The Mustang Diaries

I met Auggie a few weeks ago and did a groundwork session with him. His people decided that we might be able to help him and he came to us for "boot camp" yesterday! Auggie is a 5-year-old OTTB with the attitude to match the OTTB stereotype. He wasn't dealt the best deck of cards to begin his young life and found himself bouncing around before landing with his current family. They are definitely the blessing that Auggie needed, and any horse would be lucky to have such a wond

We had a secret! I have been spending the last few weeks quietly preparing Peaches for her owner, Brenda’s, first ride. I wanted to embrace the Christmas spirit and gift Brenda a memory she would undoubtedly carry through the years to come! The weeks leading up to this day were spent in careful, quiet sessions—no dramatic breakthroughs, just small, steady conversations between Peaches and I. Groundwork formed the backbone of our time together, with eventual short riding sessi

Axl and Peaches have been progressing in tandem over the last few weeks and have recently shared one of the most profound milestones in a colt's life: their first saddling. An experience that can either be an incredible step in the foundation of a horse's education or a traumatic disaster, leaving substantial fear and bruised egos in its wake. Thankfully, Axl and Peaches have had extensive groundwork to prepare them for this day, and I would not have progressed onward to sadd

Welcome to our home, Dixie! We just picked up this absolutely ADORABLE black mare with a bunch of chrome from the Elm Creek NE facility when the government reopened. She has some atrocious feet, so we are giving her extra time to get adjusted. Now that she's on the dry lots here, hopefully they will begin to chip off on their own. So far, Dixie seems to have a great brain. Many times, she's sought us out and approached us on her own out of pure curiosity. She acts level-heade

We had a GREAT time last month representing the United States Wild Horse and Burro Association at Equine Affaire by bringing three of our mustangs: Cash, Penny, and Atlas! What a big test for these horses to handle the immense amounts of stress and pressure at this event. I am extremely proud of how everyone behaved despite the commotion of kids, dogs, bikes, golf carts, other horses, loud noises, new arenas, the coliseum, and PURE CHAOS all at once! We were present for all f

Amid the chaos of this week getting prepared for Equine Affaire Expo we also found time to get Sierra her first 2 rides! Previously known as Sunny, we have decided to call her Sierra as she is no longer pending sale and ownership has been returned to us. Due to life circumstances her home fell through and she will be staying for additional training while looking for another one! Sierra did AMAZING W/T/C during both rides and is already making big progress. She’s a very smart

At this point, I've lost track of how many full groundwork sessions I've done with Oakley. Surely its 20-30 by now, so I'm just going to go with "20 ish". Yesterday, I introduced Oakley to a few new exercises and obstacles to further advance his training. I had an old tarp lying around and instead of putting it away, I decided to get use it as a tool with the horses for a few days. I laid it out in the arena and backed Oakley out of his corral for the session. We started with

A large step for Axl yesterday as he went out to pasture for the first time. Being a wild stallion for 10 years and only being rounded up by the BLM almost 1 year ago, this felt like watching him discover that little piece of himself that has been missing since the roundup. For 10 years, the world kept moving without asking him for anything back, and then, in the span of a few months, the world asked him to be patient and to learn again how to listen with more than just his e

Yesterday, my focus with Oakley was on reviewing known groundwork exercises, refining hind quarter yielding, establishing clearer...