Make, Don’t Break: Photos, Musings and Yoga from the EQUUS Film Fest

Published September 23, 2024

This weekend, my wife Julia and I attended the EQUUS Film and Art Fest and Mustang Summit in Aiken, North Carolina. The event was a showcase for equine art, from films to painting, as well wild horse gentling demonstrations by six mustangers. Okay, there was some yoga, too, which I un-expectedly loved.

Will standing on Rodrigo, during a horse yoga demo. The film fest drew people from all over. That’s Alecz from Colorado (who I’ll introduce later) in the colorful stretch pants. Smiling in the background, is Daniela, who hails from Bermuda.

Julia gave a presentation on her work with the Trust Technique. More on Julia and her work at her blog ConsideringAnimals.com. Unlike traditional horse-breaking skills, which emphasizes submission, the mustang gentling event stressed building up a horse’s spirit. “We make them, not break them,” said Lisa Diersen, who organizes the event.

Too Many Mustangs

It all started with the first horse that escaped from a Conquistador’s grip. Or a small band of horses that swam to shore from a sinking Spanish galleon. Or a Native American fell off his mount and it galloped over the nearest hill. Or a cowboy’s picket broke and his horse wandered off into the desert. One by one, formerly domesticated horses found themselves in the desert, found others to breed with and that’s how the American mustang came to be.

That seems an innocent enough start and leads to the popular image of how mustangs live in the wild. Maybe a small group of horses grazing in the desert. Or a small band seeking shelter in a mountain valley. But that’s not the way it is. Since those first horses found their freedom, their numbers have exploded. And they don’t have the open range to themselves. They have to share the land – and water, and forage – with tens of thousands of cattle turned loose by ranchers on the same land they occupy. Much of this public land.

The problem is that there’s just not enough land for both cattle and mustangs to exist so, over the years, around 80,000 mustangs have been removed from the range and placed into holding pens. There is no good solution on how to cap breeding populations in the wild, so the numbers of mustangs in the wild keeps growing. Every year, thousands more are rounded up with helicopters, ATVs and cowboys and sent to crowded pens and holding yards already full of captured mustangs. There, they await adoption.

How to Break Gentle a Mustang: Then and Now

You can’t just walk up to a wild mustang, throw a saddle on its back and ride away. Well, you could. Watch the wild bronc riding contest at your local rodeo and you’ll see how that goes. Instead, you have to break the mustang to the saddle. You want your ride to last longer than eight seconds.

Twila Merrill bucking out a bronco. This is the way mustangs used to get “broken” to the saddle. Twilla was a legendary bronc rider I interviewed for my documentary The Lost Sea Expedition (more on that in a sec). More on Twilla in this article I wrote about her Ain’t a Cowgirl That Can’t Get Throwed.

Break. That’s the traditional word for what you do to transform a mustang from something wild and free to something that will carry you all day in the saddle. Traditionally, this was done through force. You saddled the never-before-ridden horse, some fearless kid got on and the horse bucked until it was exhausted. Or the kid got hurled off. There were other, techniques, too. There was the snubbing post, a heavy post set in the middle of an arena. The unbroke horse was tied to post and left for hours, often days, until it was worn out. Then it was saddled. The horse often struggled and fought but, because it was tied to a stout post sunk deeply into the ground, it couldn’t put up much of a fight, so, eventually it resigned itself to having someone on its back.

That’s how the word “broke” came to be. You broke, literally shattered, the animal’s spirit and body into pieces. Then, you put it back together. On the surface, it often appeared the animal was now a good citizen under saddle. It could be ridden, walked, jogged, cantered and eventually used as a working horse.

What we’ve learned in recent years, and some people knew all along, was that when a horse is “broken” through force, something inside that horse much more important that the horse’s spirit is broken, and that’s its nervous system.

That’s the way it used to be done.

The new way of transitioning a wild mustang from the open range to the arena is a gentler method, based on trust, co-operation and respect for the horse, as opposed to force, an agenda and a result. This is called “gentling”, and is where the Mustang Summit comes in.

Gentling: Make, Don’t Break

The Mustang Summit highlights gentling, as opposed to breaking, mustangs so they can find new homes off the range. This year, six weanlings from holding pens out West came to the event to be gentled. Each of the yearlings was paired with a mustanger (a person that works with mustangs). The mustanger and his or her mustang would spend the next three days together, building mutual trust and helping the formerly wild horse transition to a new life among people. At the end of the auction, the mustangs would be auctioned off in a silent bid. Proceeds from the auction would go to the Aiken Equine Rescue, which hosted the event.

The following are some photos from the event you’ll enjoy.

