Latest / The Touch of a Mustang / They Said Her Mustang Was No Good with Addie Gonzalez | Episode 48

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They Said Her Mustang Was No Good with Addie Gonzalez | Episode 48 · The Touch of a Mustang

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Did I get a horse because I wanted a relationship or did I
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want to prove something for my ego?
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I had to make that choice. If I was to work her through one
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of her biggest fears, biggest reactions.
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I had to let my ego go. I'm going to stand out here and
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I don't have the right answers, but together I think we can do
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it. There are healers on this planet
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with the power to soften the suffering of mankind if they
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have remained in the recesses of the world, abused, discarded and
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labeled as trash. This is the touch of a Mustang.
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I am your host, Shalise Clough, and I'm here to tell the story
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of wild horses, Mustangs, and the humans who are discovering
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and sharing their gifts while working to protect their
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well-being and preserve their spirit so this divine power
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won't be lost. Join us on this quest.
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With the wild. Mustang.
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I was excited when Cope sent me a referral to you because a lot
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of times I'll ask people, but I figured if he just thought of it
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and sent it my way, you probably have a pretty good story to
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share. Yeah, Cope's a really good
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friend. We've known each other for a
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number of years now and it's been really cool to watch his
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journey with Mustangs too, you know, from hairs and horses.
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It's a very cool story. Why don't you start by kind of
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introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about how you
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became involved in horses? Sure.
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So I, I grew up in Lancaster, PA.
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I'm out in Emigrant Montana now. And there's, there's a little
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bit of a timeline to get you there.
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But I kind of grew up around horses and started working with
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them as like more of a like farmhand when I was about 15.
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And I took on a job with a Canadian warm blood Conomera
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cross breeding farm, which they make really neat horses.
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Yeah, kind of tight from the warm blood and the disposition
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from the conomeras. So I got to work with horses
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from, you know, falls all the way up to competition level
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jumping and dressage horses. But I didn't do much for riding,
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just a lot of caretaking and didn't really didn't really have
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the opportunity to ride much growing up.
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So that was really neat to get into that later on in life.
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But I, you know, worked at this farm, ended up taking a or going
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to college out in Maine. So I went to Boden College in
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Brunswick, ME to study AG, soil science and my jobs technically
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earth science or my degree is technically in earth science.
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So, you know, I got to dig into, you know, soil a lot in college.
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And then in my summer time, I would go out and I would ride
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horses in Montana to kind of put me through school.
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So that's when I got started out West.
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You went pretty far in your academics before you kind of
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turned over and focused a little more specifically on horses,
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Denia. I did, yeah.
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So I got my four year degree and during that time I was also at
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the pleasure of working in some internships at NASA.
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So I got to do some little earth science coding as part of their
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Develop National program. And so I started there as a
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participant and then a project lead during my second project.
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And those were actually mainly focused around remote sensing
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satellite data of ranch land. So I've been able to kind of,
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you know, now I'm a ranch manager.
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That's what I do for a living. But before I was able to do, you
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know, ranch management from space?
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No. I had never even heard of that,
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so I didn't even know they did that.
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That was really interesting, so. There are a number of platforms
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you can use to kind of understand this, but the the one
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we were working on was the Rangeland Analysis platform.
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So we were just doing a little ground trooping of that data.
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They were only like 4 month projects.
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So I got to participate in that in the winter and then in the
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summer time I continued to come out to Montana and ride horses
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and I was working as a guest rancher.
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And then sometimes it's a ranch hand kind of depending on what
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gig I was on. So I ended up graduating College
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in 2021 and then moving full time out here.
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Was that a leap, switching from academia into hands on ranching?
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Well, I, I didn't love being, you know, behind a computer.
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I've always really enjoyed working with my hands.
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I just, I feel better at the end of the day.
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Not everyone has the pleasure of doing that.
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I think, you know, being able to take what I learned in academics
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and then see it with my, my own two hands and execute it, you
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know, especially, especially as a land manager, even more than a
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horseman. So it was, it was a switch, But
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you know, you would be, you'd be surprised how much like a
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bachelor's in earth science will do when you're learning about
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noxious weeds and talking about the difference between annuals
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and perennials. And I look out at the landscape
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and I think a lot about soil types and why some of my hay
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fields are more productive than others based off of where the
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Yellowstone River was a million years ago.
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So it's kind of cool how that all comes together.
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Yeah, there's a lot that goes into it.
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I'm sure I we have acreage and we're kind of revegetating from
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building the house and stuff. And I just think, oh man, I wish
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I knew more to figure out how to do this better.
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So it's really interesting you've been able to use that.
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It's been cool. I've had a lot of people to lean
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on and the managers before me had a really like holistic
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understanding of, of the ranch. You know, they're, they're the
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kind of people who, you know, look out and say, I see the
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golden eagle nest has babies in it this year.
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Your rattlesnakes are back and you're like, OK, like, you know,
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your experience will bring you versus you know, I can I can
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look at a landscape and and maybe maybe tell you that it's
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glaciated. These are these are different
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skills and handy in different ways.
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And I'm very early on in my career and and bring that all
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together. So, so young has been really
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special. Tell us a little bit more about
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horses and what led you to get a Mustang.
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Yeah, so I, I rode my first Mustang in Big Sky, Mt in 2020
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in 2019 and fell in love with this McCullough Peaks gelding
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who no one else really wanted to deal with just because he had
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some behavioral issues. And throughout riding horses in
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my summers and, you know, usually I was there May through
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September of every year. I, I spent a lot of time in the
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saddle getting to know these horses and Mustangs just always
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seem to have that like extra dimension.
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I don't know. They're it just didn't have a
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lot of quit in them. And I relate to that pretty
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heartily. It's been kind of a dream of
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mine to to own a Mustang. I didn't have my own personal
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horse until I adopted my first one.
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So good way to start. Yeah, like this is not, you
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know, I wouldn't recommend to anybody just starting in horses.
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Like let me start with a feral 1.
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You know, this is not my first time, you know, training horses,
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starting horses, being around young ones.
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But definitely my first time dealing with a fully feral
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Mustang was my own personal horse Echo.
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So you know, when I when I was dreaming of, you know, this
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beautiful dream horse, whatever I was going to do next, I wanted
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a challenge. Now was that like pertinent
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timing to do just as I I started this job, I I managed a ranch in
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the Paradise Valley, getting Mustang at the same time and
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starting that was maybe the wisest thing.
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But I think I said something to you along the lines of like, you
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know, if you're I just bite things off and then choke it
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down, you know, even if it's too.
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Figure it out as you go. I think we're all doing that.
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Some of us just admit it a little bit more.
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We're all kind of diving in and seeing what happens.
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Yeah, I think that's, you know, horses in general for for a lot
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of us and I, I think that's what makes them so special is it's
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like you're in it, you own them. You kind of have to figure it
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out. You can't just let them go rot
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in the field there. This is this is what you signed
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on for. What went into that decision to
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like, yes, you are going to go get an untouched Mustang.
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This is going to be your first horse.
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That's what it's going to be. Yeah, You know, I, I did what a
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lot of us do when you go to an auction, they're like, I'm just
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going to look, yeah, now I'm going to look and I have acreage
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and I needed a horse to move cows on and I, you know, needed
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a guide horse. So I had a good feeling I was
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coming home with something. And I had AI had a corral that
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was set up really well for Mustangs.
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It was a how to like a run install and everything.
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So I showed up to the auction thinking, oh, it's just like,
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let's just see what they have, see if there's anything special.
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And there's this strawberry roan sitting in the corner, this
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little mare. Yeah, that was, there was just
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very little thought about it. Like I, I thought I would spend
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hours going and looking through the horses and trying to figure
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out which one was the best one and take a look.
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And I just looked at that go and I was like, yeah, OK, yeah.
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Figure it out. Sometimes you just need to look.
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That's kind of the same thing that happened to me.
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Like I saw her picture and I was like, then I got too far into
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turn around. Tell us about how that journey's
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been from, you know, getting her.
