How to Bond With a Wild Mustang

Sit in the middle of the pen. You do not want to be too close to the sides of the pen, where you could be cornered. Do not face the horse directly, and act very casual. Put the horse's hay and water about 20 to 30 feet away from where you sit. It may take a long time for the horse to come eat his hay. The best results happen if the horse has no access to hay or water when you are not there, but if the horse goes more than 18 hours without drinking, it is advisable to give him access to water. Gradually bring the hay closer to where you sit. Timing is everything: Do not move closer immediately after the horse makes progress, or he will decide that coming closer to you was a bad idea. Only move closer to the hay once the horse looks very comfortable with you at your current distance or if the horse temporarily walks away. It may take hours or weeks until the horse is comfortable sharing space with you.

Teach your mustang to play "good idea, bad idea." For this game, when your horse ignores you, turns from you or runs away, you let him know it was a bad idea. If the horse merely ignores you, stare at him intently and shuffle your feet or snap your fingers just enough to get his attention. If he turns away from you, pretend you are stalking him like a tiger. Stare intently and slowly walk towards him in a crouched, menacing way. If your horse runs away, use a rope or training stick to drive him around the pen. When your horse looks at you, comes or turns to you, let him know this is a great idea. Take away any pressure you were putting on him and look away. Back up or turn and walk away. You need to be very quick at reading your horse's body language and responding accordingly. If the horse glances away, then you should give him the stare; if he immediately looks back at you, then you should quickly relax and smile or look away -- this could be repeated five times in five seconds. If you are driving the horse away because he ran off, look for the slightest sign of him looking back at you. Maybe he dropped his head a few inches in submission, or turned an ear towards you. If you drive him three or four laps and there does not seem to be a change, suddenly take the pressure off and back up away from him quickly to see if he stops and looks your way. You are teaching him that good things happen when he looks at you, and bad things happen when he tries to escape. You may be able to use this method to entice the mustang to follow you or reach out and touch your hand.

Rub the mustang with a long pole. By now, you can get pretty close to your wild horse and you may be petting him already, but there is a big difference between petting his muzzle and touching his legs and belly. It is safer to use a pole or stick to rub the horse all over. It does not hurt you at all if the horse kicks the pole. Gradually get closer to the horse as you rub. You can eventually trade your long pole for a shorter stick, and then start to use your hand. Do not trap the horse -- always give him an escape route. Horses are flight or fight animals, so make sure you give the horse the option to flee.

Rub your horse with many items, such as brushes, ropes, saddle pads, etc. When you can rub the mustang's face with a halter without any problems, you can then put it on him and begin teaching him to respond to pressure.

Learn to control the mustang's feet by applying steady pressure until he moves away from the pressure. That may be moving his shoulder over, or getting him to walk forward to relieve the pressure of the halter, or to move his feet in any other way. Early in this relationship you were building trust, but a true bond also requires respect. Any horse can act snotty if he thinks he is the dominant one in the relationship, but mustangs in particular can be aggressive towards subordinate herd members, so teach your horse to respect your space and submit to pressure to ensure that you are not the subordinate character in the relationship.