Sierra Steffen

February 20, 2022February 20, 2022

Paisley Desert Princess (2021 Washington Mustang Madness Makeover Overview)

Can an 8yr old safely handle a yearling Mustang? This was the question of the year for my family. Eliza, the youngest of us sisters at the age of 8yrs old, decided she wanted to train a wild Mustang. At first, we all were pretty against the idea as she was still just so young but Eliza was determined. Not only did she add it to her evening prayer list but she also started dragging Marissa and I out to the arena to teach her how to do showmanship on a daily basis. Seeing Eliza’s determination, we got her a very, very small and laid back unhalter-broke yearling pony for her to train. Well, the short story is she did indeed succeed in training that yearling and we agreed to let her enter the 2021 Washington Mustang Madness Competition.

Paisley Dessert Princess, a 13.2 hand palomino yearling, was Eliza’s Mustang for the competition. “Princess” was bold, brave and extremely smart. That first day she was very curious and Eliza was able to make more progress with Princess than we ever could have hoped for. Eliza was able to pet Princess, take her tag off and even walk her around. Princess was a bit spunky, very opinionated and tested her boundaries, but was the perfect first Mustang for Eliza.

Eliza took Princess everywhere with her from walks down the road to adventures through the woods. They practiced showmanship, trail obstacles and overall basic horsemanship each day improving each others skills.

When we showed up in CleElum, WA for the final event, Eliza had no signs of nerves but the rest of us were all super nervous for her. Eliza had never shown any horses before so we had no idea how she would handle memorizing patterns and performing in front of a huge crowd of people not to mention dealing with a nervous yearling Mustang. Would we be able to even get Eliza and Princess inside the arena? Our main goal is to always have fun so we brushed our nerves aside and settled in for a fun weekend. Eliza’s first class was the Handling class. The class included loading into a trailer, picking up all four feet, brushing both sides and releasing the horse into the round pen and catching her again. We had absolutely no idea how this class would go….would Princess load into the trailer? Would she be crazy in the round pen and not let Eliza catch her? Would she bolt and take off running around the arena? When Eliza went into the arena, we all stood in anticipation ready to jump in and help if needed but to our great relief they did amazing together and all the hard work over the last four months paid off. Princess and Eliza completed all of the elements of the class to the best of their ability and came out of the class with a huge smile! Eliza placed 2nd in the class in the 13 and under division!

The next two preliminary classes went by with out a hitch and they took 1st in pattern class and 3rd in Obstacle. The Freestyle Class the next morning was a swirl of nerves and excitement for everyone involved. Eliza’s freestyle was a super cute routine which included umbrellas, rain jackets and even a balloon arch! Even though they were both exhausted from the weekend, they put on a stellar performance and placed 2nd in freestyle moving them into 2nd overall!

Eliza did an amazing job with her Mustang, Princess, and even though it was a very hard and sad decision, she decided to go ahead and re-home Princess so that she had time to train another Mustang next year. Princess went home with her best friend, Elsie, and is enjoying life making another 8yr old happy!

Part 3

Elsie (2021 Washington Mustang Madness Makeover Overview)

Part 2

Picking Up The Mustangs (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

Part 1

We Got Accepted!! (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

February 14, 2022February 20, 2022

Elsie (2021 Washington Mustang Madness Makeover Overview)

On March 26th, we made the 10hr trek down to Burns, OR and picked up three adorable yearling Mustangs for the 2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge. The competition gives participants 130 days to train a completely wild and unhandled mustang before returning for a final competition to showcase the trainability of wild Mustangs and for a chance to compete for prizes.

Once home, gentling the three yearlings started bright and early March 27th and within only a few hours all three yearlings were leading, accepting being touched and had their tags removed. We immediately deemed them the easiest Mustangs we had gentled so far and couldn’t have been more pleased with their personality and willingness to learn.

We had a very special opportunity to be able to train and gentle three Mustangs all the same age and from the same herd HMA (Paisley Desert) and compare each of their very different personalities over the four month competition.

