This adorable, proud 5yo Stewart Creek WY Mustang gelding stands 14hh “tall” and combines redhead energy with pony-tude: He has personality for days and never met a stranger. He also has big feelings and wants everyone to know what they are.

We’ve known him since he was 2yo. He was the greeter in his age group’s pen at the now closed Cañon City BLM holding facility. There would be dozens of horse eyeing us from afar. And this guy, right next to us, desperately trying to get picked, adoption event after adoption event, year after year.

After TIP and before the Forever Branded partnership program, our chances of placing a small-ish red gelding who loves people and oozes charisma would have been slim. Sad, isn’t it? True though.

With the return of an incentive program for the adoption of gentled Mustangs and the looming closure of the holding facility, we took our chances and decided he had more than earned a spot on the trailer to Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy .

He’s met and exceeded the gentling requirements: Catch and halter, lead and load, stand for grooming and pick up feet. He ties, leads and sends over obstacles and through gates, moves hips and shoulders and backs. He’s good around our dogs and respects 5ft panels.

Now, before you think he’s perfect or needs to be “saved”: While he’s friendly and curious, he’s also willful, can be impatient and absolutely needs firm boundaries. If you just want a friend who gets to do whatever whenever, you’ll soon find yourself needing to be saved – from him. He has manners because we insist he be respectful and soft, let’s keep it that way.

Commander likes to cover ground and knows where his feet are. He’s a cute mover with a nice little jump – a fun pony for many disciplines including driving. He’ll be a brave partner for most any adventure with a human who can provide appropriate guidance. His size is perfect for a smaller adult or a HANDY youth with competent adult support.

Many thanks to CK Hoof Care CBT, APF-I who trimmed his feet during her sacred week off while the little busy body sucked on Tay Martin ‘s empty glove – when he’s tied I usually put a bit in his mouth so he can play with that rather than our lead ropes. The wheels are always turning with this guy and it helps to channel that.

He’s sporting a Rowdy’s Ropes halter and lead rope. Thank you to Karyn Miller for the spectacular, healthy detangler that lets these wild manes and tails shine.

If you’re up for the challenge and the fun of continuing to bring this boy along, PM or email us. Please no comments as they can get lost.

Located in Guffey, CO, can travel. We have a hauler list available if you prefer to have him brought to you.

Please share to help this cute goober find his person!

(Re-) Introduction of the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs part 2: The big, sorrel teenage Salt Wells WY Mustang gelding.

We adopted Tiny many years ago from Colorado Horse Rescue Network for a friend. He’d been gathered as an approximately 3yo, adopted by a dude ranch and reportedly did well as a wrangler horse until the ranch sold and he was made part of the dude string.

Being a dude horse didn’t work for Tiny, neither did sharing hay and, lucky for us, the quirky giant cuddler wound up with CHRN and ultimately here.

Here he became the patriarch, protector of young and old horses alike, and straightener-outer of rambunctious new herd members. He’s carried friends, packs and me when Lacy was injured. He’d go to school events and parades and always be a favorite.

People are always amazed by “how tiny Tiny isn’t”. He’s massive – 15.2 or .3hh and as wide as he is tall. Tiny loves attention and food, knows his way around a cow and is sure-footed even in the grossest of boggy spots.

Fast forward a few years and Tay Martin started not only working but also riding with me and fell in love with the big orange couch who only works as hard as he has to and asks “are we there yet?” about every 10min.

Another year or two later, Tiny became officially ours. Since last year he’s on free lease with Taylor and her Mustang herd where he gets the attention he deserves and craves and I’m not constantly rolling my eyes at his work ethic. Taylor thinks he hung the moon. Every horse – and person – deserves someone who’s crazy (in a healthy way) about them.

I can borrow him back for rides and events and I get to see him regularly. Tiny is happy with a job suitable for an older boy who values comfort and ease. He provides Taylor and her family with opportunities to learn and grow and helps her bring her youngsters along. Win win situations are always the goal.

We’re careful to make sure that the Mustangs in our care are as happy as possible while they’re at Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy

It’s school, no doubt, and it’s not the same as being someone’s main or only project and getting all the fun, relatively low expectation exposure and hang out time they will get once they go home to their adopters.

Still, quality of life matters. A hungry, lonely horse that’s been cooped up also can’t learn as well as one with a happy belly that feels good about the social interactions and space it has.

