Shows / The Touch of a Mustang
The Touch of a Mustang
Through extraordinary stories and honest conversations, The Touch of a Mustang explores the places and principles that lead to healing, growth, and freedom of mind. We bring together horses, psychology, relationships, resilience, horsemanship, and nature to uncover lessons for living with greater awareness and purpose. We explore the wisdom horses offer, how they guide us through the human experience, and our responsibility to protect and preserve them—especially America’s wild Mustangs.
Episodes
The Touch of a MustangSaving the Salt River Wild Horses with Simone Netherlands | Episode 94
The notice gave them seven days before the Salt River wild horses would be impounded. Simone Netherlands and the people who knew these horses refused to let…
The Touch of a MustangHow to Rebuild When Life Will Never Be the Same | Episode 93
How do you rebuild when the life you loved is no longer there? Nearly four months after a wildfire burned the forest around our home, we are still finding our…
The Touch of a MustangA Rescued Horse Helped Her Through Cancer with Leila King | Episode 92
Leila King was undergoing treatment for two forms of cancer when a friend introduced her to a rescued horse. She did not know whether she would survive. Beside…
The Touch of a MustangHow to Rebuild Your Life After Rock Bottom with Barbara Parker | Episode 91
Rock bottom rarely gives you the freedom to begin again with a clean slate. There may still be children to raise, bills to pay, trauma to carry, and…
The Touch of a MustangYour Emotions Don’t Define You with Brea Segger | Episode 90
Success gave Brea Segger the security she believed she needed, but it also taught her to ignore herself. She worked 12- to 15-hour days until her health…
The Touch of a MustangHe Takes His Horses Into Chicago with Cowboy K | Episode 89
A few weeks after losing his twin brother, a young boy met Cowboy K and his horse on a Chicago street. His mother said she had not seen him happy in a long…
The Touch of a MustangWhen the Place You Go to Heal Is Gone | Episode 88
What happens when the place you have always gone to heal is suddenly devastated? The Aspen Acres Fire swept across our property outside Beulah, Colorado…
The Touch of a MustangHorses Can't Heal You, But They Can Show You The Way with Michelle Peterson | Episode 87
Horses cannot heal us—and expecting them to may place a burden on them that was never theirs to carry. They can reflect how we are showing up, reveal what we…
The Touch of a MustangHealing Burnout and Overwhelm Through Sound with Craig Goldberg | Episode 86
What if the reason you cannot relax is that you are trying to think your way out of a state your body is still holding? Modern life can leave the nervous…
The Touch of a MustangWhat We've Lost by Disconnecting From Nature with Kurt Belding | Episode 85
A wild horse advocate and a hunter are supposed to be on opposite sides. But public lands will not be protected by people who refuse to speak across the…
The Touch of a MustangWhy Horses Might Hold the Healing You've Been Searching For with Vanessa Petronelli | Episode 84
When the life you built no longer feels like yours, losing your old identity can feel like failure. But what if the unraveling is not the end of who you…
The Touch of a MustangHealing What Modern Life Has Broken with Chance Foreman and Grant Rose | Episode 83
America’s wild Mustangs are usually discussed as a problem to manage, a population to control, or horses that need to be trained. Dance of the Wild tells the…
The Touch of a MustangBecoming Blind as a Teen with Laura Bratton | Episode 82
Laura Bratton was nine years old when she learned she would become blind. For the next ten years, she lived with the knowledge that the future she feared was…
The Touch of a MustangHer Horse Needed Her to Find Another Way with Chiara Maria | Episode 81
Chiara Maria walked away from the life society expected her to live. Years later, she faced the same choice with horsemanship when her horse Descot needed…
The Touch of a MustangHe Helped Save Wild Horses at Six and Never Stopped with George Brauneis | Episode 80
George Brauneis was six years old when he joined thousands of children inspired by Wild Horse Annie and wrote to Congress asking America to protect its wild…
The Touch of a MustangHer Horses Inspired Stories for a New Generation with Cheryl Olsten | Episode 79
Cheryl Olsten never expected to build her life around horses. She was reluctant to ride at all. Then three horses entered her life at three pivotal moments…
The Touch of a MustangAustralian Brumbies Are Being Gunned Down with Kiki Sjoberg | Episode 78
Australia is shooting Brumbies from helicopters in the name of conservation. The NSW Government says aerial culling is necessary to protect Kosciuszko National…
The Touch of a MustangWhen Rescue Horses and Veterans Get a Second Chance with Kathleen Saucier | Episode 77
Sometimes healing begins not by escaping the pain, but by finding somewhere safe enough to face it. For some veterans, that place may be beside a horse…
The Touch of a MustangHorses Interrupted His Cycle of Addiction with Ray Guidone | Episode 76
Ray Guidone had used alcohol to escape the hardest parts of life. Then he returned to horses—and the craving disappeared. For days after working with them, Ray…
The Touch of a MustangWhat Horses Reveal When Your Life No Longer Fits with Justin Dunn | Episode 75
Sometimes the life we build is not the life we were meant to keep. When it no longer fits, we may have to let parts of it burn before we can build something…
The Touch of a MustangWhy Horses Reach Places Words Cannot with Lynn Thomas & Jen Blanchard | Episode 74
When someone has tried everything and still feels unreachable, hope can become difficult to believe. A horse may offer a place to begin again—not by providing…
The Touch of a MustangShe Believed She Was a Mistake with Madison Orlando | Episode 73
Madison Orlando’s father died four days before she was born. Her mother went silent, and Madison grew up believing she had not simply made a mistake—she was…
The Touch of a MustangWild Horse Partnerships Built Free of Force with Mustang Trainer Michael Sanchez | Episode 72
Force can make a horse comply. It cannot make a wild horse trust you. After working with hundreds of Mustangs, Michael Sanchez has learned that partnership…
The Touch of a MustangWhy Equine Therapy Works When Other Programs Fail Veterans with David Vieira | Episode 71
The program helping a veteran find a reason to keep going may be one emergency vet bill away from disappearing. When hay, farrier care, or veterinary treatment…
The Touch of a MustangFinding Beauty After Losing Her Mother and Sister with Britt Michaelian | Episode 70
After cancer took her mother and then her sister, Britt Michaelian did not become grateful for the loss. She became grateful for the love that made the grief…
The Touch of a MustangFrom No Horse Experience to Training Mustangs Worldwide with Grace Thompson | Episode 69
Grace Thompson was not born into horses. She said yes to one wild Mustang before she knew what she was doing—and that decision became a life training wild…
The Touch of a MustangWhen Keeping Your Mustang Feels Too Hard with Jana Leniger & Brittany Ference | Episode 68
Bringing home a Mustang can begin as a dream and quietly become a crisis. When progress stalls and the owner no longer knows what to try, the horse may be sent…
The Touch of a MustangWhy Discomfort Makes You Feel More Alive with Thru-Rider Gillian Larson | Episode 67
Most of us spend our lives trying to become more comfortable. After riding more than 15,000 miles through remote wilderness, Gillian Larson has found that…
The Touch of a MustangWhy Controlling Your Horse Creates More Problems with Avery Sullivan | Episode 66
A feral horse no one could touch became a children’s lesson horse. The change did not begin with tighter control. It began when Avery Sullivan gave her more…
The Touch of a MustangWhen Panic Takes Over with Hailey Coleman | Episode 65
Hailey was sitting with her children when a panic attack interrupted an otherwise quiet moment. As they rubbed her back and sang to comfort her, she knew she…
The Touch of a MustangHow Horses Helped Her Face the Trauma She Couldn’t Unