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!
Week after week she continued to pray and eventually my parents gave their permission! She was so excited
Little kids dragging yearling Mustangs around elaborate trails courses and showmanship patterns is the absolute best! Neither horse, nor kid, know where they are supposed to be going and it typically is absolute mayhem. Here’s a typical class: Kid weaves cones. Mustang sees cone and decides to try eating it. Kid takes cone out of mouth and returns to original location. Mustang, now bored, grabs kids hat and attempts to eat that… and the process continues
It was no use 
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
Steffen Stampede 