Welcome to the Magic!

Wild horse trainer and wild horse — Connecting with the Wild Horse is art and science.

El Jefe had been gathered from the central Rio Grande Valley as an adult stallion before he landed at an equine rescue. He wasn’t taking to domestication easy, he pinned his ears and threatened to kick anyone who came into his pen. No one could work with him at the rescue, so they sent him to me. I started training him through a fence for protection. He decided he liked my games. Before too long, he and I were friends. That is the power of positive reinforcement. There is a video of the results at the bottom of the page.

Welcome to the Magic Mustang Tamer, the number one place to learn how to train wild horses, burros, and zebra using the science of learning theory and animal cognition. You can learn to make a difference for horses like El Jefe by becoming a better trainer.

I am Patricia Barlow-Irick and I am excited to be able to share with you the lessons I have learned from taming and training over 600 animals from the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and New Mexico equine rescues. I have developed and thoroughly field-tested a taming and training protocol that works with any age of equine. It’s not rocket science; it’s something you can learn to do.

We offer a detailed on-line guidebook, illustrated with over a hundred videos, of our training methods and protocols. What you find here isn’t highly edited videos, but rather the reality of training and learning to train… the mud, the blood, and the tears. The nitty-gritty of training is never very clean and no one is above making mistakes, but we can learn from all.

We also offer college-level classes that will teach you all the principles of learning theory needed to become an excellent animal trainer. You will have a deep understanding of all four quadrants of operant conditioning, know the power of respondent conditioning, and understand how to exploit the natural tendencies of horses, donkeys, and zebra. We’ll make sure you know how to provide the special care that recently wild equines need. For the hard-core mustang fan, we also delve into the controversial realm of modern wild horse management.

The Blog and General Principles pages are available for free to non-members. The front pages of the basic and saddle training sections are also available for free previewing. All other content is available to members only. We hope that you examine the free pages, then sign up for a year-long membership. Classes are either free or ten dollars each.

I’m looking forward to getting to know you through your questions, comments, and classwork. Supporting members are invited to a weekly teleconference on Thursday evenings where we can talk about the trials and tribulations of training equines. Successful graduates of the MMT curriculum can apply to do an internship at Mustang Camp. That’s when we really get to know each other!

Subscribe to our site if you just want to keep informed when there is a new blog post. Become a supporting member to study our training protocol and help us grow new content. Become a student if you want to become a great equine trainer. Here is the link

El Jefe left Mustang Camp with some good behaviors and a willingness to work. He now lives in a world that he trusts.