Ron Knodle on Mustangs

Here's Ron Knodle and the late Howard Hale.    What are some of the differences you run into, though, with the Mustangs that you might not see with a domestic horse?    "About the only difference, Howard, is the first few days, or the first few workings that you're around the Mustang. They're brought in out of the wild, and they're not used to seeing a human, but maybe for a mile or two miles away, and they're gone."   "You're just working with a lot more alertness and wildness, per se, compared to the domestic horse. Even if you're just walking through a pen when they're young, or even if they're born and brought in, just walking through them, then the Mustangs don't have that opportunity to be that close to a human, so that's about the main difference on the Mustangs. They may be a little more alert at first, but after a few workings, then they're the same as any other horse."   "I think it was about 20 years ago, over in western Nebraska, I was working for a fellow working horses and riding them without anything on their heads and all and whatnot, but growing up and I always wanted to be a cowboy, and working on ranches, and of course all the ranches need horses started, and they kind of reserve that for the people that's good enough to start with those young horses, not get them bothered and turn them into a bunch of bronc. Your reputation is about all you have in life, and it precedes you, so from ranch to ranch, and people asking for references, they say, hey, get this guy to start your colt, and once you get started on the colt, it's kind of tough to get away from them."   Mr. Ron Knodle on today's Horseman's Corner.