The Mustang I (Sierra) received for the 2021 Mustang Competition was a tiny little all black filly I named Paisley Moonlight. Paisley was one of the easiest Mustangs we had trained this far. She wasn’t reactive or spooky and I was able to get my hands on her pretty quick that first day but she had her own set of challenges. Unlike some horses who run away when scared, Paisley’s reaction to fear was to completely shut down and I had a hard time bringing her out of her shell and getting her to interact with me. We started leading and petting all over that first day but I could tell she wasn’t really enjoying it. I spent a lot of time over that first week just sitting in her stall, brushing and braiding her mane and just letting her get used to me, along with taking low key walks. After she settled in and learned that I came bearing very yummy grain and grass treats she really started to come out of her shell and we set to work getting ready for competition.
Paisley enjoyed adventuring with her fellow yearlings and learning all it takes to become a domestic horse. Paisley was the laziest of the three yearling and unlike her two friends who your main job was teaching them to calm down, Paisley you had to work on livening her up. Compared to the other two spritely yearlings, Paisley was pretty unshakable and was naturally a brave and confident little filly which made her excel at obstacles including tarps, flags, old mattresses and really any scary object you could find.
After 4 months of training we arrived in Cle Elum, WA, brushed, bathed and full of nerves for the upcoming days! The first class was Handling which included all the basic things domestic horses are required to do including picking up feet, releasing and catching, loading into a trailer, etc. Paisley was a little nervous in this class and wasn’t quite sure why we had to leave her friends outside the arena but she held it together and came out of the class in second.
After a good nights sleep, Paisley was focused and ready for the next two preliminary classes. Pattern Class (Showmanship) and Trail went extremely well and Paisley performed beautifully, not blinking an eye at anything. She took first in both classes which headed us into the final round sitting in first overall.
The final round consisted of a 3 minute freestyle set to music. Paisley and I were first up to perform and I was super nervous! We had a lot of components for our freestyle and I had no idea how it would go. Also, Paisley had spent all of her energy on the prelim classes and was done. She didn’t want to move and was in a grouchy, stubborn mood from lack of sleep and over stimulation from 3 days of showing. When we headed into the arena and the music started, Paisley woke up and was ready! She performed her routine perfectly and even though a prop blew away in the wind, we still managed to squeeze into first place in freestyle.
Paisley had a very successful weekend and took home “First Overall” in the Teen In-Hand division. Following the competition, Paisley went home with a wonderfully lady to live in Montana.
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!
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.
Removing warts Almost done Look at all those wartsAll Clear
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!
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!
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>>
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!
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!
Steffen Stampede 