A few glimpses into life with Rock from Little Colorado WY.

Lots of cuddles while also teaching the 16-something hh behemoth of a 5yo Mustang gelding rules and boundaries because good manners and marketable skills are life insurance for horses.

Teaching him to stand stock still while ground tied so I can trim his enormous feet. Yes, with an angle grinder. I trim all of the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs that way.

Ground driving so he can continue to work on balance, voice commands, going out alone and be prepared for when it’s time to drag the pasture again.

Riding with others and alone so when I ask him to be a good boy for others, including being a confidence builder for a 12yo aspiring horseman, he knows what’s expected of him.

Lots of ponying still so he stays in shape for longer rides and pack trips, and remembers how to maintain his composure whether we’re going fast or slow, down the road or up the side of a mountain.

A lot of time, effort, learning, frustration, sweat and yes, joy and laughter too, go into turning a young, green horse into a solid one. It’s totally worth it and it’s anything but easy.

Our sweet and spicy, sassy and spunky, friendly and kind little red Stewart Creek WY Mustang gelding has been adopted and is now making New Mexico cuter.

He was part of the Forever Branded partnership program and we gentled him here at Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy

Thank you for getting him there safely Kevin and Michelle Arrick !

He came with a fan club because he loved everyone he met, including at the holding facility. He didn’t care whether you wanted to come see him, he would make sure you had no choice.

We wish Commander, now Sunny, and his adopter so many great adventures on the trail and moving cattle.

Thank you for helping us do what we do!

We currently have several lovely Mustangs with very different personalities, ages 2-6yo, looking for their person.

If you’re interested in adopting a gentled Mustang that’s ready to start building a partnership and going on adventures with you, let us help you find a good match you can enjoy, make memories and feel safe with for years to come!

Reach out via PM, email: info @ wildhorseoutreach dot org or phone 719-377-8587

We’re located in Guffey, CO. We work with excellent, Mustang experienced haulers.

We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and depend on your support to continue helping wild horses get a great start and find amazing homes.

This is – I promise – the last load of horses we brought home from the Cañon City BLM holding facility just before they closed.

It was so sad. They had so many nice horses. Everyone there was kind to them and it showed.

So many friendly ones. All of them well fed. We brought home as many as we could, certainly more than what was “reasonable” and we were still heartbroken over the ones left behind.

They’re well cared for still, in other holding facilities in other states. But we knew these horses and it’s not the same not having them so close.

Why didn’t I post about them sooner? Frankly because the internet is a finicky place. We show an unloading video and 40 people message me “I want that one!!!” (It’s always a big and/or colorful one, ideally with lots of hair).

Explaining that we literally just unloaded them, that we don’t know them yet and no you can’t have them unhandled or without an approved adoption application because we take this work seriously takes up a lot of our time.

Nevermind that there are several Mustangs at any given time that are ready to find homes, that we know, that people can meet and interact with. No. “I want that one.”

I knew I’d be working through the last of the Cañon City jail birds (the facility was on prison grounds) in stages, I saved these 5 and their unloading video for last.

So anyway, please welcome:

Abraxos – 2yo palomino Bordo Atravesado NM Mustang gelding

Hissley – 3yo White Mountain WY Mustang mare

Gizmo – 6yo sorrel Little Colorado WY Mustang gelding

Casita – 2yo grey Bordo Atravesado NM Mustang filly

Huckleberry (last one out) – 5yo sorrel Little Colorado WY Mustang gelding

Ages as of this year.

They are in training now and not available yet. We reserve the opportunity to retain 1 or 2 for continued training to make available at a later time to people who need or prefer a horse that’s further along than just the basics.

As they come available we will post about them here and in our stories across our social media platforms, please stay tuned. If you are an approved adopter with us and I get the sense that one is just the horse for you, I will do my best to reach out to you.

We currently have 17 Mustangs in full feed (thank you Tay Martin !). 3 of those are still here on short term board but are owned. Commander is going home next week (yay!!!!). 13 have not been adopted yet. 5 of those are ready and just waiting for a human of their own: Remington, Valkyrie, Chaos, Karma and – almost there – Vengeance (Vinny).