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Yeah, Echo's star was kind of tumultuous, even at the auction.
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We loaded her out of the Hamilton, Mt facility, so way in
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the western part of the state, and we had the trailer all
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backed up. And you know how they they're
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they're going to open the chute and the horse kind of shoots
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forward. Yeah.
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So Echo shot forward. And the person who was attending
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to my trailer door, he was not very experienced and he was kind
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of excited and he slammed the trailer door on her shoulder and
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cut her open. So Echoes first introduction to
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people and trailers was. Not the best, not ideal.
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Yeah, and then she she panicked and backed up and then tried to
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go again and then he shut the door on her again.
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And that was like, I have it on video.
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It's like the toughest thing for me to watch her.
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I'm just like, I didn't even this horse isn't even in my
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hands yet. And she's already getting beat
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up on. So kind of Echo coming in, you
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know, coming home. I'm looking at her like, I am so
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sorry. We're going to be better from
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here. I'm not sure what we're going to
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do first, though, So let me get you in your pen and we'll talk.
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So, you know, I had her, I had her in a halter at the then put
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a halter on her in the chute and she dragged that thing around
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for three weeks. And you know, the first first
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touches, of course, you know, a lot of us, I put a a glove on
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the end of a little whip and started with the glove and kind
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of moved my way on up that road. Then pretty soon we were able
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to, to be around one another And something that's interesting,
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you know, with Mustangs, they're, they're, I've never met
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a more intuitive and sensitive creature.
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You know, the first time I ever laid hands on Echo, Her entire
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body shook just head to toe like, this is not a, this is not
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a horse that looked at me and you know, they, this is one of
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the reasons I say like, don't get a Mustang as your first
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horse, you know? Yeah, no, that is true.
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That's good advice to not start with a Mustang.
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So, yeah, this is, yeah, Don't start with a Mustang.
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It's a magical moment, you know, for us horse people, because we
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know, like, I'm a, I'm a predator.
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This is, she knows I'm a predator.
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This is a it's a wild horse, you know, but it's not like the
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movies. She's not going to go, oh, my
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God, this is my person. You've rescued me.
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Thank you for giving me home to your aunt.
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I am your first horse and we're going to be best friends.
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And you know, part of me is just like, That'd be nice though.
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Yeah. I'd love.
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Absolutely. I think a lot of us envision
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that too, that it is going to be magical in that way.
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And I agree it is a magical experience, but it's very
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different from that. It's not just some instantaneous
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connection and all beautiful from there, it's it's a
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challenge. It's messy more than anything
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for Echo. I had to be consistent, you
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know, I had to be fair. And you know, you, you kind of
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come in, I've worked a lot of quarter horses.
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You know, you come in with like a certain set of rules like this
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is, you know, in order to be clear, this is the way I'm going
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to communicate with you. You know, these are the drills I
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like to do before I, you know, put 30 days on a horse before I
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swing a leg over the saddle. I had to throw every single
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single one of those rules out the window to start my Mustang.
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But we're not, we're not running on my clock anymore.
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This was like a mutual clock in which I'm trying to push her
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forward and echoes sitting there going on it.
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Yeah, that's a really good way to to put it.
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They do make you earn it a little bit more or prove
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yourself to them. Yeah, can't skip steps anytime,
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any time. I wasn't fair.
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That's that's when we would have problems.
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And that's, you know, it's one of the reasons I named EE.
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You know, she's over time, her name is has become more and more
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her. But at the start I was like, I,
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you know, I've been working horses for eight years now
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before I got Echo. I want her to be a reflection of
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everything I know. And I was excited about that,
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like, oh, she's going to be cool.
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And then for the first couple of months, I went like, I don't
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know anything. Yeah, horses.
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Yeah, it really does make you kind of question yourself
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because a lot of things you've been taught, you have to kind of
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go back in and reanalyze and relearn some things and, yeah,
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get some new ideas going. It's humbling.
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And it's really humbling. And, you know, we were, you and
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I were able to accomplish a lot together very quickly.
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We got our first, you know, first touches in.
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I laid her down in the first month of her being home.
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So I was able to, I'm sure you've seen people do this, lay
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a horse down and then touch them all over.
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And that was honestly a big breakthrough for us.
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We were able to get right into saddling after that.
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And previously it was, you know, getting around Echo's body was a
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really big deal to her. And I guess with Mustangs, we're
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continually proving ourselves not to be the predator, but how
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do you how do you become how do you become a leader without?
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And how do you how do you establish boundaries?
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How do you, you know, show these horses like I am someone you can
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rely upon. I am I am strength for you, but
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not instill it like a fear response in them and they come
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pre wired. Every every horse is a little
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different. And Echo came very, very
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flighty. And, you know, how do you
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balance that? How do you develop draw when
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there's so much drive in a creature?
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That was the project of Echo very early on and still is under
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Sal today, but she's just a heck of a lot more broke now.
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And a lot of the things that we're taught to do kind of to
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show them the opposite. You're scared of me already, and
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now I'm doing something even scarier and you should just
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manage it. And so I think that is where a
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lot of our relearning has to take place to kind of consider
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how we're approaching them and how that's what they're learning
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and how they're taking that. Yeah, You know, there's, it's
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really, I find it really easy to flood Echo more than most horses
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I've worked with previously. You know, her brain shut down
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and she either went into freeze or flight mode way faster than a
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lot of the, you know, hardened bread, pasture bread, quarter
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horses I dealt with in the past that have been raised around
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humans. You know, Echo, I bought her and
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she was labeled by the BLM as a four year old.
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Probably more accurately she was closer to 6 or 7 based off of
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her teeth. So it puts her about nine years
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old now and taking, as you know, she would have been 6 coming out
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of the wild then taking a six year old.
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That's like everything that Echo had known before me was this is
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how I survive. And now you have to rewire that,
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you know, like you're going to see something flap and I want
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you to stand still. And you can't, you can't be mad
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at her for, you know, you can't, you can't be mad for their
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responses. And the way that Mustangs will
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often hold on to that was longer than quarter horses.
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Like with quarter horses, I, you know, they're like, yeah, I, I
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got them slick and broke. I spent a couple days doing that
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with Echo is like I spent four months sacking her out with
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pretty much everything I could find on the ranch to desensitize
15:29
this horse with, you know, feed bags, Gatorade bottles filled
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with rocks. You know, everything is saddle
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pads, you know, slickers, whatever, tarps and, you know,
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doing that without flooding her. That was a really, really big
15:45
project. And she's still every once in a
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while, like she you give her two weeks off and those a lot of
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those instincts will kind of sneak back in because, you know,
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they were there for six years before she entered a world in
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which, you know, she's not always on the run.
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Yeah, she's expected to act completely different than
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everything she's known. Yeah, yeah.
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And I think the the herd teaches her a lot about too.
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We've got 7 other horses here that were, you know, some of
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them born and raised on this ranch and they're able to show
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her a little bit like, you know, the tractor is going to come in
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here and it's going to bring us a veil and it's not, it's not
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here to eat you. So they, they're better at
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teaching than I am in a lot of those sort of situations.
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I spent a lot of time with other horses in the pen with her who
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are able to show her, you know, we can, we can exit that state.
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You can. It is a lot easier to to be with
16:32
her than away from her. What did that look like when you
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could tell that she was getting flooded, and how did that kind
16:37
of change your approach? You know, it's when you see a
16:40
horse shut down and an Echo wood shut down her her legs would
16:45
lock up and she would especially in her hind bend just like
16:48
really lightly shake. It was just her.
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Like you can see she's like, I can't go left or right, I can't
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go up. I can't do anything.
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I just I'm just here and this is too much.
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And that's where you're like, right, I'm going to I'm going to
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wait for the moment. You just wait for that one
17:02
moment where that brain turns back on.
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You know, maybe maybe their eyes softens just a little or
17:08
suddenly that shaking pauses for a moment and that's your
17:12
release. And you just get out as soon as
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you can. And the more you engage that
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that mindset of them softening just for a moment, that's you
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start to return to that state so much faster.
