Book & DVD Reviews

The Complete Guide on Training

A Wild or Unhandled Horse

Mikey Porter

Twisted Horse Publishing

Soft Cover, 2010, $24.95

ISBN: 978-0-9793211-2-2

Available on www.amazon.com

Reviewed by Carol M. Upton – www.dreamsaloud.ca

First published in Horses All - www.horsesall.com

Refrain from judging your progress on how long it took someone else to gain the respect of their Mustang…yours is an altogether different horse with different issues. The horse and the safety of the two of you should be your foremost concern. ~ Mikey Porter

Mikey Porter is a passionate ambassador for the wild horse and with Wild Expectations, will be instrumental in changing how equestrians view and gentle the Mustangs entrusted to their care. The book is unique and so needed at this time, when wild or free-roaming horses are being rounded up and made adopted in record numbers. Sadly, some of these animals end up labeled “unmanageable” and in auction kill pens, largely because regular training methods do not work with them.

Porter’s foundation is that these horses are no different than any other wild creature. They have generations of genetics as prey animals and an enormous fear of humans. Porter begins at the adoption facility, explaining how to size up disposition in the pen. She moves on to transportation and settling issues, always emphasizing that slowly taming is the most important part of the process, along with extreme patience and consistency.

Each chapter covers a different phase of handling and includes such sections as a Lesson Goal, Preparation, step-by-step Lesson, and potential problems for that phase. Most training books do not cover what goes on in the mind of the feral horse, but Porter lives there. The format is simple even for a novice horse trainer, and the advanced handler will benefit from Porter’s comprehensive experience with these animals.

Wild Expectations is essential reading for anyone who hopes to obtain the best from a horse that has once run free.

Ms “Mikey” Porter was riding horses before she could walk. One of the first female jockeys in the early 1950's, she began training horses in that same decade. She has specialized in the unique art of taming and training Mustangs for the past seventeen years. Visit Mikey at: http://mikeyporter.com/