… aka Remi and Val

It was such a beautiful morning and it had finally snowed, so we decided to clean up these two still wet and winter-fuzzy 2yo Mustang fillies and take some fun pictures. I have about 200 more, they were having so much fun!

Remington is the buckskin, Valkyrie the bay. She has a dorsal stripe and black ear tips. The consensus is Val is bay with ND1 rather than dun. We have not color tested her. Remi has what looks like a faint dorsal stripe as well. Both were born on the range and are from Bordo Atravesado NM, a very colorful HMA.

Remi currently measures 14hh, Val 13.3hh. Both string test to 14.3hh mature height.

They are both smart, spicy, athletic young mares. These pictures represent their personalities well. Val is a tad quieter than Remi. Both are sane and love to cover ground. Both are beautiful, effortless movers.

I like what I’ve seen of that HMA so far: Tough, athletic, hardy, smart horses. So much so that we’ve retained Goose for our Ambassador Mustang herd.

Remi is our survivor. She injured her left front leg last fall and had us worried about her for months. Thanks to a team effort and much luck she’s sound and happy today and only a scar tells of her misadventure.

Both fillies are gentled and know all age appropriate groundwork: halter and lead, load, send and lead over obstacles, back, move hips and shoulders, lunge both directions. They are good around dogs and tie reliably.

Both have been trimmed by our ever patient farrier Cassie CK Hoof Care CBT, APF-I and did well.

We do not expect to adopt them out together. They are great friends but rather than overwhelming someone with two young horses needing continued training, we trust that they will make new friends easily. We are not opposed to them staying together in the right situation.

They are available through Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy in Guffey, CO. Hauling can be arranged.

All rope tack, as always, custom made and Mustang tested, by Rowdy’s Ropes .

Please COMMENT, LIKE & SHARE to help these two beauties find amazing homes!

It’s something I think about often, and we see it play out all the time.

To be successful with and enjoy our horses, two main factors need to be there, in this order:

1. It needs to be a fit, we and our horse. We need to be “appropriately horsed”, not violently “over-, under- or mis-horsed”.

2. We need to do what it takes to get ourselves and our horse(s) to where we want to be. Which is a completely miserable, if not impossible, thing to do if it’s not the right horse for where we’re at today. Not 20yrs ago, not 5yrs down the road, not in our wildest dreams. TODAY.

Stretching ourselves a little, compromising a little, getting help, sure. But a major discrepancy? That’s no bueno.

I’d personally rather be a little under-horsed than majorly over-horsed or have the wrong horse altogether any day of the week.

At the end of a long day, when I’m finally free to go see and work with the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs, I really don’t want to feel on edge the majority of the time.

I’ve had some horses that have literally made me want to dust. Those same horses ended up being great for someone else. They just weren’t my type. And you know what, that’s ok!

I’ve also had horses that made others want to give up riding and take up quilting or stamp collecting instead. I thought they were perfect – for me, at that point in my journey with horses.

Because of what I enjoy about working with horses, Mustangs specifically, I always have spirited and/or young horses. It’s what I love and I embrace the challenges that come with that.

However, within that I’m super picky about what I like. Tay Martin and I joke that we’re never going to fight over a horse because our preferences are so different.

Her Mustangs are great too – for her. That’s how it should be, that’s what gets more great horses into more great homes!

We’ve gentled dozens of wildies we waved off with a sigh of relief. To adopters who love them dearly for exactly who they are. Win-win-win, that’s always the ultimate goal. That’s what we love to do and why we’re thorough in our adoption process.

At the same time I see so many people who have dug in their heels with a horse they would have enjoyed 20 years ago or that would be perfect for the girl next door who’s got more time to ride or has different expectations. Meanwhile they’re not happy, the horse is sitting and nobody is getting any younger or out on adventures.

I check in with my nervous system when I’m around a horse. If it feels like coming home – in a good, safe, comforting way – that’s the horse I’ll keep.

Sergeant is a 5yo bay (presumably with ND1, has countershading in place of an actual dorsal stripe) Mustang gelding, facility born to a Stewart Creek WY Mustang mare. Sergeant stands 15.2hh tall.

