In other news, this past week we had the pleasure of giving Ashley Ahearn , journalist, horsewoman and Mustang adopter, a behind the scenes look at the what, how and why here at Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy .

She flew out from Washington to spend a blustery winter day with us and do a podcast interview for a new NPR podcast series on wild horses. Wild Spirit Mountain Lodge , thank you for making Ashley feel at home and for a wonderful dinner.

Ashley met the training horses, several of our volunteers, our amazing farrier Cassie with CK Hoof Care , the Ambassador herd and of course Denali and Ranger. Tiny and the Shepherds tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to nibble on and steal the microphone.

The interview and having Ashley come out to spend time with us was a pinch-me moment on so many levels. I’m still kind of talked out, so I’ll try and keep it short on here today.

I feel humbled and am in grateful disbelief over how things have been coming together lately after years of quiet, hard work, learning, and moving forward, often against all odds.

I’m so beyond thankful for our growing tribe of supportive individuals and organizations, causing us to be able to help more Mustangs and do so with increasing efficiency.

I need to get busy scheduling workshops for this year. Gentling wild horses is only part of our work. Teaching and helping people is the other.

It was a pleasure to meet and chat with you Ashley. I look forward to meeting up again in the not too distant future. Thank you for all you do for the people, the animals and the rangelands in the West!

Ashley has two podcast series already on Spotify, “Women’s Work” and “Grouse”. I’d highly recommend you give them a listen.

I’m all but speechless (doesn’t happen often ) and overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement about this week’s events. Somehow Mustangs bring out the best in people and the best people together, and with so many neat things coming together all at once, it’s hard to decide where to begin…

We’ve been keeping a baby announcement from you – only for a day because it’s been insanely busy – so we’ll get to that first.

Many of you might remember the story of the Colorado 5, five Mustang mares who were saved from a tragic ending, after finding themselves malnourished and traumatized in a kill pen, by Skydog Sanctuary and American Wild Horse Campaign. The two organizations came together to purchase a total of 16 branded Mustangs that day and place them with trainers for gentling and adopting out into suitable, loving homes. 5 of them came to Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy. We would later find out that 3 of the 5 were pregnant.

Moana, a 3yo mare from Pokegama HMA in Oregon, was one of them. Exposed to an unknown stud (or jack, we weren’t sure at the time) sometime in between being adopted and falling into the hands of a kill buyer.

Because someone is going to ask: Yes, there are kill buyers and kill pens here in the US. Yes, horse slaughter is illegal in this country. The horses get shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. Yes, titled Mustangs can be sold at auction for anyone to buy, including kill buyers. No, we should not all run and give kill buyers all our money, because all they do is use it to buy more horses. It’s a very, very sad industry and a vicious cycle. Anyway, these 16 Mustangs, whose adopters failed them miserably, got a second chance at life, after quarantine and significant physical and mental rehabilitation efforts.

We had found an out of state adopter for Moana, who just recently let her guard down and embraced life with humans, when it became apparent that she was getting too close to foaling to travel. She is a young mare and on the smaller side, expecting what is likely her first foal. We are located pretty far from anywhere, at high elevation and have had a pretty rough, cold winter. Our friends at For the Love of Aria offered to foster Moana, and foal her out at their facility at lower elevation that is set up for all levels of medical care and rehabilitation.

Our timing was just right, they picked her up last weekend and yesterday morning she delivered a beautiful, healthy bay filly. Momma and baby are doing well and we’re all super excited.

Thank you to all the organizations and individuals involved in giving this young Mustang mare and her foal a chance to live and thrive – the staff members and volunteers, donors, haulers, vets, our farrier and everyone I’m forgetting in my excitement – for coming together and making the world a better place and my heart full.

Here’s Blanca, the bestest, fluffiest, toughest and cutest old mare, putting up with a young Mustang, DG Petrie, while getting a job done.

