Extreme Makeover - Mustang Style

Here is an amazing story about two brothers and how they train wild mustangs so people want to adopt them and give them good homes.  I like this story because I know there are people helping to stop horse slaughter, but we still need more help so it is banned for good.
Go Jauregui Brothers!!!!!!!!!

~Declan

Jauregui brothers work to tame wild mustangs

Group needs homes for gentled horses

5:59 AM, Mar. 10, 2012  |  

Jesus “Chewy” Jauregui performs a rope trick while standing on the back of Denali, a wild Mustang that he has been training since Jan. 27. Pamela Parks/For the Door County Advocate

Written by

Pamela Parks

Advocate correspondent

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For more information on the Extreme Mustang Makeover project adopting a mustang, or the natural horsemanship skills of Chewy Jeuregui, contact him at his "Hands Horsemanship" ranch at (920) 493-1127 or chewyj75@yahoo .com. More information about the Mustang Heritage Foundation, visit www.mustangheritage foundation.org.

Jesus "Chewy" Jauregui rides around his arena with Denali, deftly maneuvering around obstacles, and up onto a small wooden bridge. It's hard to imagine that this calm and skillful horse was a wild mustang untouched by any human's hand just a few short weeks ago. It is even more spectacular to watch Chewy slowly twirl a lasso and throw it around a nearby cone — all the while standing atop his saddle on the back of Denali, who patiently waits for him to finish.

Denali was given to Chewy to train by the Mustang Heritage Foundation (MHF). He has less than three months to work with the horse but his progress already can be seen.

With just a look and a tilt of his head or turn of his body, Chewy communicates with Denali, who seems to understand just what she needs to do — come closer, follow, back up. Quiet, natural horsemanship skills is what Chewy teaches — both to horses and to humans. His success is built upon trust — between horse and rider — and skill.

"The No. 1 important thing is to tame the horse, to gain the horse's trust," Chewy said. "We don't want to see the horse be afraid or intimidated. We want a nice and calm horse."

Chewy and his brother, Teo, began training two mustangs on Jan. 27 on Chewy's ranch in Baileys Harbor. Denali is Chewy's seventh mustang and Golden Girl is Teo's first. The mustangs were removed from protected lands in Nevada by the Bureau of Land Management(BLM), There are nearly 30,000 wild horses in 10 western states and the BLM works to relocate or find good homes for the horses to keep their population in check.

In the Extreme Mustang Makeover program, horse trainers have less than 100 days — in Chewy and Teo's case about 85 days — to take wild horses and train them to compete in a serious horse show. Chewy and Teo will compete at the Midwest Horse Show on April 21-22 in Madison. Top finalists compete for cash prizes, but that is not the main motivation for the Jaureguis.

"We train the mustangs for so many reasons but No. 1 is so that the horses can find a good home," Chewy said. "We are working with the horses, challenging the horses, so we can let people see what a mustang can do and so they can be adopted."