Contestants race to train wild horses in 100 days
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
MOUNTAIN HOME — The strains of an instrumental song by The Eagles drift across the empty arena, evoking an image of the Old West as Arvell Bass, in chaps and boots, walks slowly across the arena dirt toward a gate.
He swings his leg over and climbs up before turning to look at his horse, Prince, who waits patiently in the middle of the arena.
Bass makes a sound, and Prince starts to slowly walk toward Bass, eventually reaching him, and turning so Bass can climb on.
Bass, 44, is a Mountain Home-area horseman and trainer. Prince is a mustang. According to dictionaries, mustang comes from the Spanish mesteno or mestengo, which means stray animal.
Less than 100 days ago, the two met when Bass entered the Extreme Mustang Makeover competition. Bass is one of 150 trainers who were accepted into the competition. Each trainer received a mustang with 100 days to train the horse for the competition.
“The Bureau of Land Management actually manages the horse herds on federal lands,” Bass said. “Some very intelligent person came up with this contest, and they call it the ‘Extreme Mustang Makeover,’ which means that 150 trainers each get a horse fresh out of the wild and 100 days to train it, and you show up in Fort Worth to see who has the best horse.”
The Bureau of Land Management is trying to raise awareness and save the mustangs, he said.
“It’s about America’s wild horses and how nice they can be and to increase adoption rates,” Bass said. “There are 30, 000 horses out there. There is high competition for grazing rights on federal lands. The ranchers want to shoot them. You do have to do something. You don’t want them starving to death, so they are considering getting rid of quite a few right now. They are trying to get rid of stallions and make mares infertile.”
Bass said as a horse trainer, wild does not mean bad.
“Wild means, to me, pure,” he says as he gently strokes Prince. “The wildest horses are the easiest-trained horses.”
Every day they work together, 10 or 15 minutes at a stretch, two or three times a day, honing their performance.
Bass said he has trained mustangs before for others.
“[Prince ] was my only clean slate, if you will,” Bass said. “We are buddies now. He came from Pioche, Nev., which is about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, right out in the desert. He was captured a year-and-a-half ago in February of ’ 07. But they are held in these big holding facilities, big pens, and they are still very wild. He was wild as a deer when I got him. They cannot be any wilder.”
Once Prince arrived, Bass realized that the clock was ticking and that he had 100 days to train Prince.
“But instead of just training him, I had a plan that I wanted to be able to ride him for the competition without a bridle,” Bass said. “I had high expectations. So, you cannot mess that up in the beginning. You can put a big bit in a horse’s mouth and have him respect you no matter what and jerk their head off for doing something wrong. But, for a horse to listen to little subtle cues, obey you and not get scared takes a whole other approach.”
Bass said he taught Prince to look at him as a safety zone, giving him every drop of water, every piece of hay, every piece of grain.
“I wanted him to associate me with something good,” Bass said. “He immediately accepted me.”
Bass said he has trained horses all his life.
“This is one of the most challenging because of the time,” Bass said. “Prince is one of the easiest horses I have ever trained. That is not hard to believe if you think about this horse being pure. He has not been messed with by humans. He has not been fed carrots, he has a lot of fear, or, the word I like to use is respect, of the human. So, you never have to whack him.”
After the competition, the horses were to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Bass hoped to win the $ 12, 500 prize money so he can use it to get Prince back.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
