Ok, it's time once again to dust off this blog and get cracking! This blog's original purpose turned out to be the sharing of my journey toward the 2009 Midwest Mustang Challenge, an Extreme Mustang Makeover event. For my maiden voyage into the EMM world, I was given a black filly that I named Onyx. The entire experience of training her and taking her to the (HUGE) final competition was wonderful and highly addictive. I've been longing, ever since, to apply again and make the journey once more. The stars finally aligned and I decided to send in my application for the 2011 Colorado event, to be held in June, in Fort Collins, Colorado.
I've spent a very anxious two weeks, obsessively checking my e-mail and hoping that my faxed application hadn't been lost. Today the wait was over when I received the e-mail congratulating me as being chosen to be a trainer for the Fort Collins Extreme Mustang Makeover!!
I will travel down to southern Colorado the second weekend of March to pick up my mustang. Then I'll have 90 days to train him or her for the competition on June 10-12th in Fort Collins. On a side note, I'm overjoyed that this time the event will return me to my home state. I am a Colorado native and I'm hoping to have a cheering section at this event of family and friends! Another exciting part of this particular event is that World Champion reining trainer Al Dunning will be at the competition to act as a mentor and coach for all of the trainers. The opportunity to learn from a trainer of his caliber while competing is VERY exciting.
I am hugely excited and a bit nervous. There is SO much to do in the next month and certainly in the 3 months after that! However, I am "chomping at the bit" to get started.
Whooo-Hooooo!
Showing posts with label mustang makeover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mustang makeover. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Monday, November 2, 2009
Professional trainer?
So for this blog I take you back to the Mustang Makeover in mid-April... During one of the open practice sessions in the wee hours of the morning (pre dawn), I took Onyx to the big arena. There were a whole bunch of other riders in there, but I remember one in particular. He was riding around on his mustang, and her tail was full of shavings. Now this guy was one of the "big names" and I'd heard him bragging about all the money he'd won in whatever horse sport he was into. I remember being struck by him riding his horse around early that morning, with bedding in her tail and thinking, "That's not very professional...". Sure, it was a practice session, sure it was 5am, but there were plenty of other people there, riders and spectators. Maybe it's just me, but I thoroughly groom any of my horses before I do anything with them. Most especially if they are going to be in the public eye, casual ride or not. I would expect a "pro" to do the same...
All that came to mind again out of the blue just a few days ago when I took Bo, my stallion, out of his stall for a quick ride. I was going to hop on him bareback in the indoor and cruise around for a few minutes before heading to work. There were other people riding in the arena already that afternoon. As I brushed shavings from his tail, for some reason I thought back to that "pro" trainer and his horse's tail that morning.
Now just a few minutes ago I checked my email and found a message from YouTube, where I had hosted several videos of Onyx during our time together. A lady has written me, wondering if I have any ideas on how to contact that particular trainer. It seems she bought his mustang and needs some paperwork from him, but he appears to have dropped off the map. His website is down and his phone doesn't work. She says she is thankful she paid for the horse by check and that she noted it as such in the memo of the check. I have no idea how to get ahold of him, but I certainly won't forget the "shavings tail" on his mustang that early morning. Barring that anything bad has happened to him (hopefully not), I have to think... Professional? Doesn't sound like it after all...
All that came to mind again out of the blue just a few days ago when I took Bo, my stallion, out of his stall for a quick ride. I was going to hop on him bareback in the indoor and cruise around for a few minutes before heading to work. There were other people riding in the arena already that afternoon. As I brushed shavings from his tail, for some reason I thought back to that "pro" trainer and his horse's tail that morning.
Now just a few minutes ago I checked my email and found a message from YouTube, where I had hosted several videos of Onyx during our time together. A lady has written me, wondering if I have any ideas on how to contact that particular trainer. It seems she bought his mustang and needs some paperwork from him, but he appears to have dropped off the map. His website is down and his phone doesn't work. She says she is thankful she paid for the horse by check and that she noted it as such in the memo of the check. I have no idea how to get ahold of him, but I certainly won't forget the "shavings tail" on his mustang that early morning. Barring that anything bad has happened to him (hopefully not), I have to think... Professional? Doesn't sound like it after all...
Friday, December 19, 2008
Mustang Makeover!