Everyone is on free choice hay, our feed bill alone is around 5k a month, not counting farrier and extras like salt and mineral blocks, dewormer, etc.

Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. We can’t do this work alone. If you’d like to help us care for these horses while we prepare them for amazing homes, you’ll find how you can support us in the comments ON MY PERSONAL AND THE WHOA PAGE (not on posts shared in groups).

If you’re interested in adopting a gentled Mustang, please reach out. We’re in Guffey, CO. Hauling can be arranged.

If you’re not in a place to do either and you still want to help, please comment, like and share. It really means the world to us and them.

This was last summer, and Spur’s first outing with the pack saddle and (empty) canvas panniers. He’d worn it all before at home.

It was also the first time he’d seen this much water, surrounded by scary willows at that. He handled it the way he handles everything:

“This is horrible, I’m for sure going to die!!!”

“Oh.”

“Just kidding, this is amazing, where has this been my whole life!?!?!?”

If you own or have ever worked with a Stewart Creek WY Mustang, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

A lot of them are smart, emotional, a bit dramatic and great horses once you get them past all that.

Spur has 3 favorite things besides food: Lacy, me and kids. He also thinks the world would be a better place without cows. One scared him once and while he may have forgiven, he does not forget.

This goofy roan has taught me more about handling big emotional Mustangs than all the horses before him combined. Spur is pretty darn close now to his string tested height of 15.3hh.

I don’t think there’s a single horse that took so much mental and physical energy out of me to get to the point of being a sweet boy who can handle himself nicely in most situations.

I’m so grateful for all I’ve learned working with him and that even at his most frustrated and overstimulated, he’s always been willing to come back to earth and try again.

I got him as far as I could, both on the ground and under saddle, and found him someone who can get him further.

I’ve learned to honor the sense of “too much horse for me”, and that’s him. Not because I can’t ride him but because I enjoyed riding the Thoroughbred types in my teens and early 20s. Not today.

We’re even, Spur and I. I love him and he still comes to me for cuddles when he sees me. We’ve learned a lot from each other.

This big horse melts with kids around. I’ve used him for a lesson with a very green youth rider on their 2nd ever ride and he acted like a 30yo horse in slow motion so he wouldn’t lose or scare the kiddo.

He’s doing well being ridden. Dogs running, horses running, deer running, darkness and questionable footing? No problem. He’s still learning to be confident by himself. From a rider who gets quiet when Spur is not. That’s what he needs and I’m happy for him and glad for the help.

Is there a chance he’ll be up for adoption later? Yes. We’ll cross that bridge (or creek?) when we come to it.

Shout out to Tay Martin and Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs Lacy and Tiny for being game for these kinds of shenanigans.

Someone made a comment recently about training without fear being important.

I sat with that for a while.

I disagree and let me tell you why.

I’ve spent most of my life working with poorly trained backyard horses, horses with baggage, horses who’d gotten confusing messages from people about different things, dogs with a lot of the same issues, wolves in captivity and now wild horses post-gather.

Being in that line of work, study and interest, I’ve seen so much fear that I’ve accepted it for what it is – something to work on.

Fear isn’t something to avoid, it’s something to notice, address, learn from and deal with in a way that on the other side of it well-being and ability to function improve.

It’s also not a training tool. It’s something that can either be there at the start or may pop up along the way.

The things I am concerned about is doing everything in my power to prevent injury to everyone involved, and helping them move past their fear as efficiently as possible because living in fear is a miserable, debilitating way to exist.

It incapacitates the nervous system and drains the body. If we’re afraid enough we can’t relax or think straight, causing mental and physical exhaustion, poor choices, accidents or worse.

During a game with students at school – yep, I get to do fun shrink things at the most wonderful small rural school – a student drew a card prompting them to speak to their take on the saying “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself.” The answers were remarkable because kids are cool like that.

