Think the article means "competition" - but, in any event, no. Just . . . no.
Person sees one pic of a horse rearing up to clear some knee-high wispy grass, and thinks that that horse is going to be able to carry a rider over 4' - 4'6" solid walls, oxers, and combinations against the clock?
Nope.
Even the BLM horses that are NOT sickly inbreds are mostly stock type, very short-backed, close-coupled and short-legged, with short necks and heavy heads. They can no more negotiate even a Novice level jumping course than fly to the moon.
Might be good on barrels, though.
Thanks for point out the typo. Not a lot of time to do this article, but yes, these horses are not going to win the puissance but stuffing them into a truck to Mexico with broken legs and killed by a knife to the back of the head which paralizes then and the cutting them up alive is not worth the U.S. budget savings. Find the money elsewhere like not spending $500,000 to find out if a student drinks more beer in a fraternity than one who is not in a fraternity. If you went to college you don’t need a one-half million dollar study.
There was one of those wild horse training challenges in Fort Worth recently, I know someone who went. He said the horses came back from the professional trainers so completely trained that some of them were doing tricks. They rode like competition reiners. Then they auctioned them off. My friend said most of those well trained horses sold for around $200. Doesn’t appear that horse people want those tiny little mustangs, even though they were pretty. (I only saw pictures and video). They aren’t much bigger than large ponies.