Sure in the saddle
By Staci Matlock

ALCALDE — When Nick Nickers, a wild horse from Nevada’s Calico Mountains, bucked in an Alcalde arena last week, trainer Roeliff Annon stuck to the saddle like Gorilla Glue. Gently, firmly, he eased Nick back into a fast trot and finally a walk.

“I guess his survival instincts showed,” Annon said with a grin. “I’ve been wondering when he was going to do that. He’s been a little too calm.”

It was the first time the mustang had actually bucked with his rider since Annon started training him June 9. Before that, the 6-year-old Nick had never been handled by humans.

Annon is one of 100 horse trainers from 29 states participating in the Extreme Mustang Makeover. Each trainer has 90 days to turn a mustang into a decent riding horse. All the horse trainers and their mustangs will travel to the Will Rogers Equestrian Center in Fort Worth, Texas, in September to compete for a $25,000 prize. The event is co-hosted by the nonprofit Mustang Heritage Foundation and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which manages the nation’s wild horse and burro program. After the competition, the horses will be adopted out to the highest bidder.

With 20,000 wild horses housed on BLM pastures, the agency needs to find ways to promote their adoption. As wild horse herds on BLM lands grow too large for the forage to support them, the agency rounds up some of the horses and tries to find them good homes. “We have many adopters who are repeat adopters,” said Paul McGuire, director of the wild horse and burro program in New Mexico and Texas. “We would like to see that adoption pool expand.”

Showing how trainable and versatile the mustangs are makes them more appealing to horse people, he said.

The Mustang Heritage Foundation looks for ways to educate people about the wild horse’s place in American history and promote them as good companions, said Patti Colbert, the foundation’s executive director.

Annon, a member of New Mexico’s Spanish Mustang Alliance, said the horses deserve special attention. “These horses are remnants of our history in the West,” he said. “How much we value these horses is how much we value our history. Many people are looking for a connection to the past, and these horses represent a living link to it.”

Manager of La Estancia Alegre, a Peruvian Paso breeding and training facility, the 41-year-old Annon has been working with horses for more than two decades. He learned from his sister Sara and at age 20 decided to make horse training his profession. He studied more with noted Texas trainer Ray Hunt, and he picked up the rest working with lots of horses.

“It just seems like I have a knack for getting along with horses,” Annon said. “It’s not something you can teach, but everyone has (the ability) in them.”

But it takes commitment and patience to reach his level of expertise with horses.

Annon trains all kinds of horses, from top-level reining and show horses to grade horses. He’s volunteered his time training some of the wild horses gathered from the El Rito Ranger District of the Carson National Forest and helping with neglected horses rescued by The Horse Shelter in Cerrillos.

“I get just as much satisfaction out of working with a grade horse as a $50,000 jumping horse,” he said.

All the trainers in the competition are working with solid, dark-colored geldings between 5 and 7 years old.

The trainers were chosen from 220 entrants based on their references, experience and training, Colbert said. Annon said he doesn’t know any of the other trainers involved, but he is curious to see how Nick stacks up in the competition.

Often Annon has only a couple of weeks to train a horse. “Ninety days to train Nick is a gift,” he said.

As he talked, Annon walked Nick into a big barn and backed him into a small space between saddle racks to take off the saddle. It’s the kind of tight, dark spot that would cause horses to rear and bolt. Nick accepted the confined space calmly, his eyes soft and quiet.

The gelding kept turning his nose to touch Annon as the trainer brushed him, another sign of trust. When Annon stepped out of sight into another room, Nick impatiently pawed at the barn floor until the trainer returned; he instantly became quiet again.

Nick represents something else for Annon — evidence that horses that are treated well and worked consistently are pretty happy. “Horses love to have jobs,” Annon said.

Everything Annon does establishes a deeper bond with Nick, from getting the gelding to drop his head to grooming him. “It took me 10 days to get him to really accept my touch, not just tolerate it,” he said.

“His survival instinct is way closer to the surface than in a domestic horse. You don’t want to access that instinct and get his adrenaline going,” Annon said.

Which is what happened in the arena when Nick was learning to herd another horse at a fast clip with Annon riding him. The mustang’s instinct to get Annon off kicked in, and he started bucking.

Annon gives his horses choices. When they make the right choice, he rewards them, but he doesn’t punish them harshly when they don’t do what he asks.

While he worked on the gelding before and after the ride, Annon left Nick’s halter rope dragging on the ground. “He knows he can leave anytime. It makes him more comfortable making the choice about staying,” Annon said. “That he chooses to stay is big.”

Nick and Annon will be put to the test in Fort Worth. Their performance will be watched by nationally recognized horse judges. Each horse will be scored in three areas. First is how healthy the horse looks. Second is how well the mustang handles from the ground, leading, picking up its hooves and loading in a horse trailer. Finally, the trainers will put their horses through a walk, trot and lope around obstacles riders see on a trail.

The top 10 horses and their trainers will return in the evening to perform freestyle maneuvers to their own music.

As Annon walked off to put away grooming equipment, Nick started to follow him as if drawn by a magnetic force. “This is all about Nick and his buddies showing what they can do,” Annon said. “My goal here is to demonstrate what a good, capable horse he is.”

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.

Wild horse competition

The competition: 100 horse trainers have 90 days to train 100 mustangs. They’ll compete Sept. 22-23 at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center in Fort Worth, Texas, for a $25,000 prize, and the mustangs will be auctioned off to the highest qualified bidders.

The TV show: The Extreme Mustang Makeover will also become a six-episode series on RFD Television’s Wide World of Horses from August to December.

For more Information: Go to wildhorseandburro.blm.gov or call 866-4MUSTANGS.

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