Marissa’s Mustang for the competition, Elsie, was the biggest of the yearlings and from the first time we saw her we knew she was going to be the most reactive of the three. Her panicky flight reaction had her running into the 6ft corral panels on more than one occasion that first day home. The first time Marissa entered Elsie’s pen to start Elsie’s training, she had to stand in the middle of the pen and stay super calm and quiet while Elsie frantically paced back and forth, breaking out in a sweat just from nerves. Marissa stood quietly for a long time and let Elsie get used to her. I predicted it would take Marissa a few days or even a week before she would earn Elsie’s trust enough to touch her so I stopped watching and busily began working with my yearling, while coaching my younger sister with the third Mustang yearling. I turned around a few minutes later and to my surprise Marissa is petting, Elsie! Within a few more minutes, Elsie is not only enjoying being touched but moving closer to Marissa for more scratches. Once Elsie realized Marissa wasn’t a threat, she trusted Marissa and not only was Marissa able touch Elsie on the first day of training but picked up all four feet, trained her to lead walk/ trot and took her on her first outing outside the round pen. We were all astonished! Elsie had gone from frantic to a very well behaved halter broke yearling in a single day! I think we all knew Elsie was going to be something very special! Here is a video of Elsie’s First Day Of Training.

Over the four months of competition Elsie had her fair share of challenges and successes. Elsie was a sensitive filly with a huge desire to please which allowed Marissa to really refine a wide variety of advanced in-hand maneuvers. But… Elsie was also very reactive to obstacles. At first even walking between two cones or barrels was extremely nerve-raking and took Elsie several weeks to finally become ok with it. Each obstacle Marissa introduced to Elsie took a lot of patience and time before she was comfortable with it and still by the end of the four months some certain obstacles caused Elsie grief. After 4 months of trying Elsie would still try to jump over a scary blue tarp that she had seen at least 500times…silly filly.

Lunch With Elsie

April

Bath Day

We always try to take are Mustangs on multiple outings to different arenas before competition. With Covid putting a halt on most shows and 4-H functions it was harder than normal to find places to bring our Mustangs. Then our Mustangs all got juvenal warts…Eliza’s and my Mustang only had warts for a few weeks but Elsie got big nasty ones all over her nose that dragged on for months and months. Typically warts aren’t that big of a deal in yearlings, they eventually just fall off and then the horse is immune. But since we were trying to go to a competition we wanted to get the warts gone fast. We tried essential oils and a bunch of different creams but a few weeks before competition we ended up contacting our vet and she came over and crushed her warts and then we had to feed the warts to Elsie….. Not our first choice of treatment but the warts cleared up within a few days.

But by then we didn’t have time to get Elsie out to a different arena before competition. She had gone on outings to tree farms and trail walks but never to an arena so we weren’t sure how she would do at competition in a huge indoor arena in a completely new environment.

On August 4th, we loaded up the Mustangs and headed to Cle Elum, WA to the WA State Horse Park for the final competition. The first day of competition consisted of a simple check in, a trainers meeting and the first of three preliminary classes;The Handling Class. The handling class entailed picking up all four feet, releasing and catching your Mustang in a round pen, brushing your Mustang, trotting between two barrels and loading into a trailer. Everything required in this class, Elsie was practiced up and ready for. Elsie’s pattern started out prefect until Elsie realized she was the only Mustang in the arena and all of her friends were waiting outside. Elsie, in typical yearling fashion, called and screamed to her buddies and pranced about nervously. Marissa did a great job staying calm and helping Elsie through the rest of the pattern but Elsie did not regain focus and continued her nervous banter throughout the entire class. They ended up coming in 9th in that class.

The next morning bright and early was Pattern Class ( think Showmanship). Elsie was much more settled in and was a rockstar! She placed second in this class with only a one point difference between her and first place.

Late afternoon was the last of the preliminary classes. Whoever’s combined score placed them in the top 6 would return the next day and compete for overall champion. Nerves were high for this last class as everyone wanted to do well and make one last effort to secure their spot in the top 6. It was a tough trail pattern with some advanced technical maneuvers including trotting between and around three very tight barrels placed around 3-5 feet apart with poles lining each side so it wasn’t possible to make wider turns. There were long stretches of side passing over logs, a bridge, gate, weird pole configurations and even a campsite complete with tent, rubber ducky’s and every kind or scary water bottle/coffee container you can find. During training Elsie’s biggest struggle has always been obstacles, so we all held our breath as Marissa and Elsie entered the arena for their turn. Overall, Elsie did fantastic! She hesitated for a split second on the barrels, got a little distracted side passing and gave a huge nervous look at the camp site but held it together and performed a very very nice pattern. We were thrilled!!!!

They didn’t announce the placings for the trail pattern or who placed in the top 6 until the next morning. When they announced the placing’s, Marissa placed forth in trail leaving her with a 9th in Handling, 2nd in Pattern and 4th in Trail which snuck her into 5th overall and into the freestyle performance. Marissa and Elsie’s woodland fairy freestyle was beautiful and perfect. Elsie really shined in this class and showed her true colors of what an incredible Mustang she truly is. Elsie placed second in Freestyle which landed her into placing third overall!

Part 2

Picking Up The Mustangs (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

Part 1

We Got Accepted!! (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

April 8, 2021

Picking Up The Mustangs (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

Part 1

https://sierrafarmergirl.com/2021/03/18/we-got-accepted-2021-washington-mustang-madness-100-day-training-challenge/

March 26th, 2021

On March 25th, we set out for Burns, Oregon to pick up our three yearling Mustangs for the 2021 Washington Mustang Madness TIP Challenge. The many days of prepping the farm for us being away, the hours and hours spent driving and the stress of traffic and exits and reroutes are all worth it and part of the fun and excitement building up to “Pick up Day.” We broke up the trip going to “The BLM Corrals” into two separate days but had to make the long return trip home in one day that took us a good 14 hours. It was very long! These three little Mustangs are so adorable! They may be matted and dirty now, but they are going to be real showstoppers with a little cleaning up. Marissa’s Mustang, #6075, is the tallest standing at 13.3 hands with Eliza’s, #6125, being the second tallest at 13.2 and mine, #6044 standing the smallest at 13.1. We are so excited to begin this wild new adventure and see how each of these three mustang’s progress in their training!

March 18, 2021

We Got Accepted!! (2021 Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge)

We are once again competing in the Washington Mustang Madness Training Challenge. The challenge gives competitors 120 days to train a wild Mustang before returning for a final competition on August 5th-7th. All three of us sisters will be competing this year and we couldn’t be more excited! All of this years picks are yearling fillies from the Paisley Dessert HMA in Oregon. These pretty little fillies will be looking for a perfect home after the competition, but for the mean time, let’s go take a look at this stunning group of horses!

Meet #6125, Eliza’s competition Mustang! It will be her very first Mustang and she picked an adorable yearling palomino. Follow Eliza’s Facebook page to keep up with their adventures>>

https://www.facebook.com/Elizasmustangs/

Marissa’s pick, #6075, is an interesting brown/livery chestnut yearling. We are very curious to see how she sheds out. This will be Marissa’s third Mustang and second Mustang TIP Challenge. Marissa’s Facebook Page>>> https://www.facebook.com/MarissaZanesMightyMustang

And last, my (Sierra’s) cute little filly. She will be my second Mustang to train, but my very first to train for a competition!

Sierra’s Facebook Page>>https://www.facebook.com/sierrafarmergirlsequinefiasco

We will be picking these fillies up at then end of the month and I can’t wait to begin their training and see what all these Mustangs have to teach us!

February 8, 2021February 13, 2021

Coastal Reign January Update ! A Fast Paced Journey 2021

January 2021

“Coastal Reign,” affectionately known as “Mariah,” was delivered to our farm on October 22nd, 2020. She is an “Off the Track Thoroughbred” (abbreviated as OTTB) having raced her last race only 2 weeks before we got her. She retired from the track as being “crabby” and Marissa set to work figuring her out. She was in racing shape so was very, very fit, having massive amounts of energy, as well as, being very opinionated and sassy. Anyone taking liberties with her was met with either teeth or hooves. She is very light on both her front and back end and loves to demonstrate it. You could pet her face and neck happily but once your hand got past her withers, she made it very clear that was not allowed. She would try to bite and kick anyone putting on or taking off her blanket (she had zero fur, zero body fat and the temps were dropping below freezing at night- the blanket was required) and wanted absolutely nothing to do with us picking up her hooves. These difficulties were baffling because surely as a racehorse she had lots of handling and plenty of shoes set, but for what ever reason she was convinced they were bad experiences. We also pondered the possibility that her hostility was more than just sass and could be pain related reactions. Every good horseman must be a world class investigator and explore all possibilities. With research, we found out 90% of racehorses suffer from ulcers so we put her on high quality ulcer meds, 24/7 grass hay and a 5 acre grassy field to run and buck and be a horse (with a 3 yr old mustang filly for company). We also gave her some pain relief particularly from sore muscles. This combined with Marissa’s many hours of simple handling and ground training helped Mariah set her sassiness aside and come around to enjoy being brushed, tolerate her blanket being put on or off even without a halter and lead and so good for the farrier.

