Blog 3- First Interview Preparation

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  Why?

• I plan on either interviewing someone who works at the BLM or a trainer that works with wild mustangs. If I do interview someone from the BLM I would like to get some information from them about they do with the horses after they are rounded up. If I interview a trainer I want to know their process of training for the horses since everyone has their own way and techniques when it comes to training.

2.  Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?

• Mustang Trainer
• How do you show a wild mustang that there is nothing to be scared of when they get spooked?
• How can you get a mustang over their fear of foreign objects?
• What are the first steps you do when you get a new horse to work with?
• Are there any goals that you try to reach with a horse for an end product?
• BLM
• What are the first things done to a mustang after a round-up?
• What things are done on a daily basis for the mustangs?
• How often do the horses get moved to either new pens or holding facilities?
• How do you decide which horses go to a satellite office adoption site?

Blog 2- Summer Mentorship

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered.

• Molly Jenks
• (951)906-1848
• Quantum Training Center

2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?     

• My trainer has gentled and trained 14 wild mustangs and has trained domesticated horses as well.

3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.    

• What is the key factor of success when gentling a wild mustang?
• What should you keep in your mind when working with a wild mustang?
• Is training a wild mustang different than training a domesticated horse?

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

• Since I had adopted a wild mustang a little over a year ago and need help with the training process my mentor came to my barn to help and I had the ability to watch and do some of the training along side of my mentor. Even though I had done all of my horse's training to that point I wasn't getting to the point I should have been at (things like riding,saddling,trimming,fly spray, etc.). My mentor started working with us and had my horse doing somethings in less than a hour which I had been working on for a little over a year.

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentorship help you make your decision?  Please explain.

• My topic is going to be wild horses. Mentorship helped me with this decision since during training I would notice that my horse would react differently to new objects, one reason was because of the treatment she got after her round-up and while she was in BLM holding facilities. My mentor is also very involved in the Mustang Heritage Foundation as well as working with mustangs from the BLM. When training my wild mustang I had to understand some of the things she went through and what has caused her and many other mustangs to have a sense of PTSD.