Finding the right pen mate can take time and some horses here do better with a friendly neighbor than a buddy in their pen. Several factors play into who lives with whom.

These two fillies are two peas in a pod. I think that’s the 4th pairing we tried for Remington (Remi), the buckskin. Remi and Valkyrie play and groom each other, nap together or stand guard while one sleeps. They also happily share food.

Both are 2yo Bordo Atravesado NM Mustangs.

Valkyrie (bay with ND1 so looks dun but isn’t) is gentled and ready to find an ambitious, adventurous human or family of her own.

Remington will be available soon, please keep an eye on our page for her.

Located in Guffey, CO. Hauling can be arranged.

Time to (re-)introduce the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs. We’ll start with the one that started it all. Lacy, otherwise known as “The Princess”.

She’s a dun, coming 11yo, Divide Basin WY Mustang mare and the first branded Mustang I ever gentled. I brought her home 9 years ago this week.

My favorite fire breathing dragon is all of 14.1 or .2hh tall and the matriarch of our little herd. Lacy is gaited and a tad high strung. She’ll do anything I ask of her, with an opinion of course.

She helps me work young horses, is my main riding horse, does parades and school visits where she patiently stands to let everyone pet her and has been going on pack trips – first as a pack horse, now a saddle horse – since she was 3.

Lacy is one heck of a mountain horse, loves moving cattle and tolerates wearing costumes for events. She’s quick on her feet and very good at keeping me humble and thinking about how I can do better.

She’ll ride in anything from a neck rope to a spade. It’s been one heck of an adventure with this spirited, selectively friendly, smart little mare.

We hear that so often and it’s certainly happened to us too.

You go to the holding facility or an adoption event to select a wild horse. The one you choose has soft eyes, appears curious, maybe even friendly.

You get the animal home and start working with it, only to wonder what happened to the nice one you thought you picked.

This new one wants nothing to do with you, it’s pawing at the gate, turning its butt to you, or it has a giant toddler meltdown the second you ask it to do anything, much less give to pressure.

That’s because we first saw the animal in its comfort zone, surrounded by friends and not asked to do anything unfamiliar or potentially scary.

Now it’s work time, an new environment and the Mustang is completely out of sorts, to the point that you may not even recognize it, or wonder if you made a mistake.

Sergeant here was one of those horses. He looked just like this in holding. Soft eyes, approached politely, even allowed a bit of touch.

Getting him home to Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy , we could go in with him and his buddy and pet him.

As soon as he was alone in a pen with me and I started asking things of him, he became much more challenging.

The soft eyed, calm horse is back now but it took some time. It’s good to know that that’s in there. And it’s important to remember that we all act very differently within vs outside of our comfort zone.

If we’re being honest with ourselves, sometimes that’s not all that pretty, until we learn how to deal with our discomfort in a non-destructive manner and to adjust to the new situation.

They’re very similar in that aspect, just much bigger and without a clue how to “people”, so it’s our job to help them understand and learn.

*He’s tied to what I affectionately call the “spider”. We don’t have tie rails, just trees and high lines. That’s not always the safest when you have a wiggle worm learning to pick up feet. So I clip them into the high line and two lead ropes. He has enough slack to be comfortable and move around, not enough to spin or get to the end of the high line rope, freak out, and jump forward. The ground rope is for steering and stays with me.

**Sergeant will be available for adoption through the Forever Branded program. Please hold off on inquiring about him until you see him posted as available with all relevant info.

The past couple of months required stepping back and focusing on what matters most, both for the horses and behind the scenes.

That quiet work isn’t always visible, but it’s essential.

Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs Spur (left, Stewart Creek, WY) and Rock (Little Colorado, WY) engaging in some young gelding goofiness one recent crisp and sunny morning.

When Eduardo Garcia reached out to me about Ragnar, I sent him an adoption application like we always do. A couple of his references sounded familiar. When I called them, one of them said he’s a chef.

Once approved, he came out to meet Ragnar and told me what he was planning on doing with him. He was excited to be working on building an all-Mustang pack string for some really neat projects.

“Well”, I said, “I have another one you might like, but he doesn’t know much yet”. That “one” was Lieutenant, this handsome boy here, with all of 3 sessions under his belt at the time.

I don’t normally take visitors into a pen with a loose not yet gentled horse but Lieutenant is a pretty cool dude. He was very politely asking for attention through the gate, so in we went after my obligatory safety talk.