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Marissa, looking forward at retraining Mariah as a riding horse, knew she needed to start at the beginning with this one. She has been working on verbal cues for walk, trot, and canter while lunging, basic ground manners (leading, halting, side passing), and walking over obstacles (poles, bridges, tarps) which Mariah took in stride with only an occasional spicy moment. With how unhappy she was with being blanketed, we were sure Mariah was going to throw some attitude at us when being saddled… but to our surprise, she was extremely well behaved when we put the saddle on… and didn’t even scowl when Marissa tightened the girth!! Since she was such a good girl with that, Marissa decided to go ahead and hop on her (this was in earlier November). Mariah was ready to move once Marissa was in the saddle but that was to be expected from a race horse. The biggest thing was Mariah would pin her ears and scowl every time Marissa dismounted …so they did a lot of on and off until Mariah changed her attitude. All in all, she was very well behaved and we are excited about the potential we see in this feisty little mare!

Marissa put riding aside, deciding to focus on putting some really solid ground manners on Mariah before moving into training under saddle, so Mariah only has had a handful of rides since we have had her. Marissa is excited to start seriously riding her in the coming months and turning her into a well behaved citizen.

October 22, 2020February 13, 2021

Coastal Reign An OTTB! A Fast Paced Journey 2020

October 21, 2020

We have started a brand new adventure!! We weren’t looking for a new horse but when an opportunity presents itself we just have to take the jump and go for it. A local thoroughbred rescue that my sister, Marissa and I have volunteered at, went to the track at Emeralds Downs to pick up a few thoroughbreds and brought back a thoroughbred that she said would be perfect for us….Well we went to take a look and decided to go ahead and adopt her! Meet Coastal Reign a 4yr old off the race track thoroughbred. She last raced on October 7th, 2020…only 14 days ago. She is sweet but still a little on the sassy side. She is our first Thoroughbred and we can’t wait to see what all this stunning mare has to teach us and what the future has to hold!!

Coastal Reign

July 6, 2020

Week Two With #4915 And #4810 (2020 Online Adoption Mustangs)

Week Two with #4915 and #4810 June 8th-14th, 2020

Marissa’s mustang #4915 (3yr old Red Roan) has made leaps and bounds over the last week! After weeks of trying to decide on a name for #4915 Marissa finally decided to call her “Tahani!” This week Tahani learned many new things. Marissa put a surcingle on her and Tahani was totally fine with it. She also started walking around with the saddle and saddle pad on and took it like a champ! They continued working on leading and Marissa was able to get her trotting in hand pretty consistently. They also worked on side passing, haunch turns and four hand turns and Tahani is really starting to figure it all out. Other things they are working on are lunging, picking up Tahani’s front feet and she even let Marissa untangled her tail. We unfortunately only got video on day eight but she was getting much better at leading and lunging towards the end of the week. Here is a link to a video>>>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtRXw-1Ezew&t=4s

Moving on to my mare #4810 (7yr old chestnut). Slow and steady wins the race seems to be the motto for this mare. We have been playing quite a few different round penning games such as, having her keep her face towards me and walking towards me. As for actually touching her she still wants nothing to do with it and is still reactive. I am sure with a little more time and patience this mare will come along wonderfully!

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June 23, 2020July 2, 2020

Week One With #4915 and #4810 (2020 Online Adoption Mustangs)

June 1-7

June 7th concluded our first official week with the Mustang mares. My sister, Marissa decided to train #4915 (the roan) since I fell in love with the #4810 ( the chestnut) from the first time I saw her on the internet adoption. Our goal with these two mares is to see if we can get them riding in 100 days like you would for a Mustang Makeover. To start out with lets talk about #4915 ( the 3yr old roan). She is doing spectacular! When she arrived at home we noticed that her lead rope got wrapped around her neck twice. We did not want to leave her like that all night so I stood on the other side the panel closest to her and used a luge whip and was able to fish the lead rope off from around her neck. She was super calm and just stood there and I was even able to rub all over her face, neck and shoulder! The next day Marissa started working with her and she was absolutely amazing! This little mare is such a sweet heart and is super curious! She was so well behaved that Marissa was able to take her tag off the first day.

