Katie Williams

The only thing Katie Williams wanted when she first visited Tom Olive's farm was a loaner horse to ride in exchange for doing some work around the barn.

The 21-year-old groom from a neighboring farm wasn't particular about the horse he would put her on. The ride would be just recreational and then she'd leave until the next time.Fast forward a year, and Williams has since quit her job and works at the Olive farm full-time in exchange for learning how to train wild and troubled horses."When I first came here, I didn't know much about horses. I just wanted to ride around a little bit and go home," she said at the farm.

"It's in my blood now and once it's in your blood I know it's never coming out," she said about wanting to train horses.

"It's a lot more rewarding than just riding. It's more than just being a passenger . . . on a horse," Williams said.

This week, Williams will see if her past year has been well spent.

She's one of about 35 competitors in this weekend's Gatorland Mustang Makeover competition.In the Women LUV Horses-sponsored event, trainers are given wild mustang mares and 75 days to teach their horse to perform various stunts and riding maneuvers.It is the first time the event's sponsors have held the Mustang Makeover on the East Coast, and they chose Ocala because it already has an equine community, said Ericka Utz, the event's coordinator.

"This is a real life Cinderella story for these horses," Utz said. "Otherwise they would be held in pens or slaughtered."The purpose of the event is to showcase the beauty, versatility and trainability of America's feral horse," she said.

The Extreme Mustang Makeover was formed in coordination with the Mustang Heritage Foundation and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in which mustangs are captured and adopted in order to control their population. There are about 30,000 mustangs waiting to be adopted."They are not usually afraid of humans and, once they are around humans, they make a connection and they become very trusting," said Randi Blasienz of the Mustang Heritage Foundation."It becomes a very rewarding experience for the trainers. People have turned mustangs into everything from working ranch horses to dressage horses," Blasienz said.

Katie Williams said that regardless of how she fares in the competition, she'll have no regrets.

The decision to work with horses has allowed her to work with Olive, whom she describes as the best horseman she's ever met, and to create opportunities to make training a career.

"I think this is growing me up a little bit. It's teaching me a lot," Williams said. "I'm becoming a better person because of it."