Version 1
: Received: 1 March 2024 / Approved: 4 March 2024 / Online: 4 March 2024 (09:04:06 CET)
How to cite:
Penny, C.; Koncel, M.A.; Rutberg, A.T. A New Opportunity for Mustangs: Finding a Place for Mustangs in the Eventing and Dressage Disciplines. Preprints2024, 2024030121. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0121.v1
Penny, C.; Koncel, M.A.; Rutberg, A.T. A New Opportunity for Mustangs: Finding a Place for Mustangs in the Eventing and Dressage Disciplines. Preprints 2024, 2024030121. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0121.v1
Penny, C.; Koncel, M.A.; Rutberg, A.T. A New Opportunity for Mustangs: Finding a Place for Mustangs in the Eventing and Dressage Disciplines. Preprints2024, 2024030121. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0121.v1
APA Style
Penny, C., Koncel, M.A., & Rutberg, A.T. (2024). A New Opportunity for Mustangs: Finding a Place for Mustangs in the Eventing and Dressage Disciplines. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0121.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Penny, C., Mary A. Koncel and Allen T. Rutberg. 2024 "A New Opportunity for Mustangs: Finding a Place for Mustangs in the Eventing and Dressage Disciplines" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0121.v1
Abstract
In 2023, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) estimated that there were 68,928 mustangs living on United States public lands in 10 western states. The agency uses Appropriate Management Levels to determine the number of mustangs who need to be removed from the land. Once removed and processed, mustangs are sent to adoptions or sales events or retained in short-or long-term holding facilities. Adoptions and sales are the leading avenues for rehoming mustangs; however, the number of horses the BLM can place fluctuates annually and never approaches the greater number removed from the range. To explore opportunities for increasing the number of mustang adoptions, we conducted in-depth interviews with 23 horse trainers located on the U.S. East Coast, asking about participants’ training programs, relationships with horses, perceptions of mustangs, and challenges that mustangs face in the dressage and eventing industries. Participants had varying experiences with mustangs; however, all were willing to work with a mustang in some capacity. Participants voiced the need for more satellite adoption locations on the East Coast to decrease barriers to acquiring a mustang, notably cost and time, and for expanding existing training programs to include eventing and dressage.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