The mustangers lined up on the opening evening of the mustang summit to find out which mustang they’re working with. Each of the mustang’s name and history was written on a scroll which was handed out, at random, to the mustangers. They are: Rob West, Brian Smith, Nicola Bolt, Lisa Diersen (organizer), Annamaria Sims, Sky Epperson (working together), Alecz Adams, and Bruce Anderson.

The young mustangs in their pens. The mustangs were kept in large, individual pens. Each mustang had plenty of fresh water, hay and enough space to get away from people. Kudos to organizer Lisa Diersen and event organizers for providing the mustangs with a peaceful setting.

Nicola Bolt working with the mustang she drew. The calm look on the mustang’s eyes says it all. Though the emphasis was on gentling, Nicola did an especially good job combining gentling techniques with trust and skills her mustang would need in its new home. Of all the mustangers who participated, her approach aligned the most with how I like building a foundation of trust with equines. Well done, Nicola.

Okay, There Was Yoga and a Film Fest, Too

The mustang summit wasn’t just about gentling mustangs. There were all sorts of demos, including my favorite, equine yoga with Alecz Adams of 10th Mountain Equine.

Alecz (cetner of photo) teaching us a stretching exercise. Will, whose family drove all the way down from Maryland, is sitting on Rodrigo. Guenevere, Rodrigo’s owner, is holding him.

This photo captures the joy. That’s Julia holding her hands together. The smiles capture the moment.

Julia rocking the Frog Pose while Daniela prepares to stand up on Rodrigo’s back.

Now if I could just find a photo of me doing the camel pose in my polka dotted, bucking bronco shirt….

Meanwhile, A Film Fest Was Going On

While all this mustang gentling and yoga was going on, the EQUUS Film and Art Festival was also underway. My documentary The Lost Sea Expedition, about my wagon voyage across America, was featured as Saturday’s feature film.

Onscreen me meeting real life me (that’s me in the hat sitting in the front row). This is the scene from The Lost Sea Expedition where I deal with a hungry bull nosing around my wagon. You can stream the Lost Sea Expedition on Amazon. (Thanks, Bruce Anderson, for the photo)

Click on the Play button to watch The Lost Sea Expedition trailer

A Few More Pics

Honey, a friend and Ginger. Ginger is a Marsh Tack, also known as a Florida Cracker Horse. Marsh Tacks are a type of gaited mustang that originated in Florida. I complimented Ginger (on the right) on her pink trailer and she said, “I bought a gallon of pink paint that was on sale and my son had misbehaved so I had him paint my trailer with it.” Groovy trailer. Groovy mom.

Daniela doing the Tree Pose while Alecz offers a hand. Read more about Alecz and her husband Russell’s work with equine assisted activities at 10ME.org.

Julia and I set up for the night in our tiny camper. The black and white horse in the background is Woodrow. Woodrow had lived as a stallion on the open plain until not too long ago.

Home again! Our wagon and pickup back after a 500-mile road trip. We hauled the wagon to the EQUUS Film and Art Fest and Mustang Summit so we could stay in it over the long weekend.

Thanks

None of this mustang gentling and movie screening would have happened without a bonkers-amount of help from the following:

Lisa Diersen and all the folks with the EQUUS Film and Arts Festival for putting on the whole shebang
Aiken Equine Rescue for hosting the event
All the vendors, from Steebo and Mark with Draft Barn Hardware to the food vendors serving up everything from barbecue to empanadas
The Mustangers. Julia and I sure enjoyed catching up with you guys
All the clinicians and presenters, including my favorite, mustanger and all-around-spark Alecz Adams of 10th Mountain Equine, who introduced Julia and me to equine yoga

Steebo and Mark with Draft Barn Hardware, which specializes in oversized, US-built, hardware. Think all those huge hinges and latches you can’t but at home improvement store. Julia and I can’t wait mount the tie-ring we bought from them on our hay barn.

Julia and I also got the chance to meet and hang out with new friends. We especially enjoyed meeting Wayne Ewing, documentary film maker, polo player and great story teller. We loved Wayne’s upcoming series Polo Es Mi Vida (Polo is my Life). How can you not love a story that involves polo ponies, Hunter Thompson, two broken wrists and a seemingly endless volume of humor, grit and archival footage spanning Ronald Regan, Jimmy Carter to Dr Gonzo? More about Wayne here on his website. Click on the player below to watch the trailer fo Polo Es Mi Vida.

Another shout out to Julianne Neal, who attended with mustanger Bruce Anderson, for sitting down with Julia and me and sharing her role in the Mustang Discovery Ride. She and Lisa Diersen were instrumental in organizing this cross-country ride. Julianne was heavily involved with filming the ride and generously shared what she learned form the experience. Click on the video below for more on the Mustang Discover Ride.

More about the EQUUS Film and Art Fest and Mustang Summit at EQUUSFilmFestival.net.

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