Emily Sumner works with two wild mustangs at Contry Hill Farm in Mason

Over the past year, Emily Sumner has been putting her hand to a new challenge — breaking and taming a pair of wild mustangs, who she hopes will eventually become part of her roster of lesson horses.

Sumner, owner of Contry Hill Farm in Mason, said it’s her first experience with completely unhandled horses. She said she was looking for some new horses to replace animals that were aging out of her lesson program, and she felt ready to tackle a new level of difficulty.

“I’ve worked with training other horses, but working with one that’s untouched, and unhandled, this was my first time taking on that. I’ve worked with yearlings and young horses, but with that type, they’re unfearful, because they’ve been around humans a lot. With these guys, their exposure to humans is much more limited,” she said.

Sumner knew clients who had adopted wild mustangs before, and said she felt confident moving forward, knowing she had some friends with experience she could count on. Sumner has more than 20 years of experience in horse care and training, and has training in veterinary and equine management.

Sumner purchased the horses, Windy and Stormy, at an online auction put on by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. The Bureau of Land Management manages herds of wild horses and burros across 10 states and 25.5 million acres of public lands. As part of that management, the bureau works to keep herds on population targets, either through birth control or removing excess animals from the range, such as the animals Sumner purchased.

Both Windy and Stormy hail from Nevada, though from different herds. Windy is from the Shawave Mountains herd, about 50 miles from Reno, and Stormy is from the Triple B herd, which is about 30 miles of Ely. Both herds cross hilly, rather rugged terrain, which Sumner said appealed to her, as many of her lesson horses also go out on the trail.

There are requirements for those who are adopting wild horses, including that they have adequate facilities — a separate place to quarantine the animals from other horses, adequate shelter for them and fences high enough that they can’t be jumped, Sumner explained. As unused to humans as these horses are, an escaped mustang is not easily recaught.

Sumner said because she wants these horses to be part of her lesson program, working with children, possibly even brand-new riders, she said her goal has not been speed, but instead building up solid horses that are good around people. That’s a challenge, considering the two horses had only been minimally handled by people, only in their rounding up and some basic vet care, before coming into her hands.

She said her approach has been slow and steady, with some time spent just acclimating them to human presence as she got them accustomed to the idea of a stall and her being around during chores and feeding. It has been a little over a year since she started her journey, and she said they’ve come a long way — both are able to be ridden under saddle, and Windy has been on the trails.

“Some trainers might go faster, but my style is to go slow with each horse I train,” Sumner said. “My goals are a little different. I don’t want them to be trained as fast as possible; I want them to be safe for my program.”

She said that Windy and Stormy are comparatively still young horses at 3 and 4 years old. Horses can live up to 30 years, so she has plenty of time to make sure they’re solid. And, she said, as with anything, everything varies from horse to horse. Stormy is a little more apprehensive, but can become easy and calm once she understands what Sumner’s trying to do. Windy is very friendly and curious, but can also be bossy.

The two horses also bonded with each other, so closely that it became a training challenge, said Sumner.

“What one would react to, the other would react to,” she said.

Eventually, Sumner sent Windy to another trainer for a time, to help each horse focus on their own saddle training. Windy has recently returned to Contry Hill Farm to continue work with Sumner.

Sumner said for all its challenges, she likes the idea of working with a horse from scratch, knowing its full training history and being able to mold the horses for what she needs in her program. She’d definitely adopt another mustang in the future, she said, though she’ll likely only take on one at a time.

For information about Contry Hill Farm, camps or lessons, visit contryhillfarm.com.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.