Tehachapi News

Matt Sheridan trains wild mustang for Western States Challenge

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You've got three months to train a wild horse and enter it into a competition. Some people might think that's impossible, but Matt Sheridan of Tehachapi thinks it's a fun challenge.  He recently received mustang 05219046, a mare from the Twin Peaks herd in northeast California, from the Bureau of Land Management as the first step in the Western State Mustang Challenge.

“There are three components to the contest body condition, the in hand course and, the under saddle course. If you do well on those and make the top 10, you come back for the freestyle and I plan to come back for the freestyle,” Sheridan said.  “We've only had her two weeks and we've got her groomed and going through the trail obstacles, moving her body this way and that and have been roping her.”

Sheridan continued, “As for her name, I had decided to name her Luna, meaning moon, before I ever saw her. As it turned out, the day we went to get her it was on a new moon and she's black so it all added up perfectly, the name fit.”

Sheridan is one of 30 specially selected Challenge horse trainers from California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona who have 90 days to gentle and train their assigned mustangs in the competition.

Sheridan and his mustang, Luna, will then be judged at the 10th Annual Western States Horse Expo being held at Cal Expo in Sacramento on June 6 to 8, competing for a part of the $7,500 purse.

Sheridan, who has lived in Tehachapi for the past eight years, is a fifth generation horseman who for the past 22 years has successfully trained and shown horses in a variety of breeds and events. Having a diverse background growing up riding cutting, team penning and roping horses as a youth to training ranch and wild horses in Nevada as an adult, he has developed his own unique approach to horses and people. Aside from being a successful trainer of horses and people, he also spends part of the year as a Special Education teacher.  He believes that this classroom experience is what sets him apart from other horsemanship instructors. Instruction is taught to many different learning abilities and styles. His background provides the much needed patience to accomplish great things with horses.

The Western States Mustang Challenge is a spin-off of the highly successful Extreme Mustang Makeover held last year. The Mustang Heritage Foundation in partnership with BLM created the events to highlight the value of American mustangs and showcase the beauty, versatility and trainability of these living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the American West.

Wild horses and burros are managed in California in accordance with the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971. This act gave the Bureau of Land Management the responsibility to protect wild horses and burros while ensuring their populations are managed to maintain or restore a thriving ecological balance.