Features

Mustang Trainer Kitty Lauman

On the Road to The Extreme Makeover
Kitty has a Method to the Mustang

 

Talk about a hand with a horse. There are numerous highly respected horse trainers and “hands” out there, but few of those have also followed a trail that led to training an American “dynasty”—the wild mustang. To train one, a person must  have a high regard and understanding of their regal spirits and internal family structures.

 

Long-time horse trainer Kitty Lauman is just such an individual. She combines a true respect for these noble and proud creatures with gentle training tactics that allow her to be a trusted member of their “herd” so to speak. Consequently, 50-percent of her business constitutes training mustangs, and she’s the defending reserve champion of last year’s premier Extreme Mustang Makeover competition. Produced by the Mustang Heritage Foundation, the event as a whole featured 100 days, for 100 selected trainers, to train or “makeover” 100 selected wild mustangs.

 

Back trails
Lauman trained her first horse at age nine, with grandpa’s help. In fact, her grandpa John Sharp pioneered the bamboo pole technique of training in the 1930s, she mentioned. He worked with untouchable and problem horses, and used a bamboo stick to slowly gain trust without trying to walk up and touch the animal. His granddaughter continues to use the technique to this day, as it is tried and true.

 

“What a mustang fears most is contact; they don’t know if you are a cougar or a friend,” she explained. “The bamboo stick is an extension of your arm. You start by getting the horse to accept contact in front of his withers for example, where the mother would stroke. Initially, the horse may still be scared, but as he accepts it you can then use the fiddler’s technique, meaning to rub back and forth on their body,” she said. “It’s a very gentle, non-threatening way to move closer and closer until you can make contact.”

 

At Lauman Training, based in Prineville, Oregon, she and husband Rick live with their little cowpokes—5-year-old Tanner and soon-to-be 2-year-old Josie. Laumans train full time, both domestic horses and mustangs, for various disciplines and events. But back in 1999 is when they first signed a contract to gentle older, unadoptable mustangs.

 

“We worked with about 36 mustangs in a six-month period, and they averaged 8 or 9 years of age. We learned a lot!” she confessed.

 

Making over mustangs
That first deal came to pass via the Burns, Oregon, holding facility for mustangs. Lauman had come to know them over the years, and when they heard about the new Extreme Mustang Makeover event and opportunity, they encourage Lauman to apply. “As it drew closer, it took quite a commitment, but I really wanted to do it, so my husband agreed,” she laughed (based on the promise he could resume his mounted shooting schedule in 2008, mind you).

 

So, the Lauman’s picked up “Ranger”—her randomly drawn mustang partner, on June 6, 2007. “The Mustang Heritage Foundation tried to make everything even for the 100 chosen trainers (out of 200 applications). The horses were very uniform, around the same ages, colors, and were all geldings,” she explained.

 

Ranger was taken back home, and the makeover began. It was new to the horse, but old hat to the trainer. Seven years ago, she had chosen and trained a mustang she calls “Tonto,” now her main mount in Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association (CMSA) events. Aboard him, Lauman has won two shooting buckles and some horse shows to boot.

 

“He’s solid, fantastic, a great learning horse, and  he’s taken me to level two (in shooting events). He could take me to level three if I could hit the balloons, but I tend to miss” she laughed.

 

Overall, she had already trained about a dozen mustangs for the sport. While one would think a good, desensitized, pocket pet, humanized horse would be a better fit—Lauman finds otherwise.

 

“There are good shooting horses in all breeds, but mustangs are really good at it because they don’t worry or fret over nothing,” she explained. “What is surprising is that they are calm, in general. You have your more energetic ones, like Ranger, who go to higher levels. Others, like Tonto, are more laid back and consistent by nature. He makes the same run every time. That is nice, because if you start a hotter-style mustang it is  harder not to fight and get frustrated. Most of them are more low key; if they are started and handled right the whole family can use them,” she said. “And there are no better trail horses out there!”

 

But how exactly does one train a mustang, much less any horse, in 100 days? The same way as usual, while upping the tempo as little and wisely as possible.