Petrie is a coming 3yo filly out of last year’s load of Devil’s Garden Mustangs from the Double Devil Wild Horse Corrals. We’re currently working on the new load… We’re only a teeny tiny bit excited

The last few nights when I was out feeding and checking on the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador herd (minus Lacy, who’s still on sick leave), I was thinking about how much more there is to really getting a Mustang acclimated to living in our world than just gentling or what we might consider basic handling.

There are so many firsts for them, so many things we take for granted in domestics – who often get handled from birth, getting used to humans, their pets and kids, the many weird objects humans keep around and the goofy things they do – that a wild born horse has never seen, heard, smelled, felt or experienced before.

In addition to that, habituation takes practice. Good, effective practice and useful repetition. That’s something I have to remind myself of over and over after turning a newly gentled Mustang out with the herd.

It’s easy to treat that horse as “one of the grown-ups” when in reality they are still so, so green and will forget how to be caught, how to pick up their feet etc if we let them sit and forget to practice because the horse has already graduated basic training.

They also need to learn to be alone with us, which is why I take Petrie, who thankfully is pretty independent, on walks without the other horses. Of course I’d like to just pony her because it’s fun, but I want her to be looking to me, not the other horse, for guidance and direction, so that when the time comes I’ll have a partner that’s confident riding out alone.

Here’s some food for thought: Imagine getting abducted by aliens and taken to Mars. You get put in a classroom, alone or with a small number of other humans, and for the next 4 to 8 weeks you stay in that room or building, learning a few words of Martian, getting used to how your teachers look, talk, dress and move, and to the objects that are in that building.

After that they kick you out into Martian society that’s full of stuff you never saw in your first few weeks, and expect you to know your way around with your limited vocabulary and exposure to all things Martian. You finally meet some humans again, who happen to speak your language, so you’re at least relieved to have that and you don’t worry so much for a while although you still find your surroundings rather unfamiliar and strange.

Then after another few weeks, the Martians pick you up out of your group and take you to a different building, again with different objects, and expect you to understand them after not having practiced what little bit of Martian you did know, and to go to work doing something that’s not making any sense to you.

You watch them get frustrated while you’re totally overwhelmed with the sights and sounds around you, you miss your fellow humans and are desperately trying to remember what Martian you did know so you can maybe get an idea of what they want from you.

That doesn’t sound fun now, does it? That’s probably about how our Mustangs feel if we don’t give them the consistent attention, understanding, time and exposure required to facilitate a successful and seamless transition into living in our world.

That’s also why there are so many project Mustangs looking for new homes and hardly any really seasoned, well adjusted ones.

Once they do get comfortable with their new life and have had lots of practice with all that’s expected of them, most can eventually be treated like a domestic in that they will stay ‘tame’ and ‘broke’ even if they sit for a few weeks.

But the first several months or couple of years, depending on how much time you spend with your wild one(s) and how much of our world you’re able to show them during that time, you want to be prepared to support your once wild horse if you want them to be successful and become the partner you envision.

This is gentling session # 3 with Behne, 12yo per BLM paperwork, from Sand Wash Basin, Colorado. He already has a loving home, he is with Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy for basic handling and to learn to like human interaction.

He leads, backs, is starting to yield shoulders, hind quarters and send off in either direction on cue.

This is us working up to and getting the first touches.

I didn’t run or flag the tar out of him, he’s barely ever worked up a sweat, even in his winter coat. I’m trying to get his mind engaged, not his body tired.

When we work with wild horses, we try to keep our sessions short, meaningful, focused and leave the horse feeling confident and asking for more. I call it “leaving some fuel in the tank”.

That way when we come back to them the next time, they’re more likely to be curious and eager than exhausted and resentful.

I’d rather put in 30 minutes and make every second count than drill on a sweaty, tired, scared or frustrated horse for an hour because someone said it has to be a 60 minute session, or there needs to be sweat and dus flying for it to count, or that you can’t quit until you’ve reached your goal.

What I consider a good session often looks pretty boring for people who wouldn’t yet know how to appreciate quiet, steady progress. The Mustang stays below threshold of what his nervous system can handle, but is still engaged enough to learn.