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But with Echo, it was so subtle. You know, it's not going to be a
17:27
huge licking shoe all the time. It's not going to be a big deep
17:30
breath and suddenly everything's hunky Dory.
17:33
It was going to be a moment of just, OK, I'm not dead and you
17:37
released right there. And it just made my, my timing
17:40
for, you know, other horses a lot tighter.
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I think so. So Echo was hugely helpful there
17:45
because I, I'm sure I've been really sloppy with Colts in the
17:47
past. Yeah, it's a learning process
17:49
for sure, to figure out what works and what works well and
17:52
what works in the way that we're we're wanting it to.
17:56
How long have you had her now? Got her in.
17:57
June of 23, so we're coming on two years now.
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So we, I brought her home June of 20 or June, June 3rd and then
18:06
I put my first ride on her August 9th.
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And you know, it was, it was a total journey and like physical
18:13
injury for me too. So I, I ended up putting my
18:16
first ride on her the 9th. I put 30 less than 30 days on
18:19
her. I would have put about 15 days
18:20
on her before I had AI came off another horse I was working with
18:24
at the time and had a major head injury.
18:26
So I got a pretty bad TBI. Now you know, again, this is not
18:30
not recommended. I did not go to the hospital
18:32
right away. I had a lot going on on my plate
18:34
on the ranch. I run all the irrigation and you
18:39
know, kind of you know, all of us like horse girls, we just
18:42
like brush the dirt off. We're like we're fine.
18:44
That caught up to me later, but I continued my 60 days start on
18:48
Echo through that TBI and the level of trust that it took in
18:52
her and the level of connection I had to have looking down at
18:55
her. Like if I hit my head again, I'm
18:56
dead. So let's do this please.
19:00
Yeah, that is, that is scary. How did, how has that injury,
19:04
how did that affect you moving forward?
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Honestly, the, when I trusted Echo enough to keep going with
19:10
that start even through that injury, I think it, it gave me a
19:14
lot of like self-confidence, honestly, it's just like, you
19:17
know, I can, I'm going to keep showing up.
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I have the, I have the grit to, to do this and that, you know,
19:23
that was something you have to prove to yourself every day.
19:26
You know, I, I work, you know, in the warm seasons when the
19:29
ranch is like fully up and running, I'm spending seven days
19:32
a week, like 12 to 14 hours a day at work.
19:34
So when you're working 7:00 to 7:00 and then working your
19:37
Mustang 7:00 to 9:00 PM and then going to bed and then waking up
19:40
and doing it all over again. And that consistency, even when
19:43
you're tired, you know when your brain is when your vision's
19:47
funky and your ears are ringing and you're on your horse anyway,
19:50
because I made it. I brought that horse home.
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I had something to prove and I had something to do for her.
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And I wasn't just going to, I wasn't just going to start
19:58
riding her and then leave her be like she, she deserved more.
20:02
And I did it for her. And she took me exactly where I
20:05
wanted to go because of it. Yeah.
20:07
Talk a little bit more about the consistency and kind of how you
20:10
saw that. You know, I, you always feel
20:14
like there's like there's someone else out there who's
20:17
going to be more worthy for your horse.
20:20
Any time I've looked to pass Echo off to someone else, like
20:26
gosh, help me with this project problem, it really hasn't
20:30
worked. So, you know, my first 3-4
20:33
months with Echo, when I was out there every single day working
20:36
with her on the ground, her ground starts really lovely now,
20:39
because we did, we had to do a lot of groundwork before I felt
20:41
comfortable throwing a leg up on the saddle every time, yeah.
20:44
Which is smart. Smart to be good on the ground
20:46
before you're. Moving on.
20:48
Yeah. Yeah.
20:49
And she, you know, she's had a really lovely ground start and
20:53
that consistency of coming out there every day, you know, after
20:55
a while, you know, she stopped stepping away from me.
20:59
Suddenly it was her standing still and I had an ear.
21:03
And it's weird, but that was my win for the day, you know, And I
21:07
adopted the pen. I had a halter in my hands.
21:09
And she said OK, like just one thought.
21:12
And then maybe she would step away.
21:14
And with her it was, it was always going to be that subtle.
21:17
And until one day, you know, this horse is facing up, you
21:20
know, one day this horse is taking a step towards me and
21:22
then suddenly a partnership is building.
21:24
So that consistency, you know, that was the most like most good
21:28
she ever had, she ever has is consistency for me.
21:31
And it doesn't always mean, you know, we're doing everything
21:34
right. We've had some serious setbacks,
21:36
you know. Gosh, trailer loading Echo was
21:39
its own. Well, yeah, she didn't get the
21:42
best introduction, so, and it's tricky anyway if you think we're
21:46
putting the horses in this little box.
21:48
Yeah, it is tricky. And this is where, So after I
21:53
put my first like 60 days on her, we were heading into
21:56
shipping in Montana. So we're heading into the fall.
21:58
So we've got to do a bunch of gathers before we can go and
22:00
ship cast. So at that point I was like, you
22:03
know what, guess it's time to go move cows on this Mustang.
22:07
Let's see what happens. So we went to go.
22:11
I was, you know, you can't really get to any of these
22:12
gathers without getting in her trailer first.
22:14
This is where now she's on my time.
22:16
You got to get in the trailer. I've got stuff to do.
22:18
I've got these gathers I've been invited to.
22:20
This is what I want to do. And that's that's when Echo.
22:23
This is when these Mustangs go No.
22:25
That's what you think? Yeah, yeah, yeah, You.
22:29
I don't know what you're thinking, but this is going to
22:32
take what it takes. And I had to recognize that with
22:34
her. I had a horse trainer who
22:37
invited me to a gather and she's like, oh, I'll get your horse in
22:40
the trailer. I've taught hundreds of horses
22:43
how to trailer load in my head. I'm like, Oh my God.
22:45
Thank God. I Yeah.
22:47
I don't have to worry about it. Finally, finally I've helped
22:50
with this. I pretty much spent my first
22:53
three months with Echo completely by myself.
22:55
I live and work largely by myself, but the exception I my
22:58
fiance who lives here but doesn't always ride horses with
23:01
me. So with trailer loading this
23:05
this horseman tries to get Echo in the trailer.
23:07
She spends like an hour and I'm watching her near on feed on my
23:11
horse. I'm standing there like I
23:12
respect this person too much to say like you've completely lost
23:16
her. I've spent four months working
23:19
with Echo. I know the look in her eye and
23:22
no release and there is nothing for her to hunt, there's nothing
23:26
for her to seek and you've completely lost her.
23:28
And eventually that horse trainers like this might be the
23:31
first horse that I can't do it with.
23:33
You. Know these these Mustangs that
23:36
you just you know they're there's a reason we breed
23:39
horses. We breed horses for good
23:41
disposition. This horse doesn't have a good
23:43
disposition and I'm looking at Echo and I'm just like man, I
23:47
brought one home that doesn't have a good disposition like.
23:50
Yeah, that kind of sits with you.
23:51
When you hear that from especially someone you respect,
23:54
you know you know someone who's. Been training horses for
23:57
decades, you know. Looks at you and says your horse
24:00
is no good. Yeah.
24:02
You're, you know, you look at yourself and she's my echo,
24:04
She's my, she's my reflection. It's like, man, I'm no good.
24:09
So EE held so many heavy expectations.
24:13
You know, the poor, poor horse had so much resting on her
24:16
shoulder. She had eight years of me, you
24:19
know, wanting a horse, working horses, training horses.
24:22
And now this one's mine. This one is my reflection.
24:26
What are you going to be Neko's like?
24:28
I'm going to be exactly what you need every time.
24:32
I love that. So she sure didn't get in the
24:35
trailer. And that sat with me that
24:36
winter. And, you know, I finally decided
24:39
that fall to recover from my head injury.
24:41
So I started resting more. I said, Echo, we'll pick this
24:45
back up. I will.
24:46
We'll, we'll see what we're doing.
24:48
You know, maybe like later in the winter.
