With $50,000 on the line for the winner of the $100,000 Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover, entries rolled into the Mustang Heritage Foundation office. At the deadline, 83 trainers and iconic American Mustangs entered for the August 13-14 event at the Will Rogers Memorial Complex in Fort Worth, Texas. Entries were received from 23 states from Alabama to Wyoming.
The Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover is the richest wild horse competition in history and is modeled after the highly successful Extreme Mustang Makeover events that began in 2007. However, unlike the Extreme Mustang Makeover where trained horses are made available to the public for adoption after the event, adoption of the competition horses was required prior to the event.
Mustangs competing in the Supreme event are 6-years-old, which is older than those 3- and 4-year-olds typically competing in other Extreme Mustang Makeover events.
"With $100,000 up for grabs, we anticipate a very exciting finals performance on Saturday night," said Mustang Heritage Foundation Executive Director Patti Colbert. "The Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover is designed to showcase the heart and ability of American Mustangs and prove that older Mustangs are very trainable and adoptable."
Competition will be similar to that of the Extreme Mustang Makeover, which requires the trainer to ride the horse through a series of obstacles and complete basic maneuvers, such as a walk, trot and lope, stop and back.
It will also include a horsemanship and trail riding component as well as a challenging cow work sequence. Twenty finalists will compete in a freestyle competition to determine the winner and spectators are sure to enjoy what has become a thrilling event full of incredible horsemanship flavored with tricks, mounted shooting and even more surprises.
At the time of the August competition, trainers will have had approximately 120 days to get their horses ready for the competition.
The competition begins each day at 8 a.m., and entry to preliminary competition is free. Finals on Saturday, August 14 begin at 6 and tickets are still available.
The BLM estimates that more than 38,000 wild horses and burros are roaming on BLM-managed rangelands in 10 Western states. Wild horse herd sizes can double about every four years. As a result, the agency must remove thousands of animals from the range each year to control population. Since 2007, the Mustang Heritage Foundation has placed more than 2,000 wild horses for adoption. For more information on the Mustang Heritage Foundation or the Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover, visit www.mustangheritagefoundation.org.
