Jim,
I need to once again thank you for what you did for Riddick. You helped him get over that hump and helped me realize why I didn’t get him there! You will never truly understand how much this meant to me. I was a basket case trying to figure out how to get where we needed to be and yet everyone was telling me different things. You got me set right.
Riddick is a Mustang who was in his second adoption and still not gentled. I discovered him in a 30×16 paddock made of privacy fencing in my neighbor’s backyard. He was starved, had explosive diarrhea and was terribly dehydrated. He was approximately 450lbs underweight, or more, and scored a 1.5 on the Henneke scale.
My neighbor’s son told me that they snubbed him to a pole, saddled him, then his friend got on him. Riddick threw him and the kid ended up in the hospital. After that, they never messed with the horse again. That’s how I found him—starving. When we saw him for the first time, our mouths dropped. Skin and bones is all we saw. The horse was dragging his feet as he walked with his head low as he had no strength.
The halter the boy put on this horse is one of those shipping halters. You pull on the lead and it tightens across the cheeks and over the poll. It was pretty tight and rubbing so much I was starting to think it was becoming embedded.
I worked with the BLM to have the horse relinquished into my care. Being that this horse was not tame and I couldn’t touch him and I was out to try other methods. Tranquilizers in the grain, trap in the stall…trying to force gentle him, tranquilizer gun, round-penning and slow gentle. Nothing worked.
At my wit’s end, I Googled ‘MUSTANG TRAINERS IN NORTH CAROLINA’ and came up with the Bar T and Jim’s name. I emailed both him and the USERL for help/advice. Out of money and I really needed someone to help me as a charity case.
Jim answered immediately. He said he’d get that halter off in one day and he’d leave us so that I could touch Riddick and begin working with him. One week later Jim shows up and works his magic. PHENOMENAL trainer! No undo pressure that stresses the horse. It was a complete learning experience for Riddick and now he can get over that hump of not trusting people.
Jim, my hat off to you. I cried a lot while I filmed you working with Riddick and I can’t stop crying with how grateful I am that you helped. You don’t find too many people in this world that will go out of their way to help a stranger.
God has a special place for you…you are not forgotten! Riddick is much happier too! A load of stress off his mind!
God bless!
Carrie Munroe
Mount Olive, N.C.