Hometown Living At Its Best 93
And if something needs to be fixed, he’s
the one who does it.”
Sandra received her first wild
mustangs in 2016. “Most of my
mustangs come from the BLM facility
in Oregon. They come to me totally
untouched,” said Sandra. “When you
step in there with them, they want to
get away from you because they see
you as a predator. These wild mustangs
are totally different than a domestic
horse. They depend on their senses to
know danger in the wild, and you have
to learn to read their signs.”
Marketing is also the responsibility
of the TIP trainer. Once a potential
adoptee is approved by the BLM, the
TIP trainer can be reimbursed (up to a
certain amount). According to the
BLM website, “The success of the
TIP program led to the expansion of
the Storefront Program, a program
designed for qualified TIP trainers
with the training facilities capable
of receiving 12 or more mustangs.”
This exclusive program is
designated only for qualified, vetted
trainers.
As a Storefront, Sandra can also
serve as a temporary holding and
pick up location for other Trainer
Incentive Program (TIP) and
Storefront trainers and adopters,
she explained. According to a
January 25, 2018, BLM Oregon
and Washington Facebook post,
Sandra is one of 410 TIP trainers
across the U.S., and one of only 14
Storefronts. To her knowledge, she
is the only one presently sending
these horses to adoptees overseas.
Over the past 2 ½ years, Sandra
and her team have gentled about
200 mustangs. The most she’s had
at her facility at one time was 100.
Last year, she sent five shipments of
mustangs by plane from Atlanta to
Frankfurt, Germany. In addition to
Germany, Sandra’s mustangs have
been gentled for adoptees in Finland,
Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands,
and Austria. In 2018, Governor Nathan
Deal presented her with the Georgia
Global Award for exports.
The day of my interview with
Sandra, she led me to a round corral
where Josh Lynn, one of the employees
at Raquettown Mustangs, attempted
to catch the lead rope on a newlyarrived
mustang. Every time he got
a little close, the mustang bolted. “It
takes some time to build trust to just
get so close to pick up that rope,” said
Sandra. “It could take an hour or two
days or two weeks. It all depends on
the horse. When you walk in there,
they can already see what you were
thinking. If you want to control your
horse, you’ve got to control yourself.”
This particular mustang was one
of 18 headed for Germany in a few
weeks for the second annual German
Mustang Makeover. Modeled after the
American Mustang Makeover, which
is now in its twelfth consecutive
year, trainers are given only 100 days
“to prepare to compete in a series
of classes that will showcase their
new skills. The horses will compete
in handling and conditioning, a
mustang maneuvers class and a trail
class…. At the conclusion of the
event all horses will be available to
the public by competitive bid,” (www.
extrememustangmakeover.com). It
was hard to imagine the wild mustang
running from Josh ready to compete
with only 100 days of training.
It takes time just to halter a wild
mustang and do something as simple
as lead him through an alleyway. “My
focus is for them to trust me enough
that I can walk him with a lead rope
over this tarp, through the alley, and
into a trailer, so they can be ready to
get on the plane safely,” said Sandra
pointing to a tarp she had intentionally
placed in the alley for training
purposes.
In addition to the 18 mustangs
she’s sending for the Makeover event,
there will be another 14 traveling
to Germany that have already been
adopted. Ann Vanderhorn, Sandra’s
closest friend and an invaluable part of
everything at Raquettown Mustangs,
is the one who usually travels on the
plane with the mustangs.
In another corral, Tommy Slack,
a former Marine with eight months
of his service spent in Afghanistan,
walked into a round pen with one
of the newest arrivals. “Tommy just
comes to help when he can,” said
Sandra. The metal rails rattled as the
horse kicked and bucked. “Tommy,
when he looks at you, turn and walk
away,” she instructed. “That will take
away the pressure he feels,” she added
for my benefit. Tommy did exactly as
she instructed, and the change was
immediate. The mustang’s defensive
/extrememustangmakeover.com