There’s a fine line we need to walk: When they’re bored or not being “heard” they don’t learn. When they’re overstimulated, in fight, flight or freeze, the brain goes off-line and they’re reacting, not responding. That’s where things get dangerous.

Do sessions with higher ‘entertainment value’ happen? Yes they do. Less and less often the more I learn and the more we improve our setup and are able to help the horse find the ‘right’ answer sooner and more easily.

When things do get exciting, I look for the smallest common denominator to bring us back on the same page. Something we can both do, agree on, feel good about and later build or rebuild from. Afterwards I look inward and reflect on ways to do better next time.

When we’re working with, rather than at the horse, Mustang gentling doesn’t have to be chaos, doesn’t have to be scary but can still be effective and yield prompt results.

It’s our job to get these horses out of living in fear and help them trust and understand so they can then be doctored, trimmed, loved on, turned out with other horses, started under saddle, you name it. This is not about tiptoeing and dragging out feet to keep the peace at all cost.

This is about learning to read the horse, understanding how the horse learns and making it easy for them to succeed. There’s a whole lot of questioning and revising our approach and presentation to make things work better, because once we learn to get our of our own and the horse’s way, they usually will do just fine.

This boy is 9yo Sand Wash Basin Mustang gelding Cary, the youngest of the older geldings we’ve recently had the pleasure of working with. Interestingly enough, with his relative youth he was the more challenging one even though the others took/are taking a little longer to settle down initially.

The other geldings are/were 11 (Schatzi, previously thought to be 14), 12 (Behne, unknown on the range) and 22 (Storm), all from Sand Wash Basin.

Honestly, if I could just work with mature geldings all day, I would. For personal horses, I’m a mare person because I appreciate the sass and opinions. I also understand that younger horses usually make better riding prospects. And I love them all, whether they are 3 weeks or 30 years old.

But these wise, battle-scarred former stallions that grew to maturity on the range hold a special place in my heart.

They have a unique presence that comes from having to hold their own in fights, from claiming and protecting mares and foals.

Where mature Mustang mares can be fierce, their gelding counterparts tend to be attentive yet quiet and matter-of-fact once they understand the new situation. The baby brain is long gone and they typically use their energy wisely. You can’t fool them but you can win them over.

When gentling all Mustangs, but especially these mature boys, I do my best to not go out there looking for a fight. Because if I do that, I know I’m going to find one, and I frankly have no desire to go there with a once wild stallion who knows exactly how to use and position his body to protect himself and injure or kill an opponent.

It’s possible and much easier to show them, step by step, how their new life works. It may take a little longer initially but if we set it up to where it’s easy for them to find the comfort of the “right” answer, they will quickly gravitate towards that, provided we are clear and consistent rather than wishy-washy in our body language, cues and expectations.

Cary and Schatzi were here at Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy for two months of basic handling (catch and halter, lead, load, lunge, send, tie, pick up feet, fly spray, obstacles, meeting lots of new people, getting used to dogs and different objects, sights and sounds) and an introduction to partnering with humans.

They went home last weekend and we miss them so much. They’re in the best of hands at For the Love of Aria and we know where to find them if we want to watch them enjoy life with their herd and give them a hug.

Pictures of some end of session cuddles and scratches with handsome and always muddy Cary. It’s not exactly bath weather yet at this altitude.

Relationship building is just as important as formal training in setting once wild horses up for success in their new homes. As it turns out, butt scratches are the key to many a tough wild one’s heart, Cary being no exception.

PC: Linnea Helander

Rowdy’s Ropes Montana Rio Buckaroo Hats Outback Trading Company LTD. (and about 6 more layers plus hand warmers because this winter has been so cold)

This post was inspired by a conversation with a dear friend about an entirely non-horse-related topic, but as with so many things, I find it applies here too.

I believe that we need to be willing to invest quality time and effort into our horses before we can expect better results.

We have to remember that we are the ones that asked to get the horse, do the training session, go on the ride, etc. The horse didn’t. He was just being in the moment, hopefully content with food & friends.

This boy here is Salt Wells, WY Mustang gelding Tiny, one of the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs. Lacy’s injury made him my main riding horse and we’re figuring things out. He’s goofy, watchy, insecure and has a busy, ever-wandering mind.

