Mustangs: The Ultimate All-Around Horse

I figured it was time to mention other mustang ambassadors that have been rocking their various disciplines. Mustangs are often viewed as the ugly stepchild, too "wild" to ever be really good at anything other than trails. Much of this is due to the disciplines' stereotypes and preferred breeds. For hunter/jumpers it's warmbloods, dressage prefers warmbloods, western prefers quarter horses, endurance prefers arabians, eventing prefers thoroughbreds and warmbloods. Hence, many of these disciplines view mustangs as the "outsider" without any real potential in any sport. I've experienced this myself when saddle shopping even, people would ask what type of horse I was buying for and when I said mustang, they would look perplexed and respond "really?" Any thought that I was serious about that discipline went out the window when I said my horse was a mustang.

Hunter/jumpers are probably the worst culprits for perpetuating the warmbloods-only stereotype. Many of the events are scored by judges and therefore *very* subjective. Many people I know have seen first hand that celebrity children and well-known riders will place better due to the bias the judges come in with. This is not how it should be and surely not all h/j judges are this way, but it happens more than it should. Therefore the question isn't "are mustangs good enough" but rather "will I even be competitive due to the judges' biases."

Reality is that mustangs can excel at other disciplines because they come in all body types from draft size, to smaller mustangs with Spanish influence, to more thoroughbred/sport type like Calvin. The military even uses mustangs for things such as border patrol and at Arlington national cemetery.

US Marine Mounted Colorguard use Palomino mustangs to represent

Draft type mustang in Arlington National Cemetery

Not only are mustangs used in the workforce, but also in the competitive horse show world. Elisa Wallace is famous around the mustang community for competing in the Extreme Mustang Makeover. A 100 day challenge where a random mustang is chosen for the individual straight out of the holding pens, never been touched. The contestants then have 100 days and at the end they compete in a competition showing off the horses' newfound skills. Here is Elisa on her first mustang and how she caught the mustang community's attention:

Elisa and Fledge

Elisa is originally an Eventer and therefore brings her mustangs up in a more typical English style. She has a new mustang named "Hwin" that she is actually competing in eventing with: Elisa & Hwin XC. She's also giving mustangs national attention by performing at top events:

Elisa on Fledge doing very technical work without a bridle or saddle

Here's the very successful mustang "Ladybug" and her owner Janet Tipton competing in endurance:

"Mustang Lady" is a hall-of-fame endurance mustang shown here doing Tevis, a 100 mile ride:

Padre, a mustang stallion, won a very prestigious dressage competition called Dressage at Devon:

An absolutely beautiful mustang!

There may be famous mustangs in the Western disciplines, but I don't follow western as closely. I do know that mustangs are used in ranch settings very frequently including working with cows and other misc. duties. 

Mustangs are the "mutts" of the horse world and have the reputation to go along with it, unfortunately. Many people are working on changing this stereotype, whether just by adopting mustangs for companion horses or using them for competition. Those with mustangs praise the breed for a number of factors:  mustangs are generally very healthy, they don't come with bad riding habits, mustangs are pro-social, and they have the street smarts that come with growing up wild. While the competitive horse show worlds are still heavily dominated by other breeds, Mustangs have proven that they are competitive. Yet mustangs have added benefit of being, for the most part, more genetically sound than their domestic counterparts. Instead of buying into the hype of what type of horse you "need" for whatever discipline you're doing, consider a mustang! 

Pick Mustangs!