Are you ready for part 2 and 3 of our 2700 mile road trip to KY?
Here they are! Buckle up and enjoy the drive!
Day 2
Day 3
Mustang Story #14: Showing a Mustang at the NW Horse Expo!
In 2023, the Teens and Oregon Mustang Competition was hosting a big winter showdown at the NW Horse Expo. It was going to be one of the main attractions for the Expo and was bound to be an outstanding competition!
I received a huge 15.3hh mare from the Stinking Water HMA. She was the same color as my heartthrob Olympic Dressage horse “Glamourdale”
So I decided to call her Glamour
She was SO sweet but anytime she felt uncomfortable she would run for the hills and take out anything in her path…including panels. I took things slow, gradually building her trust…but we still had a few hiccups and I definitely give this mare credit for teaching me how to effectively use the emergency stop when riding a bolt
Having the competition at the Expo brought in a whole new set of challenges. There were HUNDREDS of people and horses of every shape, size and discipline scattered throughout the grounds. Horses pulling carts, stallions, mounted shooting, cow sorting…you name it. Even the world renowned horse trainer, Chris Cox was giving demos! That was chaos! Now add in Mustangs with only a few months of training
Being one of the “Big Attractions” they pulled out all the stops! The Trail class included opening a gate, crossing bridges, carrying a flag while weaving barrels and even a crazy pool noodle obstacle!
Glamour was a very sensitive mare and scary obstacles where not our strongest area. I had no clue how she was going to handle the crazy environment…much less the scary obstacles.
As we entered the arena, Glamour gave me her full attention and completed each obstacle! She was so brave and put in an outstanding round landing us in 3rd out of 30 horses going into the freestyle finals! I was SO proud!!!! Being a special “Showdown Competition” there wasn’t age divisions so this was my 1st time competing against adults and professional horse trainers. The Freestyles were absolutely incredible and Glamour and I walked away in 5th overall! I was thrilled!
Glamour, AKA River, found the most AMAZING home with Cindi Strobl, now getting to adventure on trails and even playing with Cindi’s adorable granddaughter
New Youtube Video!
Last year I set a goal for myself to video my entire road trip to Lexington and put together a little YouTube series
Here is a little look at Day 1 on the road!
Let me know what you think
Mustang Story #13: From completely WILD to a 4-H Champion!
I’ve never been a big believer in sleep or “down time” so naturally in 2022 I signed up for the Teens And Oregon Mustang Program. Mind you, I was already competing in the “MYWY Mustang Madness” competition with Shania and Peachy Keen so had a total of 3 wild Mustangs I was working everyday…Let’s just say June and July were VERY busy
Thankfully God knew I had taken on probably more than I should and granted me the sweetest, most kind, 3yr old as my draw
He was a dun and was a look alike to Peachy Keen, so obviously I named him “Just Peachy” aka “JP”.
Meet “Just Peachy”
JP was just the coolest horse! I galloped him down trails, worked cows, I taught him to pull my sister in a raft and I pretty much rode him everywhere! He was a gentlemen from the very beginning and even let my little 9yr old sister ride him and my dad. He was safe, sane and everyone who met him fell in love with his goofy personality!
It was no surprise when JP put on a show stopping performance at the competition and landed “Reserve Champion” with only 1/2 point away from 1st.
But this was just the beginning of JP’s show career! JP, now known as, Tango continues to rock the show world with his new rider, Brooklyn! Together they compete in 4-H and OHSET being amazing ambassadors for the Mustangs
Mustang Story #12: They Paid Me $500 To Adopt A Mustang!!!
$500 and a new Mustang!?! Sign me up!
The MYWY Mustang Madness Competition was offering a $500 incentive if competitors wanted to adopt and train a 2nd Mustang. If you haven’t noticed, we will take any opportunity to play with another Mustang and it made it a lot easier to convince our dad of yet another Mustang when we explained we were “literally getting PAID to adopt another Mustang”
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During selection my mom fell in love with an exquisite little bay yearling. She was full of life and trotted all about the pen with her head held high and an intelligent look in her eye. Right then and there it was decided that this was going to be my 2nd competition Mustang.
True to her appearance she was EXTREMELY Smart, bold and outgoing. Due to her fiery personality, I named her after my mom and my favorite country music artist Shania Twain
To this day I haven’t had a Mustang that could learn so much in such a short amount of time. She was AWESOME! I spent the summer doing a deep dive into my advanced ground work and was absolutely amazed at what all this little filly learned!
