OklahomaHorses Magazine January 2022

January/February 2022 • OklahomaHorses 17 Horsewoman Specializes in Taming Mustangs W ylene Davis, aka Extreme Wylene, grew up on a flower farm in Mesa, Arizona, where her mother also worked as a horse trainer and riding instructor. Having ridden with renowned trainer Monte Foreman in the 1960s, Davis’ mother passed her knowledge along to her three daughters, encouraging them to participate in horse shows, rodeos, and gymkhanas nearly every weekend. When hard times hit the family, instead of selling property and cutting their losses, they decided to get creative and convert all their greenhouses into barns. They started a boarding stable which would eventually be home to more than 100 horses. That same ingenuity and drive, along with a true love of riding and horses, inspired Davis to become a renowned horsewoman and trainer in her own right. Today, she is a highly sought clinician, a fierce competitor, and a skilled trainer with a reputation for working with wild mus- tangs and domestic “problem” horses. There is no doubt that Davis has definitely made a name for herself in the horse world. Davis earned the nickname “Extreme Wylene” when she participated in an Extreme Cowboy Racing event in 2006. Created by trainer Craig Cameron, Extreme Cowboy Racing events challenge horse-and-rider pairs to maneuver through a timed trail course that features obstacles and tasks beyond those found on traditional show-pen trail courses. “I was riding a little black horse who was a wild thing and flying through the obsta- cles at top speed,” said Davis. The last obstacle happened to be loading the horse into a trailer, but instead of doing that in the normal way, Davis ran her horse straight into the trailer, grabbing hold of the trailer’s top to dismount. As a result, she snagged the fastest time in the compe- tition, and Cameron dubbed her “Extreme Wylene” right then and there. Because of her daredevil riding style and charismatic personality, the name has stuck. WORKINGWITH MUSTANGS An estimated 88,000 wild horses and burros in the United States live on 31.6 million acres of federally managed land. But as resources dwindle and horse and burro numbers continue to increase, de- Wylene Davis tames a mustang.