24:51
So winter comes around and I have a really good friend who's
24:54
also a horse trainer. All of this horse girls have all
24:56
these great friends. And she, I was telling her the
25:00
story of what happened with Echo and during shipping with
25:04
Trailering. And she's like, I can have your
25:05
horse in the trailer in 20 minutes.
25:07
And once again I make the mistake and I go, Oh my
25:10
goodness, thank goodness. Yeah, getting your hopes up like
25:13
this is probably been weighing on you because we all want our
25:17
horses to succeed. We all kind of wonder, oh, maybe
25:20
it's me. Yeah, you know, this, this is my
25:23
reflection. And she can't even get on the
25:24
horse trailer. I'm a failed horse trainer.
25:26
You know, I ride for a living. And this is this is what I have
25:29
in the pen. Poor Echo, holding all these
25:31
expectations again. And I say, OK, thank, thank
25:34
goodness you're able to do this because she really like, I mean,
25:37
flips over backwards, throws her.
25:39
Echo threw herself down on her side and just laid there covered
25:43
and sweat breathing the first time they were trying to get her
25:45
in the trailer. I mean huge, huge reactions.
25:49
I didn't even want to have her saddled.
25:50
I thought she'd break my horn coming up and over on herself
25:53
and her reactions were always like it was freeze and then
25:56
explode. A good friend came over and we
26:01
we went to trailer load and my gosh, she spent two hours with
26:07
my horse and Echoes just shaking head to toe and frothing with
26:11
sweat. And I don't want to say anything
26:12
because there's so much here. It's like, I don't want to
26:14
insult you and tell you please don't do this anymore.
26:17
And Echo's sitting there just like mom, like.
26:20
Yeah. What are you doing like this?
26:22
This isn't going to happen in 20 minutes.
26:24
What are you thinking? And it didn't you know they the
26:26
recommendation I got was, you know, put her, put her in a pen
26:30
with the trailer, put the food and water in the trailer and
26:33
either she gets in or she starves.
26:35
And I was like, OK, I'm going to do this my way.
26:38
So I put her back in the pen. I give myself a couple days to
26:41
think about it. And you know, I'm all of all of
26:46
these expectations I had again, all of this, this I finally
26:50
decided, you know, I'm going to I'm going to do this for my
26:53
horse. And I think that means I have to
26:54
do it. You know, I park, I park my
26:57
trailer at the bottom of the mountain.
26:59
Our whole the whole place is is hills, you know, put the trailer
27:02
brake on and you know, I just start working Echo at her pace
27:06
and I just I let her I let her spoop away from the trailer.
27:09
I let her do it. But if she's going to spoop away
27:11
from the trailer, we were going to back up the mountain and it
27:13
wasn't a violent thing. I didn't have to lay a hand on
27:15
my horse to get her in the trailer and have to flag her.
27:18
Didn't have to be her or something.
27:19
You know, I I had someone say like hit her with a cattle prod,
27:22
like I wouldn't dare this this horses.
27:25
And and what that trainer did that day was declare my horse
27:28
counterfeit just the same way. You know, the first trainer did
27:31
this. Your horse is a bad attitude.
27:33
This horse is no good. The second trainer said your
27:35
horse's counterfeit, which we know in the horse world is not
27:38
something you can come back from.
27:40
A counterfeit horses is not something you can come back
27:42
from. And I'm sitting here going, Oh
27:45
my God, she's counterfeit. I've picked one of the bad ones.
27:49
I picked one of the bad Mustangs that I'm sure they exist.
27:52
Now I haven't started enough to know whether these horses exist.
27:55
So back to trailer loading. I just start backing up the
27:57
mountain. I give her the choice like you
27:59
can either get in the trailer or sniff it or think about it or
28:03
put a foot in it or give me something or you can drive away
28:06
from it. And if you're going to back up,
28:08
you're just going to back. So up the mountain we went and I
28:10
got great calves that winter because we went up that
28:13
mountain. Good workouts hundreds of times.
28:17
Back up the mountain, nothing violent and her back is epic.
28:20
Now you just lift up the lead rope and she's.
28:22
Yeah, yeah. And what a good example of like,
28:26
you're always training your horses no matter what you're
28:28
doing. They're always learning
28:30
something. Yeah, and so, so up the mountain
28:33
she went over and over and over again until suddenly 1 foot was
28:36
in, then 2 feet, then 3, then four.
28:41
And every time, you know, I, I would get a win.
28:43
I would, I would get a sniff, I'd get an ear, I'd get a moment
28:45
of softness and I would accept it.
28:47
And I would love on her. She'd be like, dude, this is,
28:49
this is the best. And I would put all of my, all
28:52
of the love in my heart and try to let go all of those awful
28:55
expectations I was putting on my shoulders.
28:57
I'm standing in the trailer like, what am I doing?
28:59
Of course, like this is, did I get a horse because I wanted a
29:03
relationship or did I want to prove something for my ego?
29:06
And Echo was like, I had to make that choice if I was to work her
29:11
through one of her biggest fears, biggest reactions.
29:15
I had to let my ego go and say I'm a total failure of a horse
29:18
trader. You know, I like whatever.
29:20
I just, if you get in, I really, I really hope that let's, I'm
29:23
going to stand out here and I don't have the right answers.
29:26
But together I think we can do it.
29:28
And you know, in like 3 days Echo now she used self loads.
29:32
Toss the halter over her and she goes.
29:35
That was like a big moment for me when I was like, yeah, this
29:37
isn't, this isn't about me. That is a huge piece to it
29:40
because a lot of us do get Mustangs.
29:43
We have these high expectations and we have these magical images
29:47
in her head of, you know, the horses that are trained really
29:50
quick and really easy is what it looks like from the outside.
29:54
And then you get in there, and I think you said something like
29:58
that before. She kind of gave you what you
30:00
needed every step of the way, which was some personal insight.
30:04
But yeah, we're going to have to step back and work together on
30:07
this if it's going to be successful.
30:09
Yeah, it was. You kind of have to.
30:12
You can't be in it for anything other than loving the horse.
30:15
It won't work. Otherwise they'll know the
30:17
difference. And she sure did.
30:18
And that was a huge turning point for us.
30:21
You know, after that I went ahead and trailered her over to
30:23
a clinic and rode her in a cow horse clinic and, you know, kept
30:27
riding her all spring. And, you know, I, I put her away
30:30
for a little while and I actually, I made, I made another
30:33
mistake. So that spring I, I had a lot
30:36
going on. So spring on the ranch is the
30:39
most busy time. You know, we've got to get all
30:41
of our irrigation started up. We've got to get out there in
30:44
the tractor and take care of our fields.
30:45
It's also the same time I've got to put rides on all of the other
30:48
horses. So my job was ramping up and I
30:50
thought, you know who someone else would probably be better
30:53
for Echo to put the first couple of rides the season on her.
30:56
You know, maybe just send her off for two weeks to a trainer
31:00
and go ahead and just ride her when she's back.
31:03
Let her let someone else get the green off of her.
31:05
I'm still recovering from this head injury.
31:07
And so I sent her off and, you know, again, I'm getting these
31:11
comments. You know, this horse is
31:12
stubborn. She just doesn't really have a
31:15
great mindset. You know, I like, I don't feel
31:17
comfortable putting a leg on her.
31:19
I think she might be dangerous. And, you know, all these things.
31:21
And I'm starting to develop these feelings about my horse
31:24
again. Like, Oh my God, I failed my
31:25
horse. You know, like, not even this
31:27
professional trainer, she rides horses for a living, wants to
31:31
get on her. And I brought her home and the
31:33
same thing I always did, just looked at her and went, all
31:35
right, no one else is going to do it, might as well be me.
31:39
So that's what we did. I wrote her all summer long.
31:41
I think that is one thing that makes the relationships really
31:44
powerful as they do develop and kind of lean on the connection
31:48
that we're willing to provide them with that they're they're
31:52
looking for more individualized relationship then then some
31:58
other horses might be that just go from, you know, owner to
32:01
owner trainer to to the next thing.
