Tag: travel

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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💜

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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 correct😅She 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!

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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!