photo by Ben Hillyer

Natchez horse trainer David Carter trains his horse Silverado at his farm in Kingston. Forty days ago Silverado was a wild mustang from the Federal Bureau of Land Management. Carter is training the horse as part of the Extreme Mustang Makeover competition.

Carter on 40th day of mustang makeover competition

By Ben Hillyer (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Originally published 12:20 a.m., July 27, 2008
Updated 12:20 a.m., July 27, 2008

You might expect former LSU football player David Carter to conjure up images from the gridiron when he talks about his Extreme Mustang Makeover experience.

Forty days into the 100-day horse breaking competition, Carter instead talks of another wildly popular American sport — ballroom dancing.

“It’s all about footwork,” Carter said last week while training Silverado on his Kingston farm. “When you get a horse, you have to learn to control every foot on that horse.”

Over the past few days, Carter has been training his dance partner through a variety of exercises.

From daily runs through an obstacle course to having the mustang stand in place on several small wooden platforms, Silverado has been learning how to control his legs and feet.

Each day the dancing partners learn a new step to add to their routine. This week, Silverado was learning how to move sideways straddling two pipes without hitting them.

For anyone who witnessed the horse on day one, Silverado’s transformation may be nothing more than miraculous.

From a horse that would gallop wildly and instinctually run away from any human contact, Silverado now answers to commands without protest. He even nudges his nose against strangers with curiosity.

In just 40 days, Silverado jumps over barrels, climbs over obstacles and lays on the ground at command, a position Carter says leaves the horse in its most vulnerable position.

“It’s about controlling the horse’s feet — at movement, when they are standing still and when they are laying down,” Carter said.

Even for Carter, Silverado’s progress has exceeded expectations.

“When I first started, my goal after 100 days was to be about where we are right now,” Carter said. “To see that we are only 40 days into it and we are at my 90-day expectation is pretty good.”

“I have had horses that I trained for three months that are not this good.”

Despite his satisfaction, Carter knows there is still a lot of work to be done — and not with just the feet.

“You’ve got to train two parts of the horse,” Carter said. “First is the physical part of the horse, which is the running, the stopping and the turning.”

“Then you have the mental part, Carter said. “That’s the part a lot of people forget.”

Like fine-tuning the dance moves, Carter and Silverado are also honing their mental skills.

“If you don’t have the horse mentally in tune with you, he can be the biggest, strongest and fastest horse there is, but if he doesn’t listen to your cues and watch what he is doing, you have a problem,” Carter said.

As an example, Carter pointed to two or three of the top prospects in last year’s competition that were disqualified because they forgot the course.

“In that way it’s like football,” Carter said. “When you see that 90-yard-long pass, a lot of times it is because someone in the backfield made a mental mistake.

“A lot of football games are lost on a stupid mental play. Same thing here.”

When Carter and Silverado travel to Fort Worth, Texas, in September to compete, they will perform in a large arena filled with more than a thousand spectators.

The environment will be very different from the Carter barn in Kingston.

In order to prepare the horse for the spectacle, Carter recently took Silverado to a horse show in Jackson to get a taste of being around large crowds.

As expected, the new experience began with a few shakes.

“We probably had more than a thousand people screaming. He was horrified,” Carter said. “But after 30 minutes he calmed down.”

Carter had only intended to bring Silverado to Jackson to see the event. Luckily the horse got the chance to do a little performing as well.

With 60 days left before the competition, Carter will be focusing on refining technique and creating a freestyle program that will wow the crowds.

If Carter and Silverado are selected as one of the top 15 finalists, they will perform a five-minute routine of their own creation.

Usually filled with loud music and fancy costumes the freestyle competition is a lot like ballroom dancing.

“Well, maybe more like break dancing,” Carter said.

In the coming days Carter will decide what he will perform for this part of the competition.

The stunts he is considering may include bareback riding, whip popping, sliding and spinning.

“I have to do something that separates him from everybody else,” Carter said. “You hate to sound cocky and say that you are training for the finals, but you have to prepare for it. Because if you make the finals and you have no routine, what are you going to do?”

Whatever he plans to do, Carter knows one thing — he will be ready to dance.