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Modern Mustangs and Mustangers Do the Distance Compiled by Beverley J. Davis It might seem like the accomplishments of Hidalgo and his kind are now a part of the past, something we only find in books and movies. But modern Mustangs and Mustangers are carrying on the old traditions and proving their mettle in this age of mechanized transportation and supersonic speeds. And in this world of flash and glamour, where the motto is bigger is better, the small Indian ponies of old, who carried the US mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California, who followed the war trails with Quanah Parker and Chief Joseph, and taught the US cavalry that size had nothing to do with stamina and heart, are still hitting the trails and going the distance. Finding a starting place for this journey is not an easy one, but since we must start somewhere, I’ll jump in with the tale Mal de Ojo and Indio Blanco. In the early 1970s, two young adventurers named Nathan and Elly Foote started out of Argentina with the intention of riding across North and South America on their Argentine Criollos, a breed closely related to the Spanish mustang. Unfortunately at the Texas border two of their horses died in quarantine due to a faulty drug administered by the USDA. It might have been the end of the journey, but Gilbert Jones, a Spanish mustang breeder from Oklahoma stepped up and offer them two of his horses, Mal de Ojo and Indio Blanco. Right away the mustangs proved themselves to be as tough and loyal as the horses that they had lost, carrying their new owners from the Rio Grande all the way to Alaska. Elly Foote said that these tough adventurers spent their last years in the green pastures of Burns Lake, British Columbia, Canada. No doubt a well-earned reward. In the world of competitive trail riding, there are two prominent organizations, The AERC, American Endurance Ride Conference, and the NATRC, North American Trail Ride Conference, both of which has regional rides and accumulates points accordingly. In 1989, Chief Yellow Fox, owned by Kim Kingsley and a descendent of SMR 3 Yellow Fox, one of the foundation sires of the Spanish Mustang Registry and Horse of Americas, competed in the AERC and won the Jim Jones Award for the most miles, 1450 in the 1989 season. The previous year he had gone 800 miles in 17 rides. In 1989, Chief Half Moon, also owned by the Kim Kingsley came in second with 1300 miles in 22 rides, while the following year he made 1250 miles in just 14 rides. Martha Grisham and Cholla Bay certainly racked up the miles between 1988 and 1991. The AERC listed them as completing 2,920 miles in 56 rides. That’s almost 1000 miles for three years running. Another AERC team of note is Dutch Pete and Steve Huffman. Together they have competed successfully in numerous 100 milers and came in between 13 and 14 hours in the 1990 Tallahala Marathon. The next year they placed 7th nationally in a series of endurance rides. The AERC lists them as accumulating 2,030 miles between 1988 and 2001. Stacie Funk on three different horses has really made the miles go by. Between 1992 and 2001, she accumulated 1,195 miles on Chief Red Arrow, 830 miles on Dun Right and 1,795 miles on Rodeo Ace. Dakota Sundancer, also owned by the Funks, is showing well under the guidance of Cheryl Johnson. But if there is an equine dynamic duo, it belongs to Geronimo’s Warrior and Don Funk who between 1999 and 2003 have run up a total of 8,860 miles. For his efforts, Geromino’s Warrior has won the Jim Jones Stallion award for four consecutive years. Laney Humphrey and her horse Arrow Dynamic, affectionately called Dino, have accumulated 1905 miles in AERC races of 50 miles or more plus 85 Limited Distance rides and three NATRC rides. In 2001, Dino did 535 competitive miles along the Pony Express Trail as a six year old, and an additional 100 miles noncompetitive. In 2002 he was in the Shore to Shore, a 200 miler that started on Lake Huron and ended on Lake Michigan. But if that wasn’t enough, on their way home to California they stopped at Bryce Canyon and did the 250 miles Bryce Canyon Pioneer ride. Laney and Dino might well be one of the best ambassadors of the Spanish colonial horse on the competitive trail right now. Buffalo Buck and Larry Lunde have accumulated 3070 AERC miles between 1994 and 2002. This team was rarely out of the top twenty with a fair share of top tens. Kiger Bridger, a Kiger Mustang, ridden by Eric Hunter has earned over 625 AERC miles and is in 8th place for the Jim Jones stallion award. A horse, which must also be mentioned if just for this accomplishment alone, is DJB Choctaw Traveling Man. At the 2003 Pan American Endurance Championships in Washington State, he carried Bettina Koehn, a respected German rider on the endurance circuit, to a 47th place finish. While unused to Spanish Mustangs, her preferred mounts being Arabian or Arabian crosses, she said he had been fun to ride and that she had trusted him on the dark trail at night. The AERC lists these horses as Mustangs also:
The NATRC is the other big trail riding organization in North America. Mustangs are competing against other breeds in regional rides that cover most of the US. In 1996, a tough black mare named Liona, owned by Karma Farms and Victoria E. Speir, was a national NATRC champion in Region IV, the first Spanish Mustang so honored. She was also 5th in the national in the open heavy weight division. This mare currently has well over 1000 NATRC competition miles. Her sister Tomlyn and Fernando, a handsome black gelding, were the 2001 Horse of Americas National Trail Horse Champion as well as being a NATRC national champion, and a SMR Grande Champion. Incredible work. Two stallions owned by Vickie Ives, Rowdy Yates and El Tigre Segundo, have also earned respect in the NATRC. Rowdy, a champion grulla with his own Breyer horse model, placed fourth in the open heavy horse class of the year 2000 for Region IV. El Tigre was a NATRC winner several times which included four sweeps stakes. Cherokee Princess and Kelly Galliher have also been recognized as NATRC champions, while the bay gelding Chiaco’s Shadow and Greg Galliher ate up 1000 NATRC miles of their own. Mac McSwain and his grulla gelding Tiaff and gray appaloosa mare Ribble have been recognized twice by the NATRC as national champions, while Macho Mist, an incredible buckskin overo, did the harder job of carrying Mac and Josh McSwain to two national championships by himself. On the regional side, Tahoka, a black overo gelding, showed his excellence by winning Mac a regional year-end award. And not to be out done by the boys, Diane McSwain won year-end regionals on Brandy Blue and Frisco Kid, but it was her phenomenal gray mare Absaroka Raven who carried her to the American Indian Horse Registry’s Trail Horse of the Year in 1999. Kyle Germany and his great stallion No Myth are proving what a good trail horse and rider are. A winner of the American Indian Horse Hall of Fame in 1995, No Myth placed 2nd in the open heavy weight Region IV of the NATRC. Multi-gaited, this handsome stallion not only has the stamina to go the distance but he does it with great style. The first Spanish Mustang to do 1000 NATRC miles was many time Region 4 winner Choctaw Star owned by Leana Rideout Westergaard Star is also an AIHR Supreme Hall of Fame winner, and has many AIHR show placings as well. She is a pure Choctaw Indian pony. The second NATRC 1000 mile Mustang was Titus Unlearning, a BLM adoptee, who carried Victoria Speir to her first NATRC National Championship. In 1988, Ty, ridden by Gretchen Patterson, was the first horse ever to win the Grand Champion High Average award with an average score of 98.6. A super versatile fellow, Ty has also won his AIHR Supreme Hall of Fame. In 1989, he won every speed event at the BLM National Mustang Show in Albuquerque. N.M. The Southeastern Distance Rider’s Association hosts its own trail rides and in 2000, Linda Gasparini and her original HOA mare Isa-Gye were selected as the high point winner of the year. In the world of endurance riding, the Tevis Cup, hosted by the AERC, is legendary and is considered the premier event for Arabian endurance horses. Still mustangs have slipped in successfully on occasion. The most successful was Marko B. owned by Ernie Sanchez who in 1960 won the event. No record remains if Marko was Spanish or not, but in 1960 and earlier, there were still a few purebred Spanish colonials running free on the ranges of the western US and Mexico. As recently as 1996 a Spanish Mustang named Montana carried his owner Anne Marie Pinter to a 42nd place finish. And this past year a mustang named Coco, pedigree unknown, carried Susan L Wood to an 18th place finish, up 19 places from 2002. At this rate, they ought to be crossing over the finish line first. Here’s hoping. A Mustanger mentioned earlier, Vickie Ives, deserves her own special mention for not only promoting the breed but also doing some incredible riding of her own. One of her most remarkable accomplishments, for which she wrote a book, involved riding 1200 miles in 50 days over two continents, North America and Australia. And finally a Spanish Barb mare, whose identity has been lost by this owner, completed the march of Coronado with two Western Horsemen writers in the mid 1960s. During the trip she carried not only a rider but also occasionally the supplies, and on one stop she even wandered off to do her own investigating. When they found her she was happily munching on a lush patch of grass that she had found. At the end of the journey she was in better shape than the writers. The general public often overlooks Mustangs because they are not a tall breed or act like they breathe fire. Given the opportunity, they doze quietly or sneak a bite of grass while waiting for the ride to begin. And their way of going is to conserve energy until it’s really needed, which is why the real endurance riders prefer sturdy Spanish horses. A Mustang will get you from Point A to Point B without hurting himself, and more often then not he is in better shape at the end of it than his rider. Hopefully when his days of work are over, he’ll earn retirement in green pastures with cool water. Compiled by Beverley J. Davis |
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this site sponsored by The Horse of the Americas Registry, & IRAM - the Institute of Range and the American Mustang email:info@frankhopkins.com |
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