At the competition, Shania absolutely rocked it putting in one of the best performances of my career. She was on FIRE
We secured our spot in the top 10 and into the freestyle competition. I typically am a big prop person when it comes to freestyles, but with Shania, any prop or obstacle I added seemed to take away from her natural beauty and refinement. So, with the help of my sisters and mom, we crafted a freestyle that focused on advanced ground-work maneuvers strung together in such a way that created a beautiful performance, showing off what Shania did best.
You can see it at: https://youtu.be/AmwDqWPSUf0?si=7oGyqZceJlLQdelh
It was a huge success and landed Shania a “Grand Champion Finish”
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And the best part of all is that Shania now lives with the same AMAZING family that adopted Elsie and Princess, two of our 2021 Mustang yearlings! It was the absolute perfect home for such a remarkable yearling!
Mustang Story #11: The little yearling with a BIG personality!
Eliza at the mature age of 9 was already training her second wild Mustang for the 2022 MYWY Mustang Madness competition
She chose a buckskin yearling with the most crazy wild mane I had ever seen!
This little gelding had a big personality, and thought quite highly of himself. On day 1 he was determined he could make it out of our 6ft panels. Although he was unable, I was impressed with his attempts…luckily he was just a tad too short
Once he settled in, he and Eliza quickly hit it off and became fast friends. This Mustang was special and with his wild mane and exuberant personality, we knew he needed a good name. We tried naming him Aslan from Narnia as well as after his rockstar look-alike Rod Stewart (They share the same taste in hair styles
) but ultimately Eliza decided to call him “Big Guy”.
Eliza and Big Guy had a great weekend at the competition and Eliza secured her 2nd “Reserve Champion Finish”.
Unable to part with this pretty gelding we ended up keeping him…now 3yrs later, he is the menace of the farm Spoiled rotten! At a whopping 15.3 hands he still thinks he is the baby of the farm deserving all the attention…His current personality reminds us of a teenage boy that refuses to get a job and just drives his poor parents crazy!!! He is now going under-saddle, but will try everything possible to get out of work…straight lines and circles are nearly impossible…. Currently, Eliza rides him daily teaching him how to be a solid and respectable riding horse.
But this year he is in for some big life changes! He is going to enter the work force and be my Dad’s full time trail, jumping and all around riding horse. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes
Mustang Story #10! Is her leg broken?!?
Can you guess what kind of Mustang Marissa picked for the 2022 MYWY competition??? If something brown and fiery popped into your head then you would be absolutely correctShe chose a completely brown (besides a stripe on her face) 4yr old mare that could gallop circles in a 20 by 20 area with ease. We were in for another wild ride….
Half-way through our 10hr drive home from the BLM, we noticed her entire front leg was swollen from the shoulder down. Was it broken? Extremely Injured? We couldn’t tell…Upon arriving home, we assessed it the best we could but it wasn’t till the next morning when puss started oozing out that we knew it was an abscess
This brown mare was VERY fiery and also …in pain..a bad combination. To get it to heal, we knew we needed to be able to clean it, so Marissa set to work gentling her. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge. She was aggressive and had a nasty habit of charging you. Marissa stayed the course and eventually won this fiery mare’s trust and respect.
Eventually the abscess healed, and Marissa proceeded to start the mare (known as “Freesia”) under-saddle. She was so athletic and trainable, within 3 months jumping 2’6″ with ease and learning to smile! Maybe our next eventing Mustang?!? The thought of keeping her was exciting… but all the Mustangs in this competition were required to be sold at auction. So we tried to not get our hopes up.
After a fantastic weekend at the competition, receiving Reserve Champion under-saddle, the auction began. The price went right up to our limit…then it stopped. We all held our breath as the auctioneer counted down “going once… twice… SOLD”. We were THRILLED!!!!
It is now 3yrs later and Freesia is a family favorite Marissa does everything on this horse! Need a fill-in horse for your Pony Club rating? Freesia was there!
Need a second horse for your Roman riding endeavors? Freesia can do that too!
How about jumping? Freesia LOVES it and can easily clear 1.10 meters.
Maybe a horse your mom can mosey down the trail on? Freesia also is game for that!
We love this fiery brown mare and couldn’t imagine our family without her!
Mustang Story #9: The most judgmental Mustang I have EVER met!
2022 MYWY Mustang Madness
The Mustang Community has to be the coolest group of people you will ever meet. The people who adopt tend to love their Mustang with all their hearts and be absolutely dedicated to doing what’s best for them.