We chose him before the Cañon City holding facility closed because of his calm demeanor and soft eyes.

All Stewart Creek horses we’ve ever had have a tendency to get a little spicy at first when uncertain. Sergeant is no exception: “This is horrible!!! Under no circumstances will I…!!!!! …. Oh ok. I can do that. You could have said that that’s all you wanted.”

Sergeant’s ideal person will not get in his washing machine when he gets upset but will calmly yet persistently point him in the right direction, breaking things down as needed to set him up for success.

He’s a quiet, matter of fact guy a lot of the time. As he matures further and continues to get exposure and guidance, he’ll be even more so. He could do well in a number of disciplines.

Sergeant is friendly, enjoys attention and is easy to catch. He has very little stranger danger and gets along well with other horses. He ties, stands for grooming, picks up his feet and has been trimmed. He leads, loads, lunges, sends and leads over obstacles, backs and moves his hips and shoulders.

He is located in Guffey CO and available for adoption through Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy . Hauling can be arranged.

We’re grateful to Forever Branded for helping more bay and sorrel wildies get the attention and loving homes they, too, deserve!

Sergeant is here as part of the Forever Branded partnerships program, a new adoption incentive program through which we have already placed Helga, Ragnar and Lieutenant.

Commander is still waiting for someone who would love to add a proud, handsome and lovable sorrel boy to their herd. You’ll find him in an earlier post.

Adoption s for these boys are more than reasonable due to the incentive program.

Please PM or email us with interest in adopting. We’re here to help you find a good match for both you and the Mustangs, and will help guide you to ensure a good fit.

Please COMMENT, LIKE and SHARE to help Sergeant find his person!

I end up riding by myself most of the time. Not so much on the big scenic rides but on the every day ones for sure.

This was one of the bigger rides I did solo last year. My friends were otherwise occupied, we were going to be running out of fall and I wasn’t going to not go.

Getting ready for a day ride for one person, two horses (I like putting miles on and giving exposure to young horses/pack horses too while I’m at it) and two dogs is a bit of a chore, but so worth it.

Anytime I ride into the backcountry, I keep in mind that for a number of reasons I may have to spend the night or be able to survive until help arrives in the event of a problem, and I pack accordingly.

I’m not going to lie, there’s often a little voice in my head telling me I should be working when I’m not “showing someone else around” as a convenient excuse to get out and explore.

That took me a bit to wrestle with on the morning of this ride. Add drive time and I ended up starting what most would consider a day ride at midday. Oops.

Thankfully Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs Lacy (Divide Basin WY) and Rock (Little Colorado WY) and our trusty German Shepherds Denali (forgot his sunshades that day) and Ranger can cover some serious ground quickly and we made it back to the trailer before dark. I carry the mother of all headlamps everywhere but I didn’t need it. That was the goal.

We rode just shy of 15mi with a lot of elevation gain and we freaking crushed it. I even had time to explore on foot a bit at the lake.

The views, experience and hours spent basking in crisp mountain air were phenomenal. I rode Rock part of the way too, he was the best boy.

Idk about you but I say silence the voice, prepare, pack and plan responsibly, let someone know where you’re going and do the thing. Otherwise life will pass you by waiting for someone to hold your hand as you go after your dreams.

Chaos is a 5 1/2yo (born in holding 8/1/20) sorrel rabicano Mustang mare. Her dam was gathered pregnant out of Antelope NV. She stands 14.2hh tall.

She has a long flowing mane and once her tail recovers from being chewed off in holding will have a thick, colorful tail too. She’s rather unique with subtle rabicano coloring and one partially blue eye )not the blind kind of blue, the pretty kind).

Chaos is calm, curious and friendly. With appropriate continued training she will make a confident, personable adventure buddy. She learns quickly and has proven to be extraordinarily brave when being introduced to new things.

Saddle? Sure. Bridle? No problem. Boots with Velcro? Non-event. She’s good with our dogs and enjoys leaving the Mustang pens to go for a walk. We foresee her being straightforward to start and laid back under saddle.

