ATHOL — The New England Equestrian Center of Athol will play host to the 2022 Massachusetts TIP (Trainer Incentive Program) Challenge on Saturday, Aug. 27. The event, organized by Pete Whitmore of It’s a Pleasure Training, of Orange, gets under way at 10 a.m.
“The overall goal of the event,” Whitmore told the Athol Daily News, “is to reduce the number of BLM — Bureau of Land Management — mustangs in holding facilities. As the Bureau of Land Management determines there are too many horses in a given area, they’ll round them up and, because they’re protected by the U.S. government, they put them in holding facilities where the taxpayers are paying for their care. The goal is to get those animals out of holding facilities and into approved adoptive homes.
“The downside is, these horses have no training. They’re wild, they were born wild, and they can’t be haltered, and they can’t be touched. So, the goal of the program is to take these horses that need training and place them in the hands of experienced young people and adults to give them the training they need. Then, they’re more highly sought after by the general public and they can go into homes and become ‘workable’ animals. They’re given the training they need so that they can be working partners with people.”
Whitmore said he competed in the TIP Challenge a number of years ago. He explained that he and his wife so enjoyed the experience that they wanted to make it more available to other trainers. As a result, they began running the local program about a decade ago.
“It’s for both youth and adults, ages 8 to 18,” Whitmore continued. “They submit an application explaining their abilities, and they have to get letters of reference. So, we vet the applicants pretty well. If approved, they’re given a wild horse. They get to take it home for 100 days.”
All of the horses are between 12 and 24 months old, said Whitmore. All of the animals appearing in the TIP Challenge were transported to Orange from Ewing, Illinois, site of the closest BLM housing facility. They had been herded off of public lands and brought to the holding pen.
“All of these horses were picked up at our facility roughly three months ago,” he explained. “They were wild. They had to be herded onto their trailers.
“Then the kids and adults go home, and they spend 100 days trying to ‘gentle’ this animal, trying to give it the training it needs. The culmination of their efforts — at this event that we’re talking about — is when they come back on the 27th to kind of show off what they have done.” Whitmore said that this year’s challenge features 13 horses and trainers.
“Year in and year out,” he said, “there’s generally between 10 and 20 or 25. Some of the kids have done it numerous times in recent years. So, a lot of them do it for the learning experience; they’re not really looking for a horse themselves. They just enjoy the experience of training one. That’s why some of these animals (on the 27th) will be available for adoption. A lot of the participants can’t keep the animals; they don’t have a facility of their own to keep every horse they work.”
Whitmore explained that horses are still legally owned by the BLM. He said those interested in adopting must keep the animal for a specified period of time before the adoption become final. More than half of the horses taking part in the TIP Challenge are looking for permanent homes, according to Whitmore.
Applications for adoption are available on the BLM website.
“Once their facility is approved,” he said, “then they would go through the process of talking to these trainers and getting an idea of what these horses have done — its attitude, its disposition — and then they can decide if it’s the right fit for them.
“These horses can’t be bought or sold like a domestic horse because for a year the BLM retains title, just to kind of keep track of it for a year after it’s initially adopted. After that, the horse is owned by that person.”
Whitmore grew up with horses, given that his mother owns Crimson Acres in Orange.
“I grew up there, riding horses my whole life, and then it just kind of morphed into this when, about 10 years ago, I heard about this competition. If you can train a mustang, there aren’t a whole lot of domestic horses you won’t be able to train. I’ve trained three horses for these competitions over the years.
“It really shows you a lot about yourself. It’s a humbling experience. Once I went through that journey, so to speak, I thought, man, this is something a lot of the area youth could take advantage of.”
The New England Equestrian Center of Athol (NEECA) is located at 802 New Sherborn Road in Athol. All of the participants receive a stipend for their work and will be competing for thousands of dollars in prize money. First place is worth about $1,500, according to Whitmore, with decreasing amounts given to lower places. Anyone interested in adopting a horse should call Whitmore at 978-652-2231.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com