32:04
They really do, I think, rely on that relationship.
32:06
Yeah, it was, it was a kind of mindset shift for me too, of
32:12
viewing setbacks with Echo. So, you know, viewing trailer
32:15
loading. It's like a failure on myself,
32:18
like I'm not enough of a trainer.
32:20
And you know, my my friend and I have laughed about it since the
32:23
one who, who tried to get Echo in the trailer initially.
32:27
We've laughed about it since then because she's like, I
32:29
needed that too. Echo held up a mirror and said,
32:33
you think you can do something with the horse in 20 minutes
32:35
about getting to know them first.
32:37
But she she's happy to hold that mirror up to anybody who wants
32:40
to look at it. It's gone.
32:42
And, you know, you almost have to kind of just work with their
32:46
mindset and not take it personally either.
32:50
So it's that letting go of that ego again.
32:51
So, you know, Echo, to this day, everyone's, you know, she'll see
32:54
we round the corner here and there's the skid steer and it
32:57
moved. She'd be like, oh.
32:59
And they put me off guard. And now I just laugh.
33:02
I'm just like, Oh my God, yeah, I'm feeling there.
33:05
Like, what a funny thing. And I think that, you know,
33:08
people aren't necessarily always used to horses that don't
33:11
always. She doesn't have quit there.
33:13
And I didn't lie, but they were both like that.
33:16
And it's it's not like Echoes. I don't, you know, our
33:20
relationship is at the start. And I'm I'm curious to see how
33:22
this develops. But as of right now, Echo is
33:24
always going to go and you just have to be like, it's OK, Like
33:28
just laugh it off. It's not.
33:29
She's not there to hurt you. She's just a little.
33:33
She's just got that extra bit of spark in her and you've got a
33:36
lover for it. I think relaxing into that, not
33:39
making so much out of every interaction.
33:42
I definitely had some of the same experience where I'm like,
33:45
I should not have a Mustang, I should not have a horse.
33:48
Yeah. But relaxing into it and just
33:50
kind of being like, yeah, it's OK, it's OK that whatever, they
33:54
still spook at the same thing that they've seen 20 times
33:57
before or something that you're like, well, that surprised me.
34:00
I didn't expect you guys to react that way.
34:02
It's like letting go of expectations of what a broke
34:04
horse is supposed to look like, you know, because the same the
34:08
same horse, you know, I tack up at our tack shed every day.
34:12
I ride her and I ride her most days and she'll still like get
34:16
the saddle pad out of the tack shed.
34:17
She'll do that mare snort like and you're.
34:21
Oh my goodness. How many times has this saddle
34:23
pad come out of this tack shed? Like hundreds, thousands.
34:27
I've even done the whole run out of the tack shed of the saddle
34:30
pad, run back in, run around there, hours of that and
34:33
desensitize again. After a while, I just giggle.
34:36
I just go, yeah. Which I think is one of the
34:38
beautiful things about Mustangs, if they're trained right, is
34:43
that they do really stay themselves.
34:46
You know, they stay present in the world around them.
34:48
They're not just like checking out and zoning out and going
34:51
along with the agenda, which, you know, a lot of us think that
34:55
we would prefer. I definitely was like, come on,
34:57
let's just do this all my way. It'll be fun.
35:00
It'll be great. But when you can kind of embrace
35:03
that, that they're still these beings interacting with the
35:07
world in such a heightened way, it can bring really cool things
35:12
to your life. Yeah, and they, you know, they
35:15
have like different characteristics that are, you
35:17
know, she's so light. You know, you say like, oh, this
35:20
is a really flighty horse. This is a really reactive horse.
35:22
And now under saddle, we've taken reactivity and we've
35:25
brought lightness, you know, like it doesn't take much to get
35:28
echo collected nowadays. Doesn't take much to drift her
35:32
left and right with your legs. This, this horse is everything
35:36
on everything is so, so sensitive.
35:39
That sensitivity is something like, oh man, like I wish you
35:43
were a dollar. It's like I can't wish for a
35:45
different horse. I got.
35:46
I got exactly what I needed, even when I don't want it.
35:49
Yeah, well, and I think also those reactive, sensitive
35:51
horses, they're also the very best communicators like you.
35:55
You know what's going on with them.
35:56
You're not guessing or often being taken by surprise unless
36:01
you've kind of ignored what they've been trying to tell you.
36:03
They're really good at communicating how they're
36:06
feeling and how the situation is sitting with them.
36:10
Yeah. And I guess every obviously
36:12
every horse being a little different.
36:13
I just, I happen to have one of those really expressive ones and
36:16
you know that that works well for me.
36:17
We're both kind of like that. We wear our hearts on our
36:19
sleeves and Echo, you know, she's so easy to read.
36:24
You know, it's a really good way of putting it.
36:26
Like, you know, great communicator and I love
36:28
watching. I love teaching people
36:30
groundwork now with Echo because she's so like so sharp, so easy
36:35
to talk to. You know, she's cuted to every
36:38
part of your body and she, she plays it like a game now.
36:41
And you know, you can go out in a, in a field with Echo now and
36:44
she'll, you can catch her eye and I can send her with my hand
36:48
and she'll lunge around me just in a big old pasture.
36:52
And it's because we've, we've had so many of those
36:54
conversations. All it takes for me is this and
36:57
to send her off. And it's it's really wonderful.
37:00
Tell us about what you guys have been doing recently with your
37:04
journey with your Mustang. This past winter I I didn't
37:08
really have any. I didn't really have any goals
37:10
of entering any competition, but I had a, a friend of a friend
37:16
enter onto the wait list of the Big Sky ski drawer.
37:19
And he didn't have a horse. He just really wanted to try it.
37:23
And this is an event that I've, you know, watched for years now.
37:27
I lived in Big Sky for a while and it was such a dream for me
37:31
to do it, you know, and I, this person gets a hold of me and
37:34
says, hey, I've got, I've got someone on the wait list for Big
37:36
Sky. They're looking for a horse.
37:38
Any chance that you've got one that you would enter?
37:43
I'm like, oh, well, I've got a I've got a pen full of broke
37:45
horses, but I've got one that's fast.
37:46
That's Echo and she knows her feet and I've, you know, she's I
37:50
wrote her a lot this winter and said, you know what?
37:54
If you get off the wait list, I'll run with you.
37:56
Let's let's just do it, not thinking any chance we'd get off
37:59
the wait list? Like no way.
38:01
Everyone wants to enter the big set.
38:02
It's probably be fine. Yeah.
38:04
Won't be there, yeah. Probably be fine, like don't
38:06
worry, like don't worry about it.
38:07
Like just call me next year, though, when, when we, we try
38:09
again. And, you know, but I took it as
38:13
an excuse to get back on my horse.
38:15
So I went ahead and just started dragging things, drag firewood
38:19
back from our woodpile. I would spend miles and miles a
38:22
day on echo. You know, I, I make a lot of my
38:24
own schedule in the winter time and you know, I just made time
38:26
every day to ride my horse, which was really special.
38:28
So I rode, I rode for 35 days straight and on like 835 I got a
38:34
phone call from my skier and he said, Hey, we're off.
38:38
We got the we got the ski drawer in eight days.
38:40
You good? Yeah, yeah.
38:42
How did that feel? Oh my God, we were, we were
38:45
actually, I was having a, a beer with some friends here in town
38:48
and when I got the phone call and my, my heart dropped in my
38:52
chest. I just, you know, and, and it's
38:54
the same as earlier. I, I bite off more than I can
38:56
chew and choke it down anyway, but trying to do things off of
38:59
Echo's timeline has historically not worked.
39:01
And so I'm, I'm sitting there thinking like, I have no faith
39:05
in my horse. There's, there's no way there
39:08
are snowmobiles doing backflips and pyrotechnics and like 3000
39:12
people attend this event. And you know, we're going to be,
39:16
not only are we doing this in front of all these people.
39:18
So it's the humiliation is going to be huge if we don't do it.
39:21
And I immediately got in my head and got in my ego.
39:24
Like I have to be able to do this.
