse
Keeping a horse is very rewarding for you.
- You remain physically active as they keep you running around them.
- Adopting a horse goes slightly heavy on the pocket, so these breeds make you value the money.
- Riding a horse is an outdoor sport; it promotes your love for nature.
- They possess incredible strength and speed.
- They are perfect for long journeys due to their stockier legs.
- You get to meet more horse-loving people with the same interests, and in turn, you become socially active.
- Going out in the evening for a horse ride helps you breathe fresh air, and your mind gets fresh.
- All-inclusive, it is rejuvenating for your mental health.
Conclusion:
Keeping and riding horses is a good, productive hobby, but messing with wild ones should be prohibited. One should hire a professional cowboy to tame and train them. However, there are always specific rules, regulations paired up with useful tips and tricks to make the process easier, even for non-professionals. Just remember that wild horses can be tricky and require a lot of patience, love, and care. Only then will they be able to trust you, come near you, and be comfortable with you. Once this happens, they’ll be the best animal friend you never knew you needed!
