Dear Followers,
I have been on a long hiatus for many reasons. I faced a few too many adversities in my life: career changes, college stress, struggles with horses, and my mental health was not well (depression). I felt like stepping away from social media was something I really needed to do.
During this time, I was also dealing with a long, annoying cycle of buying and selling horses. Why? Because the horse industry is full of liars. I’m sad to announce that my gorgeous red roan mare, Scarlett, was re-homed due to soundness issues, more specifically, soreness of the navicular bones from improper hoof care in her earlier years. I simply ride too hard to keep her as a personal horse, and living the rest of her life in a smallish pen is beyond unfair, not to mention detrimental to her health. If I had a huge pasture and lots of money, I would have kept her in a heartbeat, and possibly gotten a foal or two out of her (DO NOT lecture me on responsible breeding. I have been in this industry a long time. I know. Trust me). Sadly that is not the case, but I found her a wonderful home where she is well loved and is getting the room & maintenance she needs to stay sound. During the period she was for sale, I picked up 2 older geldings that were being advertised as FREE on Craigslist. This, of course, terrified me and I knew I had to get them before someone else did to dump at auction. One was so old he had almost no teeth left... A good friend of mine is letting him live out his final days in her pasture, and he is being fed mash to stay fat. The other, at 25 years old, I ended up keeping, and I’ve come to discover he is the most awesome trail horse you could ever ask for. But me being me, I still needed a project horse. I ended up picking up a perlino quarter horse mare. What a huge mistake that was. I rushed into buying because I thought she was perfect. The color (which is beyond stupid, I know), her easy going attitude (which was seemed to change overnight...drugged perhaps?), her age... I took her home and the next thing I know the owners are telling me to give her back because she lame. Long story short, because I really don’t want to get into it, the owners scammed me out of $1000. Fucking hate people.
At this point I was done. Defeated. I was ready to give up on finding another horse and just keeping my old gelding as my only mount. But if anyone knows me, they know I just can’t have one horse... I need a project. I need to train. I needed to find my “heart horse.”
This lead to a life changing discovery.
I’ve always been partial to Mustangs. I don’t know why. Maybe because I had seen so many fugly looking ones, or a thought that trying to tame a wild horse was crazy. But let me tell you, the more I watched, the more I learned, the more I educated myself, the more my fellow and well respected equestrian friends swore by them, the more I fell in love with the *breed. (*the name Mustang was a general term given to the feral horses of the Americas, but as time went on and the horses interbred, it is now informally recognized as its own breed.) What is not to love about them? Rock solid hooves, unbelievably smart, easy keepers, available in all shapes in sizes, etc... I soon began to realize that out of those 44,000+ horses waiting for homes in the BLM holding pens, one of them certainly had to be “the one.” The horse I’ve been waiting for.
As fate has it, one of my best friends is a TIP trainer. She promised as soon as she had an opening, we would get a Mustang for myself. It just so happens that one of the horses in her program was ready to go home, just as another well known TIP trainer in the area was holding a Mustang Adoption Event at her storefront (a place certified by the BLM capable of housing wild Mustangs in order to get them adopted). I went, not really thinking I would end up getting one as I planned on making a trip up to the holding corrals within the next few months. But there she was. A stunning bay mare with long gorgeous locks was standing quietly in the storefront pens. Everyone wanted her. She was the talk of the town. I had to have her.
The way it works is that at 8 am, the adoption starts for people who do not want to go through the TIP program and adopt the horses outright, still wild. TIP trainers don’t get to choose until 10 am. Since I was working with a TIP trainer, I had to wait. We literally counted down the minutes, and at exactly 10 o’clock, we signed the paperwork. We got her. #2326 was coming home in our trailer. We started working with her immediately, and already she is making leaps and bounds with her training. She is so smart, calm, and willing to learn. It won’t be much longer until I’m able to take her home. I decided to name her Reina, Spanish for queen, as she is so noble looking and a natural born leader.
I’m so excited yet terrified at the same time to start this journey. I feel adopting a wild horse was exactly what I needed. I’m seeing things in a new light, and, along with my new job riding professionally trained cutting horses, I could not be happier. Unlike last time I started a horse, where I made the mistake of trying to get the horse under saddle as quickly as possible, I will be taking my time with Reina. She will let me know when she ready for the next step.
So it is with great honor I return to this site to document our progress, as well as help others with their own journey of training, whether it be a wild Mustang or a domesticated show horse, I will do my best to stay humble, be honest, and help others achieve their goals.
Reina, our journey is just beginning. I know you have no idea what’s in store for us, and to be quite truthful, neither do I. I guess we’ll figure it out together!