I mostly stood back and left them to it. I’m not sure who adopted whom that day but it’s since been decided that Lieutenant will join Ragnar when he’s ready.

Both are Forever Branded horses and we’re grateful for the program and what it does to help set wild horses and their sometimes equally feral humans up for success.

At some point during his time here I asked Eduardo “So how does one become a chef?” (I’m so far removed from that world, it’s not even funny. Think microwaved scrambled eggs kind of far removed.)

“You make care the number one ingredient.” was his answer. That really stuck with me when I realized it can be applied to literally everything in life.

These pictures illustrate that attitude beautifully. There’s a saying that other beings don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. There just might be some truth to that.

If you’re sad that you didn’t get a chance to adopt Lieutenant, I hope you can find peace in knowing that he’s going to be loved and cherished in a job and environment that suits him well, and that Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy has a number of wonderful wildies coming available this winter.

First, thank you to all of you who thought of Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy yesterday on Colorado Gives Day! The Mustangs and our small team appreciate you. When fundraising goes well, it’s always in spite of me not putting the word out early (maybe I’ll learn some day?) and only thanks to you believing in what we do. If you missed it and you’d still like to contribute, you’ll find the l¡nk in yesterday’s post.

“Knowledge is power” holds true when it comes to taking horses into the backcountry. So are skills, so is the right equipment. Learning from others, their advice and – yes – their mishaps is incredibly important. We don’t live long enough to learn everything the hard way and for some things we only get one shot.

This trail here can be challenging. It starts out so harmless until you hit downed trees, rock piles, mud and eventually boulder fields. It got hairy once or twice as it was – we learned from that – but that ride would have been over early and much less comfortable for everyone involved if it wasn’t for the following:

Trail saw – this was the second ride this fall where we had to cut our way in. We ride in the wilderness a lot, so no chain saws. I carry a handsaw in its own scabbard under my right fender.

Breakaway rope – Gabe with Colorado Pack Company LLC taught me to always tie the lead rope of the ponied horse to a breakaway rope, never to the horn. Boy did I feel stupid and I’ve had one on my saddle ever since. When his finally broke, the one I tied was with a double strand of baling twine rather than a single. Take my word for it, go single strand. We were lucky we only dented a water bottle that day.

Hobbles – when we explored the lakes and had lunch, we left Lacy, Rock and Spur hobbled so they could graze. On a day ride especially that’s the least we can do to ensure their comfort. All three are hobble trained. Spur and Lacy wear three leg hobbles. Rock does fine in draft size front hobbles we had made for him. I leave the lead ropes on young horses during their first backcountry season, that way if they get confused with hobbles on, I can help them more easily.

Layers – It was a beautiful fall day and yet there was wind, snow, ice, clouds, then sun again and drastic temperature changes as we went up and down in elevation and once the sun set. We carry hand and toe warmers just in case, as well as warm, wind- and waterproof layers, gloves and scarves. Otherwise it’s all fun and games until hypothermia sets in.

Food, water and life straws – Running out of sustenance on a long day in the mountains can go from uncomfortable to dangerous quickly, as does dehydration. I love life straws as a back up in the event of running out of drinking water. I can drink from a natural water source safely on the fly. It’s saved the day before and I won’t ride without one.

GPS and two way satellite communication – For the love of all that is holy, don’t go out there without knowing where you’re going, where you came from, where the trail is supposed to be and a way to call for help even if you don’t have cell service. Phones die, get crushed, get wet and stop working. I have a GPS device that can and does take rough handling and is on my person at all times. First responders have families too and nobody wants to be out there looking for what’s left of you for the next week. I have a standalone device that’s not my phone that if all else fails and I’m incapacitated Tay Martin knows how to use to a) get help now b) send and receive texts and c) navigate.

Anyway, that’s enough seriousness for one morning. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed our high country adventure.

Feel free to share this with friends you’d like to keep safe when they’re out adventuring

If there’s one thing that nonprofit work for Mustangs has taught me, it’s this: To have trust beyond logic or what one might call faith.

It’s jumping and trusting that the parachute will open. Sometimes it means building a safety net on the way down. It’s doing the thing and figuring out how along the way. It’s clinging for dear life to the belief that on the other side of doubt and turbulence, it’s all going to work out for the best.

