Welcome to "Trail to Texas," a blog about our first attempt at competing in the Extreme Mustang Makeover. Several parts of that sentence require explanation:
* The blog is titled "Trail to Texas" because that is what this journey is -- a trail from adopting a 5-year-old mustang gelding; to welcoming him to our home; to training him; to, hopefully, competing in a three-day event in Fort Worth, Texas in September. The blog's title also reflects the fact that the ranch Shawn manages, and where the mustang has found a home, lies on the historic Texas Trail in northeastern Wyoming -- rough country along the Little Powder River through which millions of cattle were trailed from Texas to Montana in the days of open range. Our family has lived on this ranch for almost seven years.
* "Our first attempt" refers to two firsts. For Shawn, this is his first effort to gentle a mustang and train it to an advanced reining level in such a short time -- approximately 100 days. He has trained two other mustangs before, so he has some experience with their mentality and comfort level; they are different than domestically-raised horses! For Darcy, it is her first attempt to write about Shawn's training techniques in detail. While Shawn has trained many horses, and Darcy has written many words, neither has taken on an endeavor quite like this before. For ease of reading the blog, Darcy will write the entries in Shawn's voice.
* The Extreme Mustang Makeover challenge is a test of both horse training skills and horsemanship. There are several competitions around the country through the summer, but the largest competition will take place, as stated, in Fort Worth in mid-September. Because this blog is intended to be about Shawn's personal training experience, we won't delve into the rules and requirements very often. If you are interested in more specific details about the competition, you can visit http://www.extrememustangmakeover.com/.
While we would love to set an ambitious goal of writing this blog daily, just as Shawn will be working with the mustang daily, we know already that this won't happen! Our intention is to write about the crucial turning points on this particular mustang's journey, and specifically to highlight the training techniques that work and don't work. Anyone who has worked with horses to any extent already knows the truth of what I'm about to say: training a horse well requires establishing a relationship of trust, and that is a spiritual, sacred encounter. Underlying any technical knowledge of horse training must be an understanding of the animal's mind and heart -- a "horse-man-ship" that not everyone has. Where appropriate, we will talk about this spiritual relationship in this blog as well.
There have already been several critical happenings on this journey that we will just summarize here:
* mid-January, 2012: Shawn applied to be a trainer/adopter of a mustang and was approved in early February.
* mid-February, 2012: We received a DVD showing footage of all the mustangs available for adoption and the Fort Worth competition. After hours of viewing the horses, Shawn narrowed his selection down to eight, looking primarily for good size and conformation, and a calm disposition.
* March 31, 2012: We viewed the televised auction of the mustangs available for adoption and called in a phone bid on our choice, lot 37. Success!
* May 11, 2012: Shawn traveled to Canon City, CO; the next morning, he picked up our mustang and drove the nine hours back home to Wyoming.
A few more details about us that might help you understand this work: we have been married for 20 years, and we are the parents of six children - five girls and one boy. You may find their names mentioned here. For over ten years, we have been raising registered Quarter Horses; Shawn has 30 years' experience training. In our business, Shawn does the training and orchestrates the breeding program; Darcy gives input about the breeding, but mostly handles the paperwork and marketing. As stated, Shawn is a ranch manager; this is the fifth ranch he has worked on since we were married. Darcy once worked as a teacher, but has been a teen librarian for six years now; she also writes nonfiction, including two other blogs.
Thank you for taking time to follow our journey on this blog! We hope to end up in Fort Worth, but even if we don't, we know this will be a life-changing endeavor. We are humbled that you want to share it with us.
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