Horse Trainers – Steffen Stampede

In 2021, I was accepted into my (Sierra’s) very first MYWY Mustang Madness Competition with a beautiful black yearling.

She was from the Paisley Desert Herd so naturally I named her “Paisley”. She was the sweetest, easiest and most lazy yearling I have ever trained. Her all time favorite thing was napping…motivating her to work turned out to be quite the challenge

I look back on this year fondly, I was just 16yrs old and seemed to have no responsibilities. I spent every single day with Paisley, perfecting each maneuver and designing a show stopping freestyle. I immersed myself in learning advanced ground work and taught her how to side pass towards, sit like a dog, push a big ball, self load into a trailer, ground drive and so many other fun things!

When the competition rolled around Paisley made my first time in the Mustang Training competition arena one to remember as she exceeded expectations at every corner, securing a place finish

But that was just the beginning of Paisley’s adventures! At the conclusion of the competition, Paisley, was adopted by Samantha Nicks and moved all the way to Montana! Paisley, now known as, Smoke is all grown up and doing fantastic as a riding horse working cattle and living the life as an all around ranch horse!

On a cold wet northwest day in March during the 2020 pandemic we were mindlessly scrolling on Facebook when we stumbled upon the BLM Wild Horse Corral…An online auction for adopting Mustangs. We had no idea you could adopt a Mustang online!?! It was like amazon for Mustang lovers!

With our curiosity peaked we started scanning the pages of Mustangs available and within a few seconds there was no deterring us from participating in that auction. There were SO many beautiful Mustangs We quickly built Mustang pens, got approved by the BLM and sat down with every electronic device in the house ready to bid.

The final hours of the auction was a whirlwind of being outbid, computer crashes and yelling at our internet to “HURRRY UP”! As the final minutes of the auction ticked down we had been out-bid on all of our favorite horses, so we placed a bid on a muddy 14hh bay mare with only a $70 dollar bid. Then the website crashed for good It was completely stuck! Had we won the mare? Or had we been out-bid??? After what felt like ages (In reality only a 1/2 hour) we finally received an email saying we had won the bay mare!!! We were thrilled!!! We were getting a NEW Mustang and for only $70 dollars

Unfortunately with covid we were delayed from driving to Burns to pick her up.. but we were finally able to make the 10hr trip serval months later in the summer. But we were shocked to see that our little bay actually shedded out to be a STUNNING roan WHAT!!! How could this be the same horse!

Now 5yrs later the roan, we named Tahani, is one of our top horses on the farm. She is technically our “Mom’s” horse but we often steal her to help work young babies, fill in at the occasional pony club lesson and to gallop down the trails. She is very sensitive, light and has the smoothest trot I have ever ridden! Not to mention, she is one of the prettiest mares I have ever seen My biggest takeaway from this mare is to never overlook the plain bays…even if they don’t turn out to be the next “beauty queen” of the Mustang world (like Tahnai) they may end up being the most special horse in your life#blmmustang #wildmustang