When I’m riding Tiny it’s far from a walk in the park, because I haven’t yet built a strong enough foundation with him that would enable me to just let him be for even 20min during a ride.

He needs me to be focused on him if I want him to be focused on me. He needs me to be confident if I want him to mirror that. Otherwise we’re both distracted, scared and nervous, and then what?

Our horse is only going to improve as much as – or possibly a little less than – we are. If we want a more refined horse, we need to learn to become more refined in our cues.

If we want a horse that’s mentally with us, we can’t just be chatting, gazing into the distance or texting.

If we want our horse to make progress in any area, from gentling to advanced level riding, we need to be willing to put in time and effort before we can see results. Including changing our approach and learning something new if what we’re doing is not working.

This should go without saying (I even feel a little silly writing it), but so many people are and remain frustrated with their horses, wild and domestic alike, for not becoming more gentle/’broke’/fit/soft and responsive etc., simply for lack of effort on the human’s part.

Horses are a huge commitment, even more so if we want to be enjoying our time with them, getting a job done with them, and feel safe doing so.

The work with a horse is no more ‘finished’ than we are ever done putting effort into our interpersonal relationships if we want them to thrive.

Frank Stetson again, coming 4yo sooty buckskin Sand Wash Basin Mustang gelding. He’s with Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy for gentling and to learn that interacting with humans is actually pretty cool.

If you’re drooling now: Yes, he really is that cute. No, sorry, you can’t have him. He has a home, and no, sadly not with us .

Frank Stetson (I call him Fuzzybutt and things like that because his name is a real mouthful) is the kind of horse that’ll fool you. He was the first of the Sand Wash Basin boys to be touched and haltered, took well to leading and I thought “Oh nice, an easy one!”

The thing with him was that everything I presented to him was either a “heck yeah” or a “hell no”, nothing in between. He either liked something and was great at it, or he hated it and wasn’t about to try. It wasn’t always pretty, I’ll say that.

Some of his “hell no” points were: Having me on his right side, being touched past the hip on either side, picking up front feet, sending/lunging clockwise, staying out of my space.

He came here with Cary (9yo) and Schatzi (14yo), also from Sand Wash Basin. After getting to know each of them, this guy is hands down the toughest out of the 3 (even though he is a good horse and very smart) and has made me think and work the hardest for the progress we have made.

Working hard doesn’t always mean doing more. It means seeking to understand, reading the horse, changing my approach if it’s not working, identifying triggers and strengths, looking for the smallest common denominator and building from there.

It also means setting and enforcing boundaries. This sweet boy isn’t at all afraid of being close to people, so he’d try to spook right over the top of me if something bothered him. That doesn’t work either. We both need to be able to be and feel safe.

With Mustangs it’s so important to remember that young doesn’t equal easy. Not easy doesn’t equal bad or hopeless.

They are who they are, just like humans, and if we can meet them where they are at, establish two-way communication and start working together we can build a connection that allows us to get through the tough stuff together.

Frank Stetson is always going to be a strong-willed horse. He’s going to ask questions and may present his own ideas. At the same time he is incredibly brave, curious, and affectionate.

His adopter is a capable, experienced horse woman and is going to do have a great partner in him once they get to know each other. He may not be for everybody and he’s not ‘perfect’. But then again, who is?

*That last picture is for everyone who thinks this work is all fairydust and rainbows. That’s after a couple of hours of handling muddy ropes and scratching dusty wild horses. It washes off, but this is pretty real, raw work.*

PC: Tay Martin

Training halter and lead: Rowdy’s Ropes

Hat and hatband: Montana Rio Buckaroo Hats

Staying warm in stupid cold temperatures with Outback Trading Company LTD. and The Original Muck Boot Company

This is a question I get asked a lot: How do you contain the horses in the backcountry, especially overnight?

There are several ways that can work depending on where you are and what works for you and your stock. Highline, lowline, electric fence are a few. Some people keep one animal tied in camp and turn the rest loose to graze.

