I’ve been thinking about a few things I wanted to put into words. Let me know how it resonates. I’m happy to have a conversation and/or go into more detail about any of it down the road. PM if you’d like.
The Mustang world was in uproar very recently, and is on an ongoing basis – rightfully so – about wild horses getting adopted, sometimes in multiples, and then dumped at auction. Sometimes it’s greed, sometimes good intentions gone sideways, sometimes it’s someone at their wit’s or financial end.
This, guys, is why Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy works so hard on the front end to gentle horses and vet adopters. Can that still go wrong? Absolutely, we’ve needed to make changes and network horses into different homes. But the dozens of happy, safe and productive WHOA graduate horses and adopters all over the country speak for themselves.
So many people I never hear from again when I tell them there’s an adoption application, we will be calling references and I won’t let you adopt a horse that I know is going to be a bad fit just because you saw “that spark” in its eye. That’s fine. We’re looking for good matches and reasonable people. Have your instant gratification and fantasy ideas elsewhere.
I sometimes don’t post as consistently as you or even I would like. It’s happened before, it’s going to happen again. I tend to squeeze every bit of life out of each day because I’ve seen, and way too much lately, how fragile and short life actually is. I often go until I very literally fall asleep mid sentence. Between gentling wild horses, managing the behind the scenes stuff that comes with it, working as a counselor, and needing to eat, sleep and spend time with two and four legged friends, there’s not enough energy at times to put words on a screen. I’m also just sensitive enough, believe it or not, that when things get to be too much mentally or emotionally, my words don’t work. At all. Shut-down is real and sometimes it takes me a bit to get out of my head and my words unstuck.
I’m throwing around the idea of offering personal development workshops based on good, solid, completely non-magical horsemanship with the assistance of our Ambassador Mustangs. No harps and no fluff. Helping people gain actual life skills while working with well trained once wild horses in a way that’s fair to the horses too. I’ve been thinking for years about a responsible way to combine my background in mental health with my work with horses in a way that’s a win for all. Thoughts?
Pictured is Remington, 2yo buckskin Bordo Atravesado NM Mustang filly who is available for adoption. We’re a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in Guffey, CO. Hauling can be arranged.
She’s wearing her Rowdy’s Ropes Mustang training halter. Brushing and handling: Tay Martin who was not in the mood for baby Mustang photoshoots that day (we did 2 and there’s always some wiggling and repositioning before we get the right shots), but did it anyway and for that I’m grateful.