Chaos is easy to catch and remains so even when she sits for a bit. She leads and ties, lunges, leads and sends over obstacles, stands to pick up her feet and has been trimmed by CK Hoof Care CBT, APF-I .

She moves hips and shoulders, backs and understands speed and directional control in hand.

Chaos was one of the horses we picked up from Cañon City right before they closed. She found Tay Martin in one of the mare pens, latched onto her and wrapped her right around her hoof with her soft eyes and outgoing yet cuddly and quiet demeanor. “Can we take this one too, pleeeeease????” asked Taylor and so we did.

It took Chaos a bit to figure out that domestic life meant more than scratches. She was initially a bit disappointed to learn that when you’re asked to move your feet in a certain direction at a certain speed you should do so, softly and promptly at that.

She has since made friends with that idea and we’re excited to find this lovely mare an amazing home. Chaos is located at Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy in Guffey, CO. She is SA and can travel. Hauling can be arranged.

Please PM or email if interested in adopting as comments can get lost. If you’re not looking to adopt but want to help Chaos find her person, please COMMENT, LIKE and SHARE!

Goose is the youngest of the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs, a coming 2yo buckskin Bordo Atravesado NM Mustang filly.

I’ve been quite impressed with the youngsters we’ve gotten from that HMA. Athletic, smart and sane. We have 2 more available now and 2 coming available for adoption later this spring. Goose will be staying with us.

I love her built and personality. I’m also very excited that she should mature to a manageable 14.1hh. For me I prefer 14.2hh and shorter horses for both riding and packing. The goal is for her to one day, when it’s time for Lacy to step back and take it easier, be my primary riding horse.

At only 2yo she has plenty of time to learn and grow up. She ponies, trailers great, does all age appropriate groundwork and wears lightweight tack.

This year she’ll start tagging along on some off-site adventures, get introduced to ground driving, the harness, pack saddle and hobbles. She’ll take some trips into town and we’ll go on lots of walks and “ground drives” together.

With all that prep work she should be a breeze to start lightly under saddle next year. Goose is sure footed and a quiet, old soul with just the right amount of sass and opinions.

She’s also Firefly’s bestie. They enjoy being together yet separate quite well, something that’s important to me. I work with them both separately and together.

In the summer and fall we go horse packing.

The rest of the year we talk about packing, dream about packing and get ready for packing.

Even for horses that may never pack tents and sleeping bags into the backcountry, packing is a great way to get them ready to ride and prepare for some weirdness life may throw at them.

These are old canvas panniers I bought used for a good price, and in them are blankets (and Tay Martin ‘s extra layers because I had guessed wrong on the weight of said blankets).

This is the good pack saddle because I figured Spur could be trusted with it. I have an old one that came with those panniers. That’s what I use on the real greenies.

$200 in practice tack is cheaper than an ambulance ride and a week or 6 of missed work, plus shattered confidence for both rider and horse. You could get a similar result with an old beater saddle and over the saddle panniers or a couple of old tires on ropes.

This is one of several steps – two if you count ponying – I take to prepare a horse for its future as a riding partner. It has served me well.

Out here you also never know when you’ll need your saddle horse to pack out shed antlers, game, a weak or injured dog or calf, or even other people’s trash, so carrying dead weight that sounds, rides and smells different than what a horse is used to is one more useful skill to have.

Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs Lacy (dun), Spur (roan, ponied) and Tiny (sorrel) as well as Taylor’s Mustang mare Oak (ponied off of Tiny) did well on this sunny winter day outing.

What do you do to prepare your young/green horses for riding?

Another somewhat accidental member of the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy is Firefly, coming 3yo buckskin Bible Springs UT Mustang filly.

Firefly started out calm and cuddly – until you asked her to do anything beyond standing to be brushed and petted on.

At that point she’d go full dragon mode and I had many a moment of “how are we ever going to adopt this one out?” while fending off and trying to direct a confrontational yellow hornet.

Today Firefly is friendly, responsive and willing while still very much having confident boss mare energy. She has the most beautiful eyes and is always the first to greet people.