I believe that saying is spot on. I see – and experience – fear of some kind almost daily. Someone being afraid to see a therapist (me in my other life), a horse being afraid of a rope or other object, afraid of touch or water. What am I supposed to do, just drop everything and walk away? Hardly.

If at the end of the session the client is no longer afraid to seek support, the horse is less afraid of or even comfortable with ropes, new objects, touch, water, that’s how I know I’ve done my job and we’re headed in the right direction.

They say change is hard at first, messy in the middle and beautiful at the end.

Confusion, frustration, and yes, even fear, can very much be part of the beginning and middle. It deserves our awareness, not avoidance.

So no, I don’t think training without fear is the goal. Training to reduce or eliminate fear is, and replacing it with confidence, knowledge, respect and trust.

Photos of Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs Firefly and Goose during their first sessions with the harness, and surcingle with “ornaments” respectively. All things we do towards riding prep. They did great and worked through little bobbles beautifully.

Firefly (darker) may come available later this year as we’re working to make some horses available to those who prefer to bring home a Mustang with more training than just the basics.

Their halter and lead rope sets are from Rowdy’s Ropes

A solid horse takes hundreds of hours to make.

You either put in the effort or pay someone to do it. Or you buy a good one, which is also paying someone else for having done the hard stuff and hoping it’s true. Those are your options, all equally valid.

Lately it appears to have become fashionable in the horse world – nonprofits included, and maybe it’s not just the horse industry? – to either not pay at all, to put it off for when it’s convenient or to look for bargain basement prices to begin with.

Let me tell you something. It’s not cute.

If you need heart surgery, are you going to hand the guy on the corner a knife and 5 bucks to cut you open? No. You’re going to pick a surgeon with years of training and experience because you don’t want to die just yet. And you’re going to be prepared for that to cost a whole lot of $, right? Because after all you’re entrusting that person with your life.

IT’S NO DIFFERENT WITH A HORSE TRAINER. Especially a Mustang trainer and/or colt starter. You’re hiring them to put their lives on the line so you don’t have to. Our work isn’t glamorous. It’s dangerous. And it’s critical. It sets the tone for your horse’s future.

By all means, pick carefully but freaking pay them and treat them well. We get tugged on, kicked and tossed so you can pick up your pony when it’s ready and enjoy it. Letting someone else do the dirty work to keep you safe is a LUXURY. Horses are a LUXURY. Read that again.

You’re not just paying them for the month or five they put into your horse, and for feeding it. You’re paying them for the decades of experience it took for them to do their job well so it doesn’t take you until your horse is 28 to get done what they can do in 8 weeks.

You’re also paying them to tell you uncomfortable truths. Me telling you a horse needs more time, isn’t a good fit for you or needs bodywork may save your life, tons of heartache and weeks in the hospital. You’re welcome.

I have 32 years of training horses, countless hours of learning, two relevant degrees, and hundreds of Mustangs under my belt. Our horses get adopted into homes all across the country and make people happy. Our Ambassador Mustangs handle and ride better than many domestics. They’re respectful and happy with a good foundation.

We have adopters telling us that their newly adopted Mustangs are the best behaved horses in the barn. Right after they get them home.

Not paying us, not being willing to pay a fair adoption and/or training fee for a horse we carefully took from unhandled and frantic to confident and friendly is disrespectful. It’s also stealing from a nonprofit, from the horses we care for, from our staff and the professionals we pay to provide resources and services for us, i.e. vet, farrier, hay supplier etc.

I’m a horse trainer. I’m a people educator. I’m a mental health professional. I don’t want a side gig as a bounty hunter.

MOST clients are amazing. Life does happens, we get it. Here too. That’s not what we’re talking about. But…

I’m truly sorry your pet dragon needed a horn transplant that cost 600 gold coins. Or that your grandfather’s niece’s 2nd cousin’s inheritance hasn’t reached you yet. Don’t make it our problem.

Our contracts are getting longer by the minute. As we said when I was working at a prison: “Yep, one screwed it up for everybody. Again.”

This isn’t just about us. It’s for all professionals. Rant over.