First, a bit of history:
The Mustang Heritage Foundation is based out of Texas. In 2007 they held an event that was the first of its kind, the Extreme Mustang Makeover. They selected 100 trainers from across the country and gave them each a wild mustang. Each trainer had approximately 100 days to gentle and train his or her mustang for a competition to take place in Fort Worth, Texas. In the competition, horses were judged on condition, manners during an in-hand horse and also how they performed in a riding course. The finalists were able to do a 4 minute freestyle to show off what their horses could do. There were mustangs jumping, roping cows, spinning, changing leads and riders cracking whips and shooting at balloon targets. There was $50,000 in prize money up for grabs. At the close of the event all of the mustangs were auctioned off to find them new homes. Many of the horses fetched prices of several thousand dollars and a good number of them were bought and taken back home by their trainers - including the Reserve Champion mustang who sold for $7500 back to his trainer. The top selling horse of the event brought in $50,000!
The first Extreme Mustang Makeover was such a success that in 2008 smaller events began to pop up all over the country. Some of those were the Midwest Extreme Mustang Makeover held in Wisconsin, the Northwest Mustang Makeover in Oregon, a Western States Mustang Makeover in California and a Wyoming Mustang Makeover held in, you guessed it, Wyoming. ;-)
In 2009 all of these events will be held again, with the addition of even more events including the Gatorland Mustang Makeover to be held in Florida.
The 2009 Midwest edition will be held in mid-April at the Midwest Horse Fair in Madison, Wisconsin. The application deadline for this event was December 1st, but then they extended the deadline to December 10th. I sent in an application to be a trainer for this one and spent a week or so on pins and needles waiting to hear back. Well, yesterday I received an email with a Congratulations saying I've been selected to be a trainer in the Midwest Mustang Makeover!! I'll be traveling to Ewing, Illinois to pick up my wild horse on January 9th or 10th and then making the trek back home to South Dakota. I'll have about 3 months to gentle and train him or her for the competition in April.
While waiting for word on my application I'd done a lot of research. The 2008 Midwest Mustang Challenge played out to a packed house of 8,000 people in the stands. I've never riden a horse in front of more than 20 people or so! The last event was won by a professional trainer out of Pennsylvania. I've never trained professionally. I think you could call me an underdog, a longshot, but I don't care! This is something I've been wanting to do since I first heard rumblings of the intial event in 2007. My absolute favorite thing to do is take an untouched horse and work with them to develop a willing partner. I can't wait to get started!!
Stay tuned, I'm sure I'll have a lot to share!
The Mustang Heritage Foundation is based out of Texas. In 2007 they held an event that was the first of its kind, the Extreme Mustang Makeover. They selected 100 trainers from across the country and gave them each a wild mustang. Each trainer had approximately 100 days to gentle and train his or her mustang for a competition to take place in Fort Worth, Texas. In the competition, horses were judged on condition, manners during an in-hand horse and also how they performed in a riding course. The finalists were able to do a 4 minute freestyle to show off what their horses could do. There were mustangs jumping, roping cows, spinning, changing leads and riders cracking whips and shooting at balloon targets. There was $50,000 in prize money up for grabs. At the close of the event all of the mustangs were auctioned off to find them new homes. Many of the horses fetched prices of several thousand dollars and a good number of them were bought and taken back home by their trainers - including the Reserve Champion mustang who sold for $7500 back to his trainer. The top selling horse of the event brought in $50,000!
The first Extreme Mustang Makeover was such a success that in 2008 smaller events began to pop up all over the country. Some of those were the Midwest Extreme Mustang Makeover held in Wisconsin, the Northwest Mustang Makeover in Oregon, a Western States Mustang Makeover in California and a Wyoming Mustang Makeover held in, you guessed it, Wyoming. ;-)
In 2009 all of these events will be held again, with the addition of even more events including the Gatorland Mustang Makeover to be held in Florida.
The 2009 Midwest edition will be held in mid-April at the Midwest Horse Fair in Madison, Wisconsin. The application deadline for this event was December 1st, but then they extended the deadline to December 10th. I sent in an application to be a trainer for this one and spent a week or so on pins and needles waiting to hear back. Well, yesterday I received an email with a Congratulations saying I've been selected to be a trainer in the Midwest Mustang Makeover!! I'll be traveling to Ewing, Illinois to pick up my wild horse on January 9th or 10th and then making the trek back home to South Dakota. I'll have about 3 months to gentle and train him or her for the competition in April.
While waiting for word on my application I'd done a lot of research. The 2008 Midwest Mustang Challenge played out to a packed house of 8,000 people in the stands. I've never riden a horse in front of more than 20 people or so! The last event was won by a professional trainer out of Pennsylvania. I've never trained professionally. I think you could call me an underdog, a longshot, but I don't care! This is something I've been wanting to do since I first heard rumblings of the intial event in 2007. My absolute favorite thing to do is take an untouched horse and work with them to develop a willing partner. I can't wait to get started!!
Stay tuned, I'm sure I'll have a lot to share!
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