39:26
Like I'm a horse trainer, I'm a rancher.
39:27
Like I don't show up to events and not make it point A to point
39:30
B. And I put all of these
39:31
expectations on my poor horse. And so I spend the next 8 days
39:37
putting Echo through what we began to call it the gauntlet.
39:39
And so I've been running hot laps with Echo across the ranch.
39:42
So like 2 to 3 miles today at long tracks and, and galloping a
39:45
good deal of it, you know, completely solo.
39:47
Again, this is not wise to do this.
39:49
I just, you know, I'm often, you know, I've got a paramedic for a
39:53
fiance and that makes life a little bit easier.
39:56
I'm just ripping around this ranch all winter long.
39:59
And yeah, so we've got 8 days to prepare and I've got a whole
40:03
village. I've got a whole village of
40:05
people who show up for me, so they would wait along my route
40:08
and they would wait tarps. I had a friend setting off
40:10
fireworks. We had flags.
40:13
I said pump your truck music. And, you know, we had a bunch of
40:17
gatherings and we started dragging skiers and we started
40:21
prepping echo. So I had two practices with my
40:24
skier and then I had, you know, probably 5 or 6 practices with
40:27
everybody making as much noise as we could come up with out
40:33
here on the ranch. And that was coming into Friday
40:37
at the big skies. D drawer, Yeah.
40:39
So that was and then how was it when you got there?
40:42
Echo was really unexpected, so we got her unloaded and this is
40:47
like a major Blizzard trying to get there.
40:49
So we ended up showing up the Thursday before the event,
40:53
spending the night and you know, she's handling all of this like
40:56
a champ. She's oddly Zen.
40:57
You know, this horse has had 40 days of, you know, miles and
41:01
miles and miles of riding. And, you know, I'm looking
41:04
around and everyone's got these gorgeous horses.
41:06
You know, this is a lot of people end up riding, you know,
41:10
appendix horses, you know, so thoroughbred crosses or these
41:13
really big, tall, beautiful quarter horses.
41:15
A lot of this is what enters the ski drawer.
41:17
I think Echo is one of two Mustangs there, believe it or
41:20
not. The other, the pen right next
41:22
door to us, there was another Mustang right there and that was
41:24
really nice. Yeah.
41:26
But not. Somebody else there with us,
41:27
It's maybe a little crazy. Yeah, exactly.
41:30
Someone else who's just just a little bit more like us, just
41:33
giving it a shot. So we were entered into the
41:37
novice division. It was my first trip down a
41:39
course. It was Echo's first trip down a
41:41
course. And it was when skiers first
41:42
trip down a course and we were sitting there at the start line
41:46
and I'm just looking down at Echo.
41:48
Like, what are the odds that that was enough?
41:52
You know, because she's she's not afraid to tell you if you
41:54
haven't prepared enough. This this source is completely
41:56
unafraid of communicating what she needs.
41:59
And Echo was completely Zen. Just like, you know, there are
42:03
horses weaving all about, you know, like a really funny moment
42:07
right before we went, we had this woman come up to us and
42:10
waiting at the start line and she goes, it's not a Mustang,
42:14
like, oh, yeah, yeah, You know, got her about a year and a half
42:18
ago. And she goes, yeah, you can
42:20
always tell. They all look like they're put
42:22
together from spare parts, don't they?
42:25
And I was just like. Jeez, that song.
42:30
Well, and, you know, it was one of those moments where you just
42:33
kind of like have to laugh, just like no one believes in the
42:37
stars I heard. The underdog?
42:39
Yeah. You know, I'm just going to, I
42:41
was just planning. I was like, I'm going to ride
42:43
her like I love her and I'm going to ride her like I trust
42:45
her and I'm going to ride her like she's going to take me to
42:47
point B. But these Mustangs just have
42:49
this reputation. And I'm sitting there and I've
42:52
got the weight of my own ego and I've got the weight of, you
42:55
know, what? If everybody after this thinks
42:59
Mustangs are too crazy to take through to do this stuff, you
43:01
want to represent the breed Well, you know, they've got such
43:05
a reputation in the horse world. And we're sitting there at the
43:07
start line and this woman says, oh, your horse is trash.
43:10
You're like, whatever. We're going to get used to that
43:13
by now. So it doesn't matter everyone.
43:16
She's she's counterfeit, she's ugly, she's ridiculous, she's
43:20
stubborn, she's, you know, not worthy and I'm, you know, this
43:24
horse is just not worth it and I'm not there going.
43:27
This is my first one. I love her more than anything.
43:30
And then, you know, none of none of what you guys think matters.
43:32
I'm going to do this my way. So we were 3rd up, and you get
43:36
to run twice. So you run with your your draw.
43:39
So you run once with the person you signed up with and again
43:42
with your draw ride. So I had a randomized person I
43:44
wrote with later that day. So I was first up with my skier
43:48
Dakota, who was fabulous. He's really quick, really
43:52
positive and has never once said anything.
43:55
But that Echo is a badass. You know, he had so much love.
44:00
Yeah, he had so much love and support for that horse.
44:02
I had so many people there who loved and supported that horse
44:05
and we took on that course and we ripped it.
44:09
We absolutely crushed it start to finish.
44:12
Like, you know, there was a Jumbotron, there's crowd.
44:16
Echo didn't look at any of it. She just, I didn't even put my
44:19
legs on her. I didn't over and under barrel
44:22
racer style. I just put my hands for her and
44:25
just said I hope it's enough. Like I love you.
44:29
Please Go and Echo just launched.
44:32
She locked in. Locked in, we had the fastest
44:35
time of the day. We held the we held the fastest
44:37
time of the day for 30 horses. And to sit there, we got to sit
44:41
there at the start with this little counterfeit spare parts
44:46
Mustang and the announcer over and over.
44:48
Gang, that was a QuickTime, but it wasn't as fast as that
44:51
Mustang. That was a QuickTime, but no
44:53
one's got anything awesome. Over and over and over again.
44:56
One of the final teams, I think 4045 teams went that day.
45:00
One of the final teams beat us by .4 seconds, so 4/10 to the
45:03
second. So we ended up coming in second
45:04
that day, but I didn't care one bit.
45:06
My horse. Yeah, that's amazing.
45:09
Echo is just just flew. It was one of the best moments
45:12
in my life. Just to be on a horse that that
45:15
moment was just like, OK. I trust you, Yeah.
45:19
It was probably represented that whole journey that you'd gone
45:23
through with her. Yeah, that was really neat.
45:26
Yeah. So the top three teams in the
45:27
novice division actually run the next two days in the division,
45:32
up in the sport division. So not only had she kind of
45:36
brought brought a little money home that day, she went ahead
45:38
and moved us up and I got to run in the sport division.
45:42
So Echo ran three more times that weekend and ended up taking
45:46
9th overall. So she just got faster and
45:49
faster and faster and, you know, never once skipped a beat and
45:54
was completely perfect at the start line.
45:55
Just like. All right, Mom, I get it.
45:58
You thought I wouldn't. Oh, you're.
46:00
Yeah. You doubted me.
46:02
You thought as. Much as everybody else, but
46:05
there was a little bit there. It was a little bit there.
46:07
So, you know, to be able to, to accomplish that like it was, you
46:11
know, that was one of the coolest experiences of my life
46:14
by a long shot. And one of the hardest things
46:16
I've ever done is to, to take a Mustang from where she was to
46:20
where she was now. What a what a joy to own from
46:22
these horses. Yeah, they definitely take you
46:25
on a journey. They definitely teach you
46:27
lessons, mirror what you need to know where, where you're
46:32
missing. Yeah, yeah.
46:33
And you can't they, you know, I couldn't give up on her.
46:37
You know, again, this is, this is my first horse.
46:40
There's, there was no giving up on echo.
46:42
The only path was forward and but it was never going to be, it
46:46
was never going to be exactly what I envisioned it And I, I
46:49
wouldn't do it any other way. You know, I, every other horse I
46:53
work with it, I, I bring more sensitivity and they would have
46:55
listened to their cues a little better.