Pics from a ride last summer with Tay Martin , Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs Tiny and Lacy, and Spur who took the long and windy road to becoming a very good boy.

Two things can be true at once, often are. Holding space for both is where the challenge lies. Also the reward.

What do I mean?

This:

We want to be around horses so they can meet some of our needs. And their needs matter too, even when they’re different from our own.

Horses are sentient beings with highly developed nervous systems. They’re also prey animals that may outweigh us 10 to 1 and have no clue how to function in our world without guidance.

Horses deserve to be treated with kindness and respect. And they require boundaries so humans can safely care for and interact with them.

Softness has is place. So does pressure – as little as possible, as much as necessary.

We can build wonderful partnerships with horses. And horses aren’t funny shaped humans or giant dogs. Or furniture we can ignore indefinitely.

Fun, contentment and joy are important in our journey with horses. So are learning, consistency and growth.

You’re allowed to have your opinions and methods. That also means others get to have theirs.

It’s great to have a very trainable horse. And the word train in this context is a verb.

Never before in history has most horses’ workload been this low. Never before in history has most people’s need for a quiet, unshakable mount been so high.

We’ve never wanted so badly to feel connected to our horses. And never been more disconnected from how nature actually works.

The duality of realities in the horse world is wild. We can bridge those gaps and make the bridges something beautiful when we become aware.

Batteries need plus and minus poles for our devices to work and your car to start. Many less tangible things in life do too.

Picture of me having some fun while gentling Little Colorado WY Mustang gelding Huckleberry at Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy . He’s very smart, expressive, playful and just learning how to “people”.

Shortly after this I got to explain to him that some play behaviors are only ok around other horses, not humans. It’s all part of it.

Lacy, my first branded Mustang, turned 11yo on March 17th. She was born at the Cañon City BLM holding facility to a Divide Basin WY mare.

We celebrated her birthday doing one of the things she enjoys most these days: Going FAST. Footage of that adventure to come.

I brought Lacy home as an unhandled 2yo. She was my first TIP horse, meaning the plan was to gentle and place her. Well, I did both but she didn’t go far

Nobody else wanted to take a chance with her because she was tiny, gangly and admittedly a bit jug-headed. I thought I’d be less likely to die if I started with a small one. I was right but she sure had a big personality, even then.

I can’t tell you how many people have since tried to buy the once ugly duckling – who later turned out to be gaited and outgrew the ugly phase just fine – right out from under my saddle, or lack thereof.

At 8yo we almost lost her. That was 8 months of uncertainty I’ll never forget. A partial ligament tear, lameness in both fronts from compensating for the injury, then a corneal ulcer that took part of her vision in her right eye. Finally a mild colic, presumably because she was unhappy being locked up for so long.

It’s also made me that much more grateful that she’s still here. This horse finds new ways to challenge me every year. It’s good for me. It keeps me thinking, listening, problem solving and paying attention.

Lacy is the matriarch and lead mare of the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustang herd now and my go-to training assistant for green Mustangs learning to be ponied, to pack and be ridden. She keeps riders on green horses safe, as well as green riders on sometimes still rather green horses.

That responsibility and exposure to youthful chaos have made her a bit hypervigilant at times. She’s also grown into herself in the sense that she’s discovered a need for speed. She used to happily walk, shuffle, trot or lope everywhere but had to be pushed into a gallop.

Not anymore. I keep joking that she’s in her race horse era. She loves to channel her inner fire breathing dragon and just fly. She doesn’t take off, she asks permission, but you can tell when she needs to blow off steam. Blanca, the mare who brought her along, was like that. A good gallop or two and they’re content again. Until then they expend all sorts of unsolicited energy, usually in subtle, only just obvious enough ways, hoping to get that gallop. Mares man. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The headstall from Southern Nutmeg Leather was her birthday present. A dragon wearing dragons. Her reins with cowboy quick connects are from Rowdy’s Ropes

In very happy news, Sergeant has been adopted. He went home to the Western slope over the weekend. We’re very excited for him and his adopters!