At the beginning she didn’t like Marissa on either of her sides but she quickly got over that. Besides learning that people are her friends and that being hand-fed grass is awesome, she has learned how to lead, be brushed, wear a saddle pad and even a saddle! And if that wasn’t impressive enough she learned the beginning of round penning! She was super calm about all the new things and took everything Marissa threw at her in stride. She was a little suspicious at first of the saddle pad and saddle but quickly warmed up to them.

She also picked up leading pretty fast and was totally fine with being brushed. When round penning her, she likes to get stuck by her friend’s pen but they have been working on it and she is not quite so sticky as she was at first. Marissa was also able to get her dreads in her mane untangled and brushed out (it took her close to an hour). This mare is making amazing progress and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for this special Mustang! Check out her Youtube Video>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch…

Also we were playing around with our camera and got this neat photo of Marissa in her sweatshirt with Stardust’s ( Marissa’s first Mustang) brand on the sleeve and #4915 right after she took the tag off.

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Now onto my mare #4810. On the ride home we could definitely tell that #4810 was the more timid of the two and a little more skittish. On top of that, she some how took her lead rope off in the trailer. This first week we have been working on round penning and approach and retreat. At first she was very reactive but she is slowly starting to settle in and get used to these scary two legged creatures(people). She is getting a pretty good go and stop in the round pen and is even taking multiple steps towards me!! At the end of the week she started taking grass out of my hand but still wants nothing to do with my hand actually being anywhere near her. She is going to take a little more time to warm up to us than the roan but I am sure she is going to come around in no time! Check out her video>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inPm8q2qx9c

June 23, 2020July 2, 2020

Bringing Home #4810 and #4915 (2020 Online Adoption Mustangs)

Back in March we adopted two Mustangs off of the Online Mustang Adoption put on by the BLM (Check out these posts for the full story>> Online Mustang Adoption.& Online Mustang Adoption. We Got Two!!!). When all of the Covid craziness hit we had to postpone picking them up for several months (the waiting was torcher)!!! On May 31st we finally set out for the Oregon Mustang Holding Corrals. My little sisters stayed back with my Mom to take care of the farm while Dad and I made the long trip out to Burns. The 8hr drive there went smoothly and we camped in the back of our horse trailer at the base of a BLM Campground full of cows.

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The next morning (June 1st) we were up bright and early and arrived at the Holding Corrals at 7:30 and were done and out of there before 8!! Those BLM guys are fast! They got them haltered and loaded into the trailer in about 10 to 20 min!!

With the mustangs in tow we headed home! The mares road great all they way home and we arrived at the farm somewhere between 7 and 8pm ( a crash occured on HWY 84 and we had a nearly 3hr delay rerouting through downtown Portland during curfew, ugh). The mares unloaded easily and after getting a good look we realized these Mustangs are in EXCELLENT condition!! They are the perfect weight, have a shine to their coat and their feet are trimmed!!! You would have no idea they were wild mustangs and would assume they are pampered domestic horses if it wasn’t for the fact that they were terrified of everything. The Oregon BLM has done an amazing job taking care of these horses! Check out our video of picking up the mustangs>>>Bringing Home #4915 and #4810

June 3, 2020July 2, 2020

Week Three and Four With Crumpet! Washington Mustang Madness 100 Day Training Challenge!

Week Three And Four With Crumpet
May 3rd-16th

What a couple of weeks! Crumpet has learned many new things including the beginnings of Side-passing, haunch turns and forehand turns. Now we just have to focus on trying to stick her turns and not move around so much. I also introduced her to standing tied and after testing the rope a couple of times she figured it out and stands pretty well and even allows me to brush her while tied. I started working on picking up Crumpet’s feet and she once again was so well behaved that I was able to clean out all four feet and still remain in one piece! We continued working on obstacles including the tarp, pedestal, bridge and jumps and backing between poles which she is really starting to get the hang of! Here is a video of are progress! Crumpet is a little wary of my photographer but she is getting better about new people everyday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE3hQM34r5s