What’s important is that… you leave no trace (your animals aren’t digging craters or eating the bark off of trees, cleaning up camp and scattering manure when you leave is part of that too), your animals aren’t fighting and are still there in the morning, and you can get some rest without constantly worrying about what the horses/mules are doing.

Highline works for us in most places (you need strong enough, live trees for that). Nothing wrong with setting up several highlines either, because you need to get the spacing right and not have animals tangled up in each other, in ropes or in trees.

I tend to use the “looks good” approach for measuring but if that’s not something that works for you then the 777 rule might help you (I heard that last year and I think it’s a great rule of thumb and easy to explain): Highline should be 7ft high, and animals 7ft apart, and 7ft from trees. You can tweak that based on your needs of course.

I’m going to put links to the equipment we use at the end of this post. For your animals’ safety it’s really important that the highline is tight and that there are swivels. At least one, but I prefer two. One at the highline end and one at the halter end. That way the rope turns as the horse moves and they don’t get choked by the rope that’s getting shorter as it twists (that happens without swivels and you can end up with a dead horse that way). I like to tighten the highline every day because it does get slack in it overnight. Saggy highlines can cause a horse to get its head too low and get a foot over the rope, or to get tangled in the highline if they get upset.

Rope length: I like the rope so that they can get their poll at wither level to sleep. Any longer and mine will paw, try to eat, visit each other, get tangled in the rope.

For short people and for convenience/safety: I have a piece of rope tied to a climbing carabiner that’s clipped to the highline swivel (those are nice, they are movable but so long as the line is tight won’t move on their own). I can reach that from the ground and to me it’s a better way to tie than to risk getting the rope bound up in the loop of the swivel. It can also be cut quickly if there really is a problem.

Yes, sometimes I do climb around on my horse to set up a highline. Not every horse will appreciate that. I do tighten the highline from horseback. That works well if you can keep your horse still and yourself from getting clotheslined (or would it be highlined in this case?).

For the really special horses/mules out there: Both Tiny and Lacy are hobbled at night on the highline. The hobbles are loose enough for them to be comfy, yet not so loose that they come off. Tiny is a mouthy busybody and I wouldn’t put it past him to chew through his lead rope. Lacy wiggles and paws and gets more nervous the more she does that. I put the hobbles on and she goes to sleep. Littlefoot wouldn’t paw if he had a single cuff hobble on one front foot. I couldn’t hobble him or he’d wake up and panic because he couldn’t move his feet freely. He is hobble trained. Just couldn’t be highlined in them.

Another thing to ensure happy, quiet horses: Don’t make them go to bed hungry. My guys graze until I go to bed and get taken off the highline as soon as I wake up. That way they’re more likely to be calm overnight.

For your own peace of mind and that of your animals: Put troublemakers on the end or on their own highline. Nobody needs a kicking match at 2am and a lame horse because of it.

This equipment/setup is what works for us. It’s not gospel, so if you do something different and it works for you, by all means. I’m sharing this to help those who are looking for input and who maybe (like me) don’t know 18 different knots.

Pictured here: Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador Mustangs Lacy and Tiny. Denali the Shepherd wears those goggles for an eye condition per vet recommendation.

Here you go:

1″ ratchet strap, good quality. That’s a smooth way to keep you highline tight. Make sure it works right before you leave for your trip.

Tree savers so your rope doesn’t kill the trees you’re tying to (lash cinches can work too): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032CR2C2/

Highline rope (can use your lash rope too): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D2ZNZDE/

Swivels: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002L99LH6/

This is a post for and about the newest member of our Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador herd: Petrie, a coming 3yo Devil’s Garden Mustang filly and one of the 10 DG Mustangs from the 2021 gather on U.S. Forest Service-Modoc National Forest land that were passed over for adoption and sent to us by our friends at Double Devil Wild Horse Corrals in Alturas, CA.

We gentled them and by now 8 of them have been placed into wonderful, loving homes. Some are already under saddle. Peanut is still with us to give her time to calm down and learn to trust humans. And then there’s Petrie.