 

“You have to get one well broke, responsive, listening and able to handle pressure, especially before you progress to shooting,” she said. “After I get that initial contact as described, I follow up with a flag, but I don’t just do things like disengaging the hind quarters like many clinicians do. I want the whole body to move and arc out away from me,” Lauman explained. “Once he handles that stress, which a mustang does well as long as he understands, I’ll go to riding and start turning circles, which is what he knows from the ground work. He can also see me, the saddle, and what is worrying  him. Ideally, before I progress to shooting, I want that horse to have enough handle to ride one-handed with my fingertips,” she continued. “Due to the short time frame, I’m going to have to go back and work on that with Ranger,” she laughed.

 

To expose Ranger to gunfire, the usual routine was also followed. Lauman described that she likes to ride a green horse amongst a group of veteran shooting horses, while someone standing in the middle fires the gun. Once the green horse does not react, the group rides ever closer. The key is to avoid jerking on the green horse when he reacts; that makes gunfire relate to pain. Eventually, it comes down to riding beside one trained shooting horse, with his rider firing the weapon. When that’s okay, the weapon is passed to Lauman on the green horse and she fires, first at the 5 o’clock position, then 3, and ultimately 2 o’clock. “I find most mustangs accept gunfire more readily than a domestic horse,” she said. “They understand it is not chasing them, so it isn’t traumatic.”

 

As competition day arrived down in the Lone Star state, Ranger was ready to strut his stuff. Lauman explained that the competition was based on 20-percent conditioning of the horse, 30-percent on in-hand groundwork obstacles (such as loading, navigating cones and picking up the feet), then the rest was judged on the riding portion consisting of many required maneuvers like stops, roll backs, lead changes, backing through Ls, and obstacle courses. Lauman and Ranger were up against some of the top professional reiners, cutters, dressage riders, and colt starting gurus in business today, she said, from all disciplines and walks of life.

 

When the pistol smoke cleared, Lauman and Ranger were reserve champs. They had done everything but whistle Dixie together but may have, given more time. They out-stopped most reiners, sorted through most of the cutters, and finished by running a mounted shooting pattern, making the top 10 and freestyle round, and capped it all by mounting a pedestal and firing again. That received the only standing ovation of the day from over 4,000 spectators, plus the “Audience Choice” award.

 

“Another competitor shot, but didn’t negotiate a pattern,” Lauman said. “At 100 days, Ranger would actually do a flying lead change on cue, not just because he changed direction,” she added, obviously in admiration. “He is so athletic, he far exceeded what I thought he’d be willing to do. But they grow up in family groups, and learn to interact, and if a mustang is working with you, he will usually excel very well. I love mounted shooting, it is so family-oriented, and Ranger took the training in stride, and let me shoot off him at almost 2 o’clock already at the makeover,” she continued. “We did great, he was young, we made a few mistakes, but we’re tickled. We’re a Christian-based family, and I know God helped me with this one!” she said.

 

Amongst the known horseback heroes and icons, Lauman was just honored to “pop out” and was thrilled with the event. “The Mustang Heritage Foundation did a fabulous job putting this together. It was very efficient, they stuck to their timetable, and it was professionally done,” she said. “It really opened people’s eyes to mustangs and mounted shooting I think. I’d love to do it again!”   

 

Horizons
As for Ranger, he was sold at auction after the event like the rest of the mustangs.

 

Don’t shoot.
He was bought by one Kitty Lauman who spent her earnings from the event, plus a little, to purchase him as the third high-selling horse of the sale. And soon, after going back and fixing some hurried basics, Ranger is due to take his role as her number one CMSA shooting mount.

 

Her original goal for entering was to “show people how nice mustangs can be.” And that she has—for a long, long time. This was just the cherry on top. Grandpa, and all others, can be very, very proud.

 

So can Ranger. His breed is a predecessor to many, including the American Quarter Horse and more. He’s a living testimony and reflection of his kind, proving adaptability, toughness and loyalty—the very reason the breed lives on.  And again, he accepts change—maybe because he loves and trusts his trainer and knows a kind hand when he feels it. Or, more nostalgically, maybe it’s because the echo of long-ago gunfire still runs in the blood and rings in the ears; it’s only “unfamiliar” to the humans. Either way, he’s a grand icon of a lasting American legacy and as the Mustang Heritage Foundation says, of “our land, and our horses.”  

 

For more information, visit Kitty Lauman at www.laumantraining.com, or for information on upcoming “makeover” events visit www.mustangheritagefoundation.org.

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