Napoleon

I had some inkling of what adopting a BLM Mustang entailed and with Napoleon we were looking at a failed attempt. He had come off the range as a 18 month old and had already covered a mare. Once in captivity, he was strong and his new people were not. I sometimes wonder what kind of companion he might have been if a more experience person had adopted him.

We knew we needed a person who had experience with Mustangs and after several phone calls we found Jeff Spencer of Spencer Training http://www.spencertraining.com/. Jeff took Napoleon for 30 days telling us there would be no problem helping Napoleon become our “first” horse.

30 days stretched into 40, 45, 50 and Joe, who was taking Jeff’s horsemanship classes, finally asked when he could ride Napoleon. After all 30 days had come and gone…we were still a little green as you can tell. What happened next was the beginning of our official life with horses.

Jeff told Joe that he didn’t feel safe having Joe ride Napoleon. Jeff’s apprentice could take Napoleon out and have a good steady mount for three days and then on the fourth it was like the last three never existed. Jeff did not feel good about us taking him home; he knew we would get hurt.

Joe knew what the next move needed to be and asked Jeff what he could do for Napoleon so that he could find a job somewhere and have a good life in domestication. It became a point of honor for Jeff to find that place. Napoleon went on to be a pack horse in Montana somewhere and the last we heard was doing a fine job.

The next point was, I wanted a horse. Joe knew I would want the best for Napoleon and would understand the safety issue, but I wanted a horse. It just so happened that very day Jeff received a letter from a client who moved to Spokane as a result of a job transfer. She was keeping her horse at Jeff’s until she could find a place for him. What she discovered was, she could not afford to bring him with her and she had written Jeff to find a good home for him.

So Jeff told Joe, “I may have a horse she would like”. They went out to the pasture and Joe knew right away this was the one. He wrote a check and headed home to tell me the news.

to be continued…