We were going to place her last year and then decided to hold onto her for at least another year in the event that we need Rock as a riding horse for pack trips this season, so she can fulfill the role of a pack horse.

After that we’ll reassess whether to keep her or find her a wonderful home. She should mature to 15hh and is easy-going and curious with a generally quiet demeanor.

Firefly ponies and ground drives, ties and trailers well, wears all tack, is solid in her ground work, pleasant and easy to handle. She’ll start packing prep soon. I usually wait until after their first packing season to start riding. At that point, with all other prep work done, it’s typically a non-event.

Halter & lead by Rowdy’s Ropes

This big 5yo Stewart Creek WY Mustang gelding was one of our longest temporary residents.

While he has tons of try, he’d get in his own way at every opportunity. Everything was a big deal to him and met with evasion, especially rope pressure and picking up feet, both essential for a horse to be safely handled and properly cared for.

Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy values learning – for humans and horses alike. We work with outside trainers each year for several consecutive days to continue improving our skills and gentle wild horses more effectively and safely.

Last year Mark Lyon spent several educational, fun, long summer days with us. Not only did he give our favorite feral farrier Cassie Krzeczowski dance lessons right here in the training pens. He also helped us achieve a breakthrough with Topaz and gave me the tools to safely continue on a good path with him.

After over a year of eating an entire bale of hay most days, Topaz has gone to his new home. This horse is still a labor of love because of the amount of hand holding, pep talking and morale boosting he requires, but he couldn’t have ended up in a better place. He scored a sensible, capable and patient adopter with an eager support system and a facility that meets all of his needs.

We couldn’t have done this for him without our village. That includes all of our supporters and donors, volunteers and the boots on the ground people including Tay Martin , CK Hoof Care CBT, APF-I , Rocky Top Veterinary Service and Brice Bebout who delivered Topaz safely to his adopter several states away.

We were fortunate and so grateful to receive several generous donations at the end of last year. You have allowed us to breathe, despite illness and grief (it’s been some kind of a winter, hence the radio silence there for a bit) and care for a – for us – large number of Mustangs through the winter: 20+, due to the sudden closure of the Cañon City BLM holding facility). All on free choice hay, to the tune of $5000 per month for feed alone.

We depend on your support to help wild horses gain important skills, become great, enjoyable partners and find amazing homes.

If you’re willing and able to support our work, you’ll find donation avenues in comments. Your likes and shares help too! WHOA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Every little bit helps

The by far largest member of the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustang herd was sort of an oops.

When we brought the big doe-eyed boy home from the holding facility, I’d had my mind set on finding him an amazing home as soon as he was ready. We had a substantial Mustang (Tiny) for friends to ride, for packing and for people to meet. I personally prefer small, sassy mares. Easy.

No. As we got to know him and with the help of Mane Strides chiropractic moving and feeling 100% (he had a sore hip that was bothering him), it was nearly impossible not to fall in love with the now 5yo pangare bay 16hh Little Colorado WY Mustang gelding who is always happy, loves everyone and is game for anything.

As decision making time approached, someone else approached too: Tay Martin and Cassie Krzeczowski , among others, laying out in no uncertain terms what would happen to me if I allowed their most favorite boy to leave. Starvation was the least painful of the options discussed.

There was no negotiating myself out of that corner. Yes, Tiny could go live with Taylor. Yes, Rock was much younger and more eager than Tiny who was ready to step back from the harder days. And yes, Rock is a giant love bug who’s a wonderful ambassador for our cause.

Rock’s biggest quirk is that he likes to sneak wet kisses. Not too long ago I got a text from Taylor “Rock just spit in my mouth, I feel violated”. I’ve had a very similar experience with him. It’s all friendly nuzzling and sniffing and then… Yeah.

He rides, he packs, he pulls, he’s solid in the backcountry, where he requires draft size custom hobbles. He’s friendly to kids and adults alike, holds it together when it’s windy, cold or otherwise exciting, is gentle with dogs and other horses and thankfully respectful of fences.

We’re grateful to have Rock as part of our herd and I think he’s a pretty happy boy here. He’s been to school and took part in the 100+ horses strong New Year’s ride – he took the commotion in stride.