We currently have 4 incredible young gentled Mustangs looking for homes: Commander ( due to being in the Forever Branded partnerships adoption incentive program), Chaos, Remington and Valkyrie (not part of the incentive program).

All 4 have recent posts on our pages with photos and relevant information. We’re happy to answer additional questions.

The important groundwork is done, we know they are trainable without reverting back to their wild ways overnight, and get along with humans (and dogs).

All that’s left for you to do is find your match, get to know them and start them your way, continuing to help them become enjoyable adventure partners.

You’re welcome to meet and interact with them – with an approved adoption application through Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy – and see if you click.

We are located in Guffey, CO. We work with reputable, Mustang-friendly and -experienced haulers if you need transport.

We value long-term happiness and success, for both Mustangs and adopters. Our posts about our adoptable horses are detailed and honest, so are our conversations with you when you reach out. We want to see you succeed and be safe.

Sometimes that means guiding you towards a different horse than the one you originally reached out about. They are all individuals with different personalities, quirks and talents, just like people. We know them well and we’re here to help you find the one (or two or…?) that’s right for you.

Please COMMENT, LIKE and SHARE to help these 4 wildies find the amazing homes they deserve.

Responsible, thorough Mustang gentling and placement takes time, effort, expertise and the right equipment, as well as lots of hay and several farrier visits. If you’d like to support our work, please reach out. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and we can’t do this without you.

Rope tack by Rowdy’s Ropes . Knotty Horse healthy detangler for wild manes and tails from Karyn Miller , filming help from Tay Martin and a hat that puts up with my shenanigans and the wild Colorado weather from Montana Rio Buckaroo Hats.

I’d like to shed some light into the gap, when our socials went quiet for a time. I’m not fond of using social media as my journal because time and place and privacy matter, but so does transparency. Here’s my compromise.

This winter I shed:

Saying yes to things I’m not comfortable with. Not the “It requires growth” kind of uncomfortable. The “This is not aligned with what we do/not a priority right now” kind

Making exceptions – once you set a firm boundary, it gives you lots of headspace back and makes things fair for everyone

Feeling like social media has me, rather than me having social media. Some time away has been a healthy perspective shift. I’ve scooped myself out of the soup if you will

Worrying so much about being liked and therefore not speaking my mind or always being afraid to upset someone. Sometimes the internet (and real life) weirdos arrive in droves and it feels like the zombie apocalypse. I’m better at navigating that now

A really nasty cold/flu and a concussion, right back to back. 0/10 do not recommend. There went 10 weeks of trudging through the day with no energy to do anything but the bare necessities and feeling pretty crummy much of the time

The worst grief I’ve ever experienced. I usually joke that there are 2 kinds of people, humans and Germans (I’m German, right off the plane for those who don’t know. Naturalized American citizen now) and I really struggle when the two intersect and the “human” part catches up with me. That one hurt, still does, but life must go on, if nothing else to honor those for whom it doesn’t

Summed up, if you were wondering why WHOA went radio silent for a bit over the winter:

Taylor and I both, like a cruel joke from the universe, spent a lot of that time being really sick and very sad, while still working because humans and animals needed to be cared for and as many horses as possible worked. There was literally nothing left of either of us when we got done with that. Brain off. Words not working. Heart aching. Body tired.

We’re really sorry for those who missed our posts and our calendars. We did too. We’re only human – dang it – and needed to focus on the essentials and on getting well again.

Glad to be back now and grateful to all who stuck with us. And on a happy note, the non-client wildies we’ve been quietly working with over the winter are now ready for amazing homes and boy are they nice ones

You can find them in recent posts and on our website if you’re looking. Meanwhile I hope you enjoy this picture of Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustang fillies Firefly (bigger) and Goose playing and just being goofy youngsters.

Firefly will likely be available for adoption at a later point in time with more training. We will update if and when that happens.

We want to offer a select few horses to adopters who prefer a horse with additional handling and skills. That helps more people be able to get Mustangs and more Mustangs find great homes.