In a stunning display of horsemanship that included cracking whips, balloons and a chain saw, the inaugural Extreme Mustang Makeover came to a close in Fort Worth, TX, with veteran cutting horse trainer Guy Woods taking the win and $10,000 during the freestyle finals performance, Saturday, September 22.
Facing 12 other finalists, Woods of Pilot Point, TX, cracked a whip as he and his Mustang, Max, loped around the arena in soft smooth circles, capturing the applause of a standing-room-only crowd at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center’s Watt Arena as he jumped a series of three poles balanced on low barrels, followed by a higher jump.
Prineville, OR, native Kitty Lauman claimed the reserve championship and a check for $5,000 from sponsor Fort Dodge Animal Health riding Ranger.
Definitely a crowd favourite, Lauman, who learned many of her techniques at the knee of her grandfather John Sharp, maneuvered Ranger through a series of reining movements and then wowed the crowd with her shooting techniques as she galloped past a series of balloons, hitting all nine.
In third place was Whitehall, MT, cowboy Zane Davis, riding Algore. Davis and Algore deftly performed an expert snaffle bit reining pattern, but thrilled the spectators when Davis pulled out a rope with Algore tracking a steer for a nice clean stop.
All horses competing in the contest were evaluated on their body condition, as well as scored through a series of obstacles in an “in-hand” course, and in a “horse course,” which was also a set pattern of maneuvers.
A value of 20 percent was applied to the body conditioning, 30 percent in the in-hand and 50 percent for the horse course.
For Woods, originally from Australia, it wasn’t necessarily love at first sight when he first laid eyes on Max, the wild Mustang that would be under his care for 100 days.
After 100 days, though, the duo had obviously found some common ground and Woods had already determined he would be taking Max home to Double E Ranches, where he has been the trainer for 20 years.
“When I first saw Max, I was in line to pick up my horse and all the horses I saw were wild, but they were loading pretty smoothly,” he said. “But when Max came through, he went into the chute and tried to come out the other side. I said load him.”
Woods, who has professionally trained cutting horses for almost 30 years and has won numerous National Cutting Horse Association honours, worked with Max at the end of almost every day after riding 15 other horses.
“I’d work him after I got all my other horses ridden and for the first 60 days or so, it was challenging and a lot of fun.
“Then for the last 40 days, it was a matter of keeping him ridden and fine tuning a lot of the things we’d worked on.”
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.”
The Extreme Mustang Makeover concluded September 23 with the adoption of all horses placed in the program.
The Mustang Heritage Foundation (MHF), in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), created the Extreme Mustang Makeover event to highlight the recognized value of Mustangs through a national training competition.
The event gave the public a unique opportunity to see the results of wild horses becoming trained mounts and then participate in a competitive bidding process to adopt one of the treasured animals.
The purpose of the competition was to showcase the beauty, versatility, and trainability of these rugged horses that roam freely on public lands throughout the American West, where they are protected by the BLM under Federal law.
