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 …
Category: Stefanie’s Notebook
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 …
Jul 19 2022
Riding under a storm cloudy sky
A quick ride to check cows on the forest after a day of gentling wild horses turned into a spectacular light show. It was 4yo Devil’s Garden Mustang gelding DG Littlefoot’s first “big boy” ride, saddled and being ridden the entire 8 1/2 miles rather than sharing the workload with 7yo Divide Basin Mustang mare …
Jul 01 2022
Tesla – a lesson in patience and an opportunity to combine approaches
Tesla, 5yo Warm Springs, OR Mustang gelding has been an interesting one to work with. Not because he’s a “bad” horse but because of the baggage he carries. He has been bounced around several times, including a trip to auction, before his current owner got him. Various unsuccessful attempts to gentle the gorgeous bay gelding …