TIP Trainer Pickup
Details about picking up TIP horses from Family Horses.
Through the Mustang Storefront program I am able to serve as a pickup point for any approved TIP trainer. If you want to find out how YOU can become a TIP trainer, please visit the Mustang Heritage Foundation website. Here are some notes about various trainer pickup scenarios.
For each delivery I will have personally selected horses which I believe have great conformation and eye appeal to bring in for TIP training. These horses will range from 3 – 7 years old and be a variety of different colors and genders. ANY of these horses are available for pickup by another TIP trainer UNTIL one of the following happens:
Horse Finds an Adopter – Usually when I train a horse for TIP I don’t have an adopter for it. I market the horses to my newsletter list of over 250 people as well as online and via other various different mediums. If I find an approved adopter for a horse, regardless of its training progress, it is no longer available for TIP pickup.
Horse Learns to Lead – Because so many horses come on the trailer at once, my TIP horses are delivered in halters only. Once I have worked with a horse enough to gain its confidence to get close enough to get a drag line on it and start teaching it to lead it is no longer available for adoption. I have six training pens and can house 10 – 15 TIP horses. That means at any one time several horses are out in a big arena not being worked with individually. That also means that there are six isolated in training pens being worked with daily. I do try and rotate everybody in the first few days so that I can at least get an initial evaluation of each horse. IF you are interested in picking up a horse let me know ASAP and if I have it in a training stall I’ll kick it out and throw another one in until you can arrange pickup.
Do you have a specific horse you have seen at Ridgecrest that you would like to work with? Have a client that wants you to TIP train a specific horse? You can always go and pick it up directly from Ridgecrest BUT I can also request that it be sent with my next load. In that case you and I would arrange pickup (within 7 days of arrival). Generally this is beneficial to the TIP trainer but you should consider the following:
Awesome Reasons to Pick Up from Family Horses
Pickup Date – Pickup date is flexible (including weekends)
Location – My location is 2 hours closer than Ridgecrest for most S. California trainers.
Marketing – My advertisements reach tens of thousands of viewers on the web the first week the horses arrive. I have tons of visitors to my site every month looking for adoptable horses and burros. If you have picked up a TIP horse from me you do have the option of me linking the horse from my site to yours so that my visitors continue to see that the horse is available until you find it a home. Don’t have a website? Email me weekly updates and I’ll be sure the horses blog is updated. Don’t want help with advertising? Thats cool too. I am merely providing options.
My Evaluation – All horses I select will be evaluated by me when they come in. I’ll be able to give you basic information about its size and temperament before you even make the drive. Often I’ll even be able to post video. If you have pre-selected your horse no worries, it will be in a group pen until you arrive to pick it up.
Your Evaluation – You can evaluate the horse to be sure it is not dangerous before loading it up. As an approved TIP trainer I will allow you to work with the horse in my 24 x 24 training pen to get an idea for its personality / temperament. If the horse is aggressive, no worries, you are under no obligation to take it home. Realistically only a very small number of wild horses chose fight over flight, by picking up from me you will find out BEFORE you get it home.
Cons when Picking Up from Family Horses
Right of Refusal – For horses that YOU have pre-selected, other than a horse being aggressive i.e. charging the trainer or kicking aggressively, I expect you to pickup whichever horse you have requested get shipped in. Even if you underestimated the horses size or overlooked some conformational issue. Or maybe the horse is higher energy or lower energy than you expected. You can refuse the horse when it comes in, but I would no longer be willing to allow you to select horses for delivery in the future.
Availability – I have a ‘minimum’ I must meet for delivery and delivery is subject to BLM availability. It could be anywhere from a week to a month to get a load in with ‘your’ horse on it depending on when I received my last load, how many other trainers want to pickup, and how soon my own TIP horses start heading home. If you need a horse right away your best bet is to just drive up to Ridgecrest and pick it up.
