liberty-horsemanship – Steffen Stampede

For some reason Marissa has always been drawn to the plain brown horses with spicy personalities. Put a flashy horse with lots of chrome next to a chestnut mare and she will always go for the chestnut mare. The 2021 MYWY Mustang Madness Competition was no exception. Despite the pool of stunning pintos, blacks and palominos, Marissa singled out a completely brown yearling without even a speck of white and instantly fell head over heels in love It was no use trying to convince her to adopt one of the “flashy” babies. The brown yearling was coming home.

This yearling, Marissa named Elsie, was a sensitive and flighty baby, running about the corral crashing into panels. Marissa with her calm, easygoing demeanor quickly earned her trust and slowly introduced Elsie to the wonders of domestic horse life.

Elsie was very light and a quick learner, giving Marissa the opportunity to teach her advanced maneuvers on the ground, while making her cues almost invisible.

Prep for the competition was going great… until Elsie developed a horrible case of warts We tried everything to get them to heal. But nothing worked. Just a few short weeks before the competition, we were desperate for a solution and our vet came and removed them surgically. The old timers swear by feeding the warts…so we made Elsie eat them…We were all gagging in disgust but Elsie didn’t seem to mind as it was mixed in with her favorite grain. Were the old timers right? Well, the warts didn’t come back and we made it to the competition… So you decide

The competition was a whirl wind of ups and downs but Marissa secured a spot in the top 10 freestyle finals and put on a show-stopping woodland fairy showcase

Elsie, now known as, Babe lives with Suzette Maiden’s wonderful family.

Here is snippet from her latest update: “Babe has become such an amazing horse. We go trail riding and just riding around town. She is my horse that I am comfortable with putting inexperienced riders on and she will treat them with so much care. She is my sweetheart and this year she is going to start a new exciting journey of learning to pull a sleigh for next winter. I am so lucky to have her in my life!” – Suzette Maiden (Elsie’s New Owner)

As we are heading into our 6th year of training Mustangs it seemed fitting to take a look back at a few of the super cool Mustangs we have trained

It’s been a wild ride and quite the adventure

If you have ever met us you have probably met or at least heard us talk about Marissa’s mustang Stardust She is pretty much a family member and we all adore her She was the very 1st Mustang we have ever adopted . Marissa, only 12yrs old the time, read a magazine article about a Mustang training competition for youth and begged my parents to let her participate. Our parents were tentative at first…kids training WILD and CRAZY Mustangs…Was this safe?!? After a few weeks of begging, powerpoint presentations and argumentative essays they eventually agreed Marissa applied to the MYWY Mustang Madness Competition and was accepted! We were THRILLED!!!

Typically, in the program, youth competitors receive a yearling Mustang to train for 100 day but unfortunately in 2019 there was a shortage of yearlings…so everyone got 2yr olds. We all started shaking a little. We thought we were ONLY having to train a cute baby NOT a massive 2yr old! What had we gotten ourselves into

But all of our worries were for nothing because the muddy, 15hh 2yr old that was Marissa’s draw for the competition was the sweetest, most gentle mare you had ever met! It was only a few days after bringing her home that Marissa and this Mustang had a special connection

Over the next 100 days this Mustang, who Marissa named Stardust, captivated every one of our hearts and it was no surprise when after the competition that we decided to keep Stardust

Now, 6yrs later, Stardust is still the #1 horse on our farm and continues to captivate the hearts of everyone she meets!

She is an INCREDIBLE trick pony and loves doing liberty and bridle-less demos, is a stellar dressage horse and LOVES to jump. What does the future hold for this awesome Mustang? The hope and goal is to continue improving her Dressage and jumping and see just how far she can go in eventing…who knows you could just see her in a 3* one day!

#blmmustang #wildmustang #horses