This handsome dun, Peachy (AKA Fox) was an example of this great community He was my draw for the 2022 MYWY Mustang Madness competition. He was my buddy and I was able to do everything on him. Walk, trot, canter in a big field, carry a flag, drag a raft, etc. I even rode him in town through a coffee shop and took him to a Police Horse Training Clinic.
But he had a couple quirks….Every time you tighten the cinch he would get a little tight and humpy…Not full on bucks, just very nervous and crow-hoppy.
He also was very judgmental of new people. He would size you up and snub his noes at you without even giving you a fair chance. It took a lot of convincing to show that you where worthy of his friendship But once you had proven yourself, he was as loyal and true a horse as you could ever ask for.
Following the competition all of the Mustangs were required to be sold at the auction. I was a bit nervous where he would go but God brought along the perfect buyer. Someone who lived only a few shorts minutes away from my farm. She took the most amazing care of Peachy but he remained to be judgmental and skeptical of his AWESOME new owner. Wanting what’s best, my very talented photographer friend and fellow Mustang enthusiast @alicia_amerson adopted Peachy. Together we worked to help Peachy over-come his stranger danger and judgmental tendencies.
He improved so much with Alicia and she was added to his list of trusted people. But he still had some quirks… Over the course of a few months I found myself growing even more attached to Peachy and Alicia was so kind to let me take Peachy to Stonewater with me I was thrilled! I was able to ride Peachy every week guiding trail rides, adventuring on the trails and just having fun!
Peachy is slowly starting to allow more and more people to be trusted and has even started to teach the occasional lesson…but only with the girls that have past his inspection
Mustang Story #8! Do we have the real life “Spirit”?!?
The same year I trained Dandy Andy, Marissa’s draw was a big 15hh buckskin (I’m not going to lie…I was a bit jealous). He was so handsome!
Though he was a bit shy Marissa quickly drew the gelding, who she named “Fools Gold”, out of his shell and the fun began! She did everything with this stunning Mustang! Trail riding, bridle-less riding, working at liberty, etc. She was always riding him backwards, attempting a new trick riding stunt or doing other weird or interesting things.
Fools Gold was a saint and happily went along with everything Marissa wanted to try. He was the golden retriever of the Mustang world. Sweet, calm and loyal
Marissa had him all prepared and ready to compete at the Teens and Oregon Mustang Competition but sadly she had to withdraw
After getting hit pretty hard with covid she was still recovering and not feeling up for the rigors of competition.
He was such a fun horse that we contemplated keeping him for awhile but eventually decided he would probably enjoy something a little less active than eventing. He was a dedicated energy conserver
Not to mention simple ground poles sometimes proved to require far to much coordination
Fools Gold, now called “Yeti”found the perfect home right here in WA State.
Mustang Story #7: Could I ride a WILD Mustang in only 100 day?!?
In 2021, the next phase of our Mustang journey began…So far we had had lots of success gentling Mustangs, training yearlings and 2yr olds for 100 day competitions. But we wanted to take the next step. Train a completely WILD Mustang to be a solid riding horse in just 100 days. The Teens And Oregon Mustang Competition gave us this opportunity through their Teen Riding” division, which gave 14yr olds to 18yr olds, a 3yr old Mustang to train to ride in 100 days.
Horse selection was random draw and I received a 14hh chestnut gelding. He was the sweetest, most friendly and easygoing Mustang I had ever met! He LOVED people from day 1 and I don’t think you could have ever labeled him as “wild”. With his fun loving personality we decided to name him “Dandy Andy”.
By the end of the 1st month of training I could do pretty much anything on him.
- Walk, trot, canter under-saddle
- Ride through obstacles
- Work gates
- And he even could stand quite while his rider ate pizza
We all know where our priorities lie
Progress was going WAY better than expected and I was thrilled! I was confident we would be ready to compete!
But then, tragedy hit. We came down with the dreaded covid and life came to a screeching halt…several weeks later, when we finally arrived back among the living, the competition was only 10 days away.
I pulled Dandy back out of the field and cautiously rode him for the first time after nearly a month off. To my delight he was perfect and remembered EVERYTHING
Only by God’s grace we arrived at the competition. With being sick Dandy only had about 70ish days of training and I didn’t have the opportunity to haul him to any off property arenas, so I was curious how he was going to handle the busy show environment.
Dandy showing what a truly remarkable horse he is, rose to the occasion and we had a fantastic weekend sitting us in 3rd overall! He was the little horse with a huge heart
He now lives in California where he is absolutely adored by his wonderful owner Rachel Vitorelo where they compete together in NATRC rides. And from the amount of blue ribbons I’v seen, they are doing quite well!
Steffen Stampede 