I knew I wanted to retain a youngster to bring along, for one because evidently I’m a sucker, and because I really did need an up and coming pack horse as well as something that would be big and tough enough to work horses off of one day.

I said 4 youngsters ago no more baby brains and starting young horses for me. Apparently I don’t actually mean it, and here we are.

I also knew what wanted in the Mustang I would keep: A mare – I’m a mare person, what can I say. One with grit, courage, sass and opinions. A horse that faces challenges head on, is curious and will stand its ground in the face of perceived threat. Some of these are necessities for the kind of riding I do. Others are personal preference.

The good news: Petrie is all of that. The bad news? Petrie is all of that. My friends and I often joke about how men tend to want a strong woman, until they have one and she starts holding him accountable and voicing her opinion.

That’s pretty much what happened here. This filly cuts me no slack. None. If I’m not on top of my game, she tells me. If I don’t take my time teaching her something thoroughly, there’s a fight. And I mean a FIGHT. I’ve swallowed my pride and backtracked so many times, making sure that she actually understood the assignment, rather than me just casually introducing something to her and then expecting her to fill in for me.

She’s into absolutely everything, afraid of nothing almost to a fault. She slimes all over my car, opens doors, knocks on walls, tries to climb stairs, paws at and digs through things she finds interesting. She first introduced herself to Tiny, the boss of our Ambassador herd and twice her weight, by running at him backwards and double-barreling at him. She’s growing like a weed and getting thicker all the time.

She’s not only what I thought I wanted, she’s exactly what I needed. A horse that makes me earn it rather than wing it, every step of the way. She’s definitely a case of “be careful what you wish for”, in the best possible way.

For those who want to know:

Hat: Montana Rio Buckaroo Hats

Riding coat: Outback Trading Company LTD.

Halter and lead: Rowdy’s Ropes

If you’ve been following along for a while, you’ve seen pictures of Lacy, 8yo dun Divide Basin Mustang mare and part of the Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy Ambassador herd.

Lacy is gaited, gritty, opinionated and up for any challenge or adventure. She’s been my main riding horse for the past 3 years. “‘Though she be but little, she is fierce.” – That sums up Lacy.

This month marks 6 years together. She was the first branded Mustang I ever gentled, a gangly, fiery 2yo with lots of heart and even more personality. She’s never held back on expressing her opinions, and we sure haven’t always seen eye to eye.

Last month, about a week before I left for Elko, Lacy came in from pasture limping, pretty sore on her left hind. I gave it a little time… No improvement. A trip to the vet revealed a partially torn ligament in her hock, edema and lots of inflammation.

The vet said “She might be fine in a couple or three months, or we may have to make to make a quality of life decision, just depends on how well this heals.” ‘Quality of life decision’ is a nice way of hinting at euthanasia. Not something I wanted to hear.

The outpouring of support Lacy has received since then has been incredible. Tay and Jennifer Martin put ointment and back-on-tracks on her every day while I was gone, Gina Sorrell Kuttrus k-taped the sore hock, our farrier Cassie Krzeczowski donated magnawave treatment that Ashley Boyington has been administering, and Maya Suzuki LAc drove for hours to do acutherapy and moxibustion on Lacy.

Meanwhile, Lacy is penned up with all the hay she could want, and gets to go on short hand walks. I turn to absolute mush when it comes to this mare that can do no wrong (my opinion, most people who know her would tell a different story), is my friend and adventure partner.

She’s handling living in a cage better than I’d anticipated. It’s bothering me more than her it seems, seeing the princess stuck in a small pen. After a couple of weeks of being pretty quiet, she’s all attitude again, and that makes me so happy.

She’s delighted about attention and oh so helpful when it comes to feeding, watering and pen cleaning. She tries to sneak out every chance she gets. We’ve tried letting her roam. Someone just can’t pace herself, so no more of that.

Lacy is on Equioxx and scheduled for a steroid injection. Thank you to everyone who has worked on her, given advice, and sent good thoughts her way. It is so much appreciated. If all goes well she’ll be chasing cows and climbing mountains again come spring.