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)
). We were quickly outbid and we moved on to other horses. But a few days later we were contacted saying that the “winner” of the chestnut mare had “passed” (I didn’t know this was possible on an auction) and we had the new WINNING bid. This sent us all into a head spin…could we adopt a second Mustang?!? We desperately tried to think things through using sound judgement but our horse crazy brain overpowered any rational thoughts and we decided that “Of course we would adopt her”!
It was love at first sight…or so I thought. It wasn’t long before I started to realize my mistake of adopting an older chestnut mare. She was sassy and was NOT interested in being domesticated. She also HATED other horses and bent several of my panels kicking at others.
Steffen Stampede 