Wild mustang makeover

Slideshow: Mustangs

By Pam Sohn
Staff Writer

FLAT TOP MOUNTAIN, Tenn. -- About 80 days ago, Tennessee horse trainer Chase Dodd drove to Oklahoma to pick up a wild mustang from Nevada.

When he arrived and announced he was there to get the horse he would spend the next 100 days training, wranglers told him, "Man, you've got your hands full," he recalled.

"I said, 'Where is my horse? And they said, 'He's the one out there that keeps running around trying to jump the fences.' "

Today, Mr. Dodd has the 3-year-old horse -- Sundance -- eating out of his hand. In another 20 days, the two will ride in the first-ever Extreme Mustang Makeover in Fort Worth, Texas. 

 Billed as 100 trainers, 100 mustangs, 100 days, the event is a first, and organizers hope it will showcase the beauty, versatility and trainability of America's wild horses. Mr. Dodd, 25, hopes his effort will win him a $10,000, first-place award.

Patti Colbert, executive director of the Mustang Heritage Foundation, said the training will help make the horses more adoptable.

On Sept. 23, the day after the competition, Sundance and another 99 wild horses go on the auction block in a continuing effort to help the U.S. Bureau of Land Management remove overpopulations of the rugged horses. By law, mustangs are protected and allowed to roam freely on public lands throughout the West.

"The mustangs have great emotional and historical value to Americans," Ms. Colbert said.

Bureau of Land Management spokesman Tom Gorey said if the training results in more mustang adoptions, it can save the federal agency about $46,000 a year.

"Our goal is to adopt out all of them," he said. "We pull off the range about 10,000 a year and adopt out about 6,000. Just having a horse adopted is a huge cost saving. It costs about $465 per horse per year to hold them (if they are not adopted)."

Across the nation, about 220 trainers applied for the competition.

Mr. Dodd, the only Tennessee trainer in the event, believes his effort will provide someone with a loyal, well-trained horse.

"(Sundance) is the most respectful horse I've had. He's loyal," he said.

Though Mr. Dodd has trained at least 20 other horses in the past two years, the trainer and farrier waves off any notion that he's a "horse whisperer."

"He's taken some kidding about being called that," said his wife, Kerry.

But Sundance's new skills and manners suggest more than workouts. The horse turns his head when the reins are pulled, but he doesn't budge until Mr. Dodd gives him the go signal. The horse is so steady, Mr. Dodd can stand in the saddle with no skiddish movements beneath him.

"When I got on this horse he never bucked the first time. If you don't have to teach them not to buck, you're already one step ahead," he said.

Wild horses offer trainers an advantage in some ways, he said. They aren't already trained to bad habits, and they haven't come to take people for granted.

"They are more loyal actually than my horses," Mr. Dodd said. "When you break the ice with them -- and I don't mean by being mean, but by taking your time and breaking the ice -- they'll follow you anywhere. I can point backwards, and he'll walk backward. I can point over here, he'll move over here. They listen to you better."

He said that doesn't mean breaking the ice with Sundance was easy.

"At first it was a brick wall," he said. "I had to wear the same clothes every day. Now he'll come to me, but not to strangers."

Mr. and Mrs. Dodd both ride competitively in barrel racing and cutting events. They laugh that they spent their honeymoon at a competition in Birmingham, Ala. And they help manage the Triple H Equestrian Farm on Flat Top Mountain near Soddy-Daisy. The farm is owned by Mrs. Dodd's family.

She said Sundance will make someone an "awesome" companion and trail horse.

"He's really turned out to be a really nice horse," she said.

She raises her eyebrows at the question of whether Mr. Dodd will be comfortable giving Sundance up for auction. His answer is first no, then yes. Sundance is not "built" for the competitions he enters his horses in.

As he and Sundance trot away for more practice, she smiles.

"He actually has fallen in love with him," she said. "We already have eight horses, and he may still get him back."

E-mail Pam Sohn at psohn@timesfreepress.com

FAST FACT
Since 1973, the Bureau of Land Management has placed more than 216,000 horses and burros into private care through adoption.

WHAT ARE WILD HORSES LIKE?
Every wild horse is different. They come in all shapes and sizes, and each animal has its own personality. They are of no particular breed, although some exhibit characteristics associated with certain breeds. A typical wild horse stands about 13 to 15 hands high (52- 60 inches) and weighs about 700 to 1,000 pounds.

ABOUT THE TRAINER
When Chase Dodd was growing up, he caught fish and cleaned them for his riding coach as payment for riding lessons, he said.

Working with horses was a passion that stayed with him, even in bad times.

"I was 18 when both my parents passed away, and I had house payments to make. We had a horse and I was talking to the guy who was shoeing mine. He was getting about $50 a horse back then," he said.

"I asked him if he shod more than mine in a day, and he said he did about 10 a day. I said 'Whoo.' "

Mr. Dodd said he went to horseshoeing school, and then he began learning how to train horses.

"I'm always trying to learn," he said. "I buy DVDs all the time and go to clinics."

Working with horses is a good living in Tennessee, he said. The Volunteer State has the nation's third largest horse population, he said.

"It's just rough on you," he said. "It kills your back and puts a lot of miles on your vehicle."