Gentling Mustangs means working with people. Gentling Mustangs means learning, growth, hard lessons, laughter, humility and teamwork. Gentling Mustangs means embracing change and trusting the process, for both horse and handler.

It’s learning to ask for help, to build and rely on a support network when you’re more comfortable doing things on your own. It’s believing in the good in people even after some have proven otherwise.

Most importantly it’s showing up to do the best we can for these horses, over and over again, and getting better, more confident and a bit wiser along the way.

I was pretty nervous about finding a home for Topaz, a 4yo, 16hh dun Stewart Creek WY Mustang gelding (yes, he’s branded), not because nobody would want him but because first he wasn’t ready and then too many people did .

Not one of them asked what he was like, only what he cost and when they could get him.

He had been here for over a year by the time we felt remotely comfortable thinking about placing him. We’d gotten many requests about him because evidently it’s important to have a tall flashy once wild horse. And ideally it should be cheap.

He’s not a bicycle and Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy is no online wild horse warehouse. My eyes were rolling madly at the mere thought of making an official adoption post for this boy.

Turns out I didn’t have to. A previous adopter unexpectedly found herself with a hole in her heart and an empty space in the barn. I’d told her that when she was ready I’d be happy to help her find a Mustang to fill both.

She’d have been perfectly happy to take on any ol’ brown horse, if it was a fit for her.

Knowing that it was a match-over-appearance situation and that she is competent, has help and can offer an amazing forever home, I told her about this big, delicate boy. After much deliberation and confirming that her support network is on board, Topaz will be moving in the new year. We’re so very excited and happy for them both.

I have so many “everything happens for a reason” stories thanks to this work. I’m so very grateful for those experiences and for the humans and Mustangs in whose lives we get to make a difference.

We have 15 more wild horses to gentle and place this winter, and your support means the world to them and us.

Today is #ColoradoGivesDay, the last of the big official “Giving Days” of the year.

Yes, I enjoy fundraising about as much as I do dusting but both have their place. And yes, it’s mid-morning the day of. I’ve been dragging tail with bronchitis for several weeks, the tired, brain foggy type so I’m just glad that the neurons are firing again.

If you’d like to support our work of gentling and responsibly placing Mustangs, here’s the l¡nk to do so, additional d0nation avenues are in comments. CO Gives lets you set up recurring contributions if you so choose, as well as one time d0nations.

https://www.coloradogives.org/…/Wild-Horse-Outreach-And…

Please comment, like and share to make the algorithm happy and thus help us help more wild horses

Karma – 5yo brown Mustang mare from Antelope Hills WY. Karma was passed over 9 times (9 strikes) because she’s “nothing special”.

Uncle – 6yo grey Mustang gelding from Roberts Mountain NV. He’s an old soul and as sensible as he’s big, so we made an exception to our usual age range.

Vengeance aka Vinny (we were feeling feisty that day) – 5yo sorrel mare from Meadow Valley Mountains NV. Vinny had 8 strikes just for being an average size red mare.

Chaos – 4yo sorrel (rabicano?) Antelope NV mare with a partially blue eye. She’s the friendliest, cuddliest horse here, yet was passed over 8 times for being “plain”.

While we have 5 more new faces to introduce, this Giving Tuesday is a good opportunity to surprise you guys with these lovely wildies and to highlight what we do for those who are new here.

We pulled them from Cañon City at the last opportunity before our local BLM holding facility closed. No incentive program, just an effort to make a difference in these Mustangs’ lives by giving them a solid foundation and finding them amazing homes.

If you’d like to contribute to their future by helping us feed and care for them, we would so appreciate that!

Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy (WHOA) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Guffey, CO. We have happy WHOA graduate Mustangs and adopters all over the US. Your support is what keeps us going and we’re so grateful!

One time contributions make a huge difference! Hay is our #1 need, we currently go through just under 100 small bales a week, at $13/bale

We’re also open to sponsorships if you’d like to take over part or all of a specific Mustang’s care while it’s with us. Sponsorships start at $50/mo and go up to $350/mo. Colorado Gives lets you set up recurring donations.

Contributions specifically towards hoof and vet care as well as chiropractic work are always appreciated. We have a wonderful team of mobile professionals who support our wildies’ well-being.

Donation avenues in comments. Please reach out if you’re interested in sponsoring outside of Colorado Gives!

Please share! 100% of your support goes directly to the Mustangs!