Stefanie Schaefer
Author's posts
Jan 14 2023
Connection over control
Have you ever felt like the universe is hitting you upside the head with a message until you finally listen? I have. So. Many. Times. The one I’ve been getting and trying to respond to lately is less rigidity and more being in the moment, less aiming to control and more seeking to connect. That …
Jan 11 2023
Tiny
This big guy, a teenage Salt Wells WY Mustang gelding, has been part of our Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador herd for a few years now. He came from Colorado Horse Rescue Network where he ended up because of some…errrr…. unique personality traits. He joined us as a riding horse for a friend back …
Dec 30 2022
Knowing yourself, your limits, and your horse
I do a lot of backcountry riding far from groomed trails, exploring new-to-me country and difficult terrain, and “I just want to see what’s on the other side of that ridge”. That leads to many an unexpected adventure. I’m also not, not even in the least little bit, a fearless rider, or a fearless person …
Dec 28 2022
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail
3 Mustangs, same HMA, all geldings, got here the same day, have had the same number of sessions, all 3 very sane and very, very smart. Oh and handsome, let’s not forget that. We all spend a lot of time just drooling over them. Not ideal when it’s 20 degrees out. These pictures are from …
Dec 22 2022
If you’re scared to do something… Do it scared
Here’s a post I’ve been dreading writing. A post about the word that starts with ‘ew’. Ew for vulnerability. 6 years ago gentling Mustangs started as a wild experiment (pun intended) after over 2 decades of working with domestics of all sizes, on 2 continents, with horses that had varying amounts of human-induced baggage. As …
Dec 06 2022
It’s #ColoradoGivesDay !
Sometimes life happens and things don’t go as planned, right? That’s what happened to us this week when we realized, after hours of troubleshooting, emails and phone calls to the support team, that our account on the Colorado Gives Day page has glitched and won’t be operational for today’s giving event. So, in the spirit …
Nov 30 2022
The many faces of wild horse advocacy… Helping Mustangs by showing what they are capable of and inspiring adopters to keep working towards their dreams
My Thanksgiving week looked like this: A chilly, scenic and exhilarating pack trip into one of the magical canyons in the Colorado prairie, with Ambassador Mustangs Lacy (7yo, Divide Basin, WY) as my saddle horse and Tiny (15yo, Salt Wells, WY) packing camp in and out, and ponied during day rides out of camp. The …
Nov 30 2022
What we do and how you can help
We’re near the end of another crazy year (Where did the time go anyway?), an opportunity to reflect, to plan and, most importantly, to be grateful Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy (WHOA) obtained its 501(c)3 nonprofit status at the end of 2019, right before the start of COVID. We’ve been growing through a pandemic and …
Nov 20 2022
Mornings in camp… Coffee with marmots
Packing into the backcountry with horses is grounding, beautiful, exciting…and an entirely different way of life. As a morning person, I wake up between 4 and 5am. At that time it’s dark and chilly in the high country, outside of my cocoon of sleeping bag liner, sleeping bag and sometimes lined duster for additional warmth. …
Jul 19 2022
Gentling mare & foal pairs
When we first started discussing the idea to bring pairs to Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy to gentle and adopt out, we got a lot of feedback along the lines of “I don’t recommend it, those wild mares can be aggressive when they have a foal at their side”. Figuring that we wouldn’t have a …