Reining & Cutting
The
Kiger Mustang is a horse that has inherited from it progenitors five
hundred years of conformation, temperament,and “Cow Since” that make
it ideal for reining and cutting events. SpringWater Station
The Kiger Mustang has a low head carriage and sound legs, as Mother Nature breeds them sound or dead, an overall balance and sloping shoulders and muscled hindquarters.
A perfect combination of desirable characteristics; agility, strength, beauty, great intelligence and courage. For three hundred years, in the wild interior of the American west, this great horse tested its mettle, as a tailor-made buffalo horse and later an ideal cow-pony for the American cowboy and it never lost it cutting edge.
It was in the hands of the bull owners of Spain and Portugal that the progenitors of the Kiger Mustang earned its reputation as the greatest stock-working animal in the equine world. In the valley of the Guadalquiver River Spanish Vaqueros used this horse in handling temperamental bulls. Few horses would feel comfortable working these dangerous animals, yet these horses appeared to delight in the work. With incredible speed and handiness, they maneuver an anger bull, dodging in and out barely missing the hooking horns when the bull charges. SpringWater Station
By the 1700’s the early Kiger changed the entire culture of the American Plains Indian as the became the tailor made buffalo-horse. Charging into a running herd of wild bison with little more than a lance the warriors would bring down the young bulls, that would feed a village. SpringWater Station
By the early 1800’s the progenitors of the Kiger were enlisted to gather millions of wild longhorn cattle off the Texas range. These horses were ridden by a breed of men as wild as the longhorns and as tough as the horses they rode. The Kiger swam every river from Texas to Canada, enduring stampedes, tornadoes, hailstorms and freezing blizzards. They did it all the while foraging on bunch grass and bitter brush without grain. They came through it with their eye alert, their heads up and ready.
But, by the 1900’s these great horses that had worked the bulls of Spain, been a tailor-made buffalo pony and more than a match for the snaky longhorn were thought by many horse enthusiasts to be extinct. Imagine the delight of Ron Harding a BLM wildhorse specialist when in 1977 he heard of a special kind of mustang reported in a remote area of South Eastern Oregon, that carried the color, conformation and primitive marking of the original Spanish Horse. It was true.
The BLM immediately gathered this small head of twenty-seven horses and took them to the wild horse facility in Burns Oregon. A genetic treasure had been found. The BLM set aside two Horse Management Areas for the horses and released twenty into Kiger Gorge and seven into Riddle Mountain HMA so that in the event of a natural catastrophe this genetic treasure would not all be lost.
The Rest of the Story
In 1990, Bobby Ingersoll, three time World Champion and the NRCHA’s 1996 Hall of Fame inductee, was in Burns, Oregon judging the Bell A Ranch Cutting competition. While in Burns he meet two BLM employees that told him about the Kiger Mustangs. Bobby accepted an invitation to visit the BLM corrals and see first hand a few Kiger Mustangs. A two-year-old Kiger colt captured his attention. Bobby was interested in the way the Kiger colt herded another horse in the pens by putting him through the same type of controlled movements found in the performance arena. Bobby Ingersoll adopted the Kiger colt later to be named Kiger Cougar. “I have never worked with a horse so intelligent and willing to please”
In 1992 Kiger Cougar was shown at the Paso Robles county fair. He won first place over all the other breeds in the Snaffle Bit Class. The following month, Cougar was shown at the World’s Champion Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno NV. He placed twenty-first out of 150 horses mostly registered American Quarter Horses. Bobby is quoted as saying, “ he would have placed better, but I missed the stop not the Cougar.”
Cougar was syndicated in 1992 for one million dollars. In 1993 he was retired to stud, breeding a limited number of mares belonging to the foundation. Then, in 1994, the foundation was asked to consider sending Kiger Cougar to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington KY. It was hard to let him go, but the decision was made that the best use of Kiger Cougar was to permanently represent the Kiger Mustang heritage.
Bobby said, “Cougar symbolizes the free spirit of America and shows the courage and commitment that is the foundation of our Nation.”
If you are looking for stunning Dun and Grulla beauty, for horses enthusiasts seeking the most noble of companions combining spirit with gentleness, for the reiner who wants an easy, fast leaner with unsurpassed collection and supreme athletic ability, the choice is the Kiger Mustang. SpringWater Station
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SpringWater Station. All Rights Reserved.
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