46:57
I'm able to catch those little ones only because I I had to.
47:01
I agree. I think they do make us better.
47:04
You know, they definitely help us grow, teach us, help us see
47:08
the things that we're maybe just brushing over and ignoring or
47:11
don't even realize at all. Help us see that.
47:15
Then suddenly you're holding a check and you're looking at your
47:18
mirror like wow, I didn't even. I was just showing up to show up
47:24
suddenly. You made a commitment.
47:26
You didn't think it was going to happen.
47:28
Yeah. So you guys going to do it again
47:30
next winter? Yeah, we're addicts now.
47:32
Yeah. She loves to run when we do, you
47:35
know that we do our hot lap around the ranch or there's like
47:37
a specific route. We used to do training for the
47:39
ski drawer. And I have to be careful now
47:41
because if I take friends to do that, I can watch Echoes years
47:44
ago. So we get to go at this point.
47:47
She's ready to go. She's ready to go.
47:49
She continues to be that way. So it was neat.
47:52
I got invited to do a number of ski drawers after that and I and
47:56
I kind of just let it be for the season.
47:57
I was like, Echo, you did exactly what I wanted to do.
47:59
I'm not going to just keep piling on more because you gave
48:01
me a lot. So I didn't, you know, I was
48:06
invited to do Red Lodge and wisdom and stuff and just, you
48:08
know, siding was like, you know what?
48:11
Good job, Echo. See you next year.
48:13
Yeah, which that that takes a lot.
48:15
Not everybody will do that, feel like you're winning or doing
48:19
good. You got to keep going.
48:20
But I think that's huge to kind of count your successes and to
48:23
acknowledge like we had a success even you talked really
48:27
early on about just like the tiniest, smallest success, you
48:30
know, an ear flick at the right time or whatever.
48:32
And you're like, yeah, that's great.
48:34
All the way to, you know, celebrating this big, huge
48:37
success that came after a lot of work and partnership together.
48:42
I hope she continues to surprise me and I continue to surprise
48:45
her and like the the kindness and consistency I'm able to
48:48
bring. You know, since then, I've been
48:50
able to use her to cows and she'll climb me to the top of
48:54
the mountain. And she does all of this
48:56
completely barefoot. She ran the Skijor completely
48:58
barefoot. These these horses are are
49:00
engineered, you know, just a little different, you know, and
49:04
I guess, you know, until I work with more, maybe I'll be able to
49:07
make some more sweeping claims. But I can just say in the case
49:10
of mine, like that's that is a really special animal and I'm
49:14
really blessed to be a part of her life.
49:17
Much more to go than you know, she's she's lucky to be here.
49:19
She gets plenty of feed but I'm I'm really luckier to have her.
49:23
What is advice you would give people who are thinking about
49:27
getting a Mustang or jumping into it?
49:30
I don't know. Do it all, do it for the right
49:32
reasons, and if not, they'll find them for you.
49:37
Go in with love. Do it for love, don't do it for
49:40
yourself. Yeah, I think that's huge and
49:43
also how you were committed to it.
49:45
I think that's maybe the biggest piece because some of them are
49:50
going to get hard. It's going to be tough times.
49:52
You're going to have to fight that self doubt and the
49:55
discouragement. But if you're committed like,
49:58
you'll figure out a way and it's neat to see how you guys did
50:02
that. The path forward isn't, it's,
50:04
isn't this, and I mean, it's, it's not with anything, but with
50:07
Mustangs in particular, like they're going to have bad days.
50:11
These aren't, these aren't machines that you can just go
50:13
and work on. Like she's there's, she's going
50:15
to wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
50:17
Your, your horse as well. And there are going to be days
50:20
when you, you think I, I didn't do a single thing right except
50:25
for show up. And sometimes that's, that's all
50:29
you need to do. So yeah, it's what a what a what
50:33
a lucky thing to own a horse in the 1st place.
50:35
It's not, they're not something to be picked up and put in a
50:38
pasture. They're not, they're not
50:40
ornaments. They're, they're working
50:41
animals. They're they're, they're things
50:43
that are meant to be used and developed and honed.
50:48
And you can't expect to just pick them up after a couple
50:50
months off then and pick them up exactly how you put them down.
50:53
They're, you know, they're wild things.
50:55
They're, you know, all horses are like this too, but, you
50:59
know, they're that consistency, that job that it matters.
51:05
Are there any ways that your perspective on horsemanship has
51:08
changed after heavier that we maybe haven't touched on?
51:10
It's that like not taking it personal aspect.
51:14
You know, there's, there's every horse is going to be bringing
51:18
their own, you know, set of, you know, drive and draw.
51:22
Like, do they want to be with you?
51:23
Do they want to drive away from you?
51:25
How much fight do they have? Or they have flight or they have
51:28
freeze? Like there's all of these things
51:29
that the more and more you work horses, you see these, these
51:31
characteristics start to pop up like, oh, she reminds me of this
51:34
other horse I rode 3 years ago. And they're, they're all going
51:37
to be a little different and meeting them where they are that
51:41
that's been, it's been exactly what Echo has been able to bring
51:44
to me. You know, I, I had the pleasure
51:47
of riding Echo in front of a buck Brannaman last summer and I
51:51
got to do his clinic that he had in Levy Stone.
51:55
So I brought Echo with me. You know this horse, I walk her
51:58
into the arena and she, she just starts bucking in a circle
52:01
around me on a lunch line because that's just how it goes
52:05
under like. Perfect, this is just what I
52:07
envisioned. And I, I, I see Buck turn her
52:10
and turn over and obviously this is, this is, you know, a huge
52:14
person in the horse industry, like someone.
52:15
I, I look up to the optimist degree and Buck looks over and
52:20
he just, he just nods and takes away no emotion.
52:23
You know, nothing like, oh, what did you bring to my clinic?
52:26
Everybody else was on broke horses.
52:27
I brought, I brought Echo. You know, what else are you
52:31
going to do? So, you know, it's but she, she
52:36
went ahead and I just took her for what she was that day.
52:40
And when I was ready, I got up on her.
52:41
And when I was, I didn't care what anybody else thought about
52:44
her. I didn't.
52:45
And I didn't compare her. I just, yeah, I think I'm going
52:49
to bring bring that to every new horse.
52:51
They are. They are.
52:52
You know where they're at. That is huge.
52:54
I think that point of not caring and really wanting to do to
52:58
honor the horse and where they're at is really huge.
53:01
Because I think a lot of times between that and ego, which you
53:04
mentioned, a lot of times trying to get our kind of feeling of
53:09
being OK, our feelings of self worth from how these horses are
53:12
behaving. If you can let go of those two
53:14
things where you're no longer worried about, you know, what
53:17
people think or what people are saying and you're really worried
53:20
about, you know, what your horse is telling you, what they're
53:23
trying to communicate and kind of able to let go of.
53:26
Like this isn't a statement about me.
53:27
This is just our relationship. We're just developing and
53:30
growing our relationship. Those I think are two huge
53:33
pieces to kind of take and move forward that can really change
53:36
the way that you interact with horses.
53:38
Yeah. And it's, it's tough in the
53:42
horse world. The horse world is a really
53:44
unique 1. And it is, it is kind of a judgy
53:46
one. There are always going to be
53:48
those people at the start line saying, hey, I spent 20 grand on
53:50
my horse and this is Sun Frost on the papers.
53:54
And we're, you know, this is this, this horse was bred for
53:58
it. You know, yeah.
54:00
And you're, when you look at a Mustang, it's like, what were
54:02
you bred for? What?
54:04
What are what are we able to accomplish?
54:06
What are what's standing in our way?
54:09
Is it your bloodlines? Like, are are you a thoroughbred
54:12
cross Mustang? Are you one of the more drafty
54:14
ones? Like what?
54:16
Who are you and who am I? And over and over again, they
54:19
just show us like, who cares? Put me down better than you.
54:23
Pick me up. Yeah.
54:24
And see where you can go. It's farther than you think.
54:28
Yeah, that's beautiful. And I think a lot of us, you
54:31
talked about how you kind of put a lot of your expectations on
54:34
Echo's shoulder and she didn't really care.
54:36
She wasn't really having that. You know, she's like, we're
54:38
going to do this the way that feels good to me.
54:41
But I do think that's a big piece to why there's so much
54:45
tension in the horse community because I think a lot of us were
54:48
look at our horses as a sense of worth and worthiness.
54:53
When you know, when you step back and and kind of build that
54:57
relationship and learn those things that they're trying to
55:01
teach you, listen to those things they're trying to tell
55:03
you, that definitely becomes less important, more just, you
55:08
know, a side note And you can really lean into like, what are
55:12
you going to learn on this journey?
55:13
Where is it going to go? What might you be able to do
55:16
next? Yeah.
55:18
But if you're going to get a Mustang, get one, get one for
55:20
partnership. That's that's what it is.
55:22
It's it's a relationship you're developing in relationships with
55:26
Rocky. Yeah, Rocky, take time, take
55:29
learning, not always fun, then sometimes amazing.
55:32
You're. Going to have so many more.
55:35
You're spend so many hours having hard moments before you
55:37
have the good ones and you have to just dress up if the good
55:40
ones are coming. It's like anything you know
55:42
you're going to. Yeah, a lot, a lot like life,
55:45
right? Whatever you expect, it may not
55:47
turn out that way. So just hang on and and see what
55:51
happens and stay in it and keep showing up.
55:53
I think it's huge. I'd be willing to learn, be
55:56
willing to restart. And.
55:59
Dig back into the books and the YouTube and pick trainers you
56:02
like and find the stuff that doesn't work for you.
56:05
It's all the stuff they say with horsemanship.
56:07
It's it's not a one-size-fits-all and no one has
56:09
the answers. And I've tried.
56:11
Trust me, I've really tried. I mean, you had two people that
56:14
thought they had the answer. Still didn't work.
56:17
Yeah. Yeah, it's just how many, how
56:19
many times was I going to turn and say someone else, this is
56:21
going to do it better, someone else has the answers.
56:24
And I mean, it's hard. So when you get to those stuck
56:27
points, it seems like it would be really great to just have
56:31
someone step in kind of help get you past that.
56:33
But I'm sure that because you stuck with it and kind of took
56:37
it back into your hands, that's probably where you really learn
56:39
a lot because it sounds like you really focused in, you're like,
56:43
I'm going to have to figure this out.
56:44
Like it's in my hands, it's up to me.
56:47
Yeah, I mean, it helps. She's in my backyard.
56:49
So there's, there's a certain amount of like how realistic
56:52
this is for people. You know, it's when I think
56:55
about someone who's like seeking a Mustang, you know, they're,
56:57
you know, everyone's got different situations.
57:00
Maybe you've got a barn, maybe you've got a mentor, maybe
57:02
you've got no horse training experience at all, which I would
57:04
not recommend getting Mustang if you have a horse training
57:06
experience. Start differently, please.
57:09
You know, everyone's going to have different circumstances,
57:11
but consistency is consistency. And I, I was in a situation
57:14
where I could do that, you know, where I could finish work and
57:16
then be there. And if someone's not in the the
57:19
position to be that, you can't blame the horse.
57:22
Yeah, yeah. And I think even with
57:24
consistency, it doesn't have to be that something huge every
57:27
day. It can be just those little wins
57:30
regularly over and over again, you know, till one day they
57:33
don't even want to be near you and the next they're coming and
57:36
checking you out and seeing what's going on and.
57:39
It's not realistic for for everybody and it's, you know,
57:42
and I'm sure this is the case with some horses as well.
57:45
You know, I think you can get away with it a little more of
57:47
the horses that are raised around humans.
57:49
So you can put them, put them down and pick them back up.
57:51
And they're about the same I've noticed with some of our quarter
57:54
horses. And you know, that's, that's
57:56
what you get with, you know, breeding a little bit and
57:59
raising them in hand. I'm curious to see.
58:01
I'm curious to see in the future if I had a chance to start a
58:03
younger Mustang to have an older one and seeing if that kind of
58:07
like recurrence interval is shorter.
58:09
Yeah, yeah, it is interesting. There's definitely a lot of
58:14
variance between them. I have 3 and they're all totally
58:18
different personalities and just everyone I'm like, oh, well,
58:22
that's not what I was expecting. So it's definitely an
58:25
interesting, interesting learning journey.
58:29
Yeah, what HMAS are your horses from?
58:31
So 1 is Antelope Hills, I think the one in Wyoming, not Nevada.
58:37
I can't remember if it's Antelope Hills or Antelope
58:39
Valley. Anyway, she's the one that was
58:43
supposed to be my daughter so I didn't know.
58:45
I can never remember hers for some reason.
58:47
But then the other ones divide Basin, Wyomi and Triple B.
58:52
Nevada. So yeah, and they're all very
58:55
different, but lots of. Fun.
58:56
Everyone's got their HMA's they like too.
58:58
And I just sit in. Yeah, I have.
59:01
No, I have no idea. I'm not a Mustang person.
59:03
I just happen to have one. Yeah, I know.
59:05
We didn't really go off HMA, so it was more like that looks
59:09
good, let's do it. Yeah, so trout, trout sound.
59:13
Yeah, but but you really never do fully know what you're
59:16
getting until they're there and they're with you and you're
59:19
learning about them. We really.
59:21
Appreciate you kind of hearing Echo's story.
59:24
It's it's neat. I've never really talked through
59:26
it and this like this way before.
59:29
My friends and family have gotten like snippets of this.
59:31
So this was really special for me.
59:33
So thank you so much. Thanks for being here.
59:35
Tell everybody where they can find you if they want to follow
59:38
you. See videos.
59:40
You have some really cool videos up of the events and it looks
59:44
pretty wild. It looks pretty fun and a lot of
59:46
craziness. I am.
59:49
I'm not great with social media. My handle I think is EA
59:52
Gonzalez, 06, on Instagram. But I do have a private account
59:57
so. So maybe you don't want people
1:00:01
to find you. That's OK.
1:00:02
That's all right. I'm a social media person.
1:00:05
I might, might post some more echo stuff in the future, but
1:00:08
you know, I am, I am looking at there's another auction here in
1:00:12
June in Livingston. So it might be, maybe, I don't
1:00:16
know, maybe I'll just go see if there's something in the pen.
1:00:19
We know what'll happen if you just go see, so that's OK.
1:00:23
I mean, once you get one, it's kind of it's kind of hard to
1:00:27
just stop there. And you know, they made a
1:00:29
friend, so. Why write anything else?
1:00:32
Yeah, well, thank you so much for being here and sharing your
1:00:35
story and your experiences with Echo.
1:00:37
It's really neat to just see the way different journeys unfold
1:00:42
with the Mustang and really cool to hear how you learned and grew
1:00:47
and really committed to being there for Echo and to doing
1:00:52
right by her, even though there's bumps along the road,
1:00:55
which I think happens for all of us that are really trying to do
1:00:58
right for them. And to just see like what an
1:01:01
exciting end. Like as you were telling the
1:01:03
story of it, I was like, it should be a movie like so
1:01:07
inspiring where, you know, you just have this huge journey and
1:01:11
people talking poorly about the horse and then they just do
1:01:14
something incredible. Like together you guys did
1:01:16
something really fun, really neat and inspiring.
1:01:19
So thanks for being here. Thank you for joining us and
1:01:22
learning about horses that heal and the humans who help them.
1:01:25
We hope you'll continue with us on this journey.
1:01:28
We'd love for you to subscribe on your favorite platform and
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follow the touch of a Mustang on any of the major social media
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outlets. Please share with your friends
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anyone who loves horses or anyone who might be struggling
1:01:39
and could benefit from this message.
1:01:41
If you have felt the healing power of horses or help them in
1:01:44
their divinely appointed mission, please reach out.
1:01:47
We want to hear your story. As we say goodbye, always
1:01:50
remember that the horse is always there to help you.