Hail Yeah, a 3-year-old mustang trained by Ray Ariss to perform at dressage, in mounted shooting, and to pull a cart, brought $50,000, the highest adoption price during the Extreme Mustang Makeover, at Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth, on September 23. Ariss purchased him in partnership with the City of Norco, CA, represented by Mayor Harvey Sullivan and the Mustang Heritage Foundation (MHF). Sullivan had seen the first episode of the Extreme Mustang Makeover on RFD TV and approached Ray about representing Norco in its marketing focus as Horsetown USA.
“I thought this competition was so unique and Ray is an outstanding trainer,” said Sullivan, who traveled to Fort Worth to support Ariss and Hail Yeah. “When I return to Norco, we will be naming Hail Yeah the official mascot of the city and he will represent our message as Horsetown USA.”
Max the mustang goes home to EE Ranches
Guy Woods, who won the Extreme Mustang Makeover and $10,000, promised that his mount Max would return to Will Rogers Coliseum as a turnback mount during the NCHA Futurity. The 4-year-old mustang was successfully adopted by Woods following the Extreme Mustang Makeover and taken home to Pilot Point, Texas, where Woods is resident trainer for EE Ranches and has worked with the gelding for the past 100 days.
Woods, a National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame inductee, was one of 100 trainers from a variety of riding disciplines selected to compete in the inaugural Makeover. Trainers drew lots for the horses – 3- and 4-year-olds that had never been handled or haltered – and had just 100 days to prepare them for the competition. For his victory, Woods put Max through a series of paces that included reining work and jumping.
“This is a fabulous ranch horse,” said Woods of the handsome bay gelding. “He’s tough and he’s strong and he’ll go through anything. What more would you need in a helping horse? He stays with you all day long and doesn’t complain.”
Although Max was “pretty wild-looking” when Woods first saw him, it didn’t take long for the gelding to settle down. “The first day, I haltered him and taught him to lead,” Woods said. “Everything you teach him, he retains. Of course, he’s four and that makes a big difference.
“He was spooky to start with and still takes fright at this and that, but he wants to be calm and quiet about everything.”
Woods, a native Australian, noted that American mustangs are different than their Australian counterparts, the wild brumbies. “This horse is big and strong and sort of looks like a Spanish horse,” he explained. “A brumby is tall and Thoroughbred-looking.”
Making the decision to take on the Extreme Mustang Makeover challenge wasn’t a hard one for Woods, even though more than one of his cutting horse friends raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I wanted to do this because I thought it would be fun,” he said. “When I left Australia and came to America, I was the top ranked youth rider in Victoria. Riding in this competition made me feel like a kid again.”
BLM Chief of the Wild Horses and Burro division Don Glenn was overjoyed with the success of the Extreme Mustang Makeover and the resulting adoption. “This event has brought more attention to what we are doing to preserve the American Mustang than any other program in my 30 years with the division,” he said. “I have to give a tremendous amount of credit to the trainers who took these mustangs and shaped them into marketable horses.”
In all, 75 mustangs were adopted from the Bureau of Land Management through the event for a total of $233,100. The BLM received $125 per head as the minimum adoption fee while the remainder was allocated for the development and programs of the Mustang Heritage Foundation. Trainers also received a 15 percent adoption commission for any horse adopted for a fee higher than $250.
The Extreme Mustang Makeover will also become a six-episode series on RFD Television’s Wide World of Horses through December 2007. The show will share the stories of the mustangs and trainers as they learn to trust in one another and gain competitive confidence. Air times (all Eastern) for the series will be Mondays at 10:30 p.m., with additional airings on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. and Mondays at 4:30 p.m. RFD-TV can be found on Direct TV channel 379 and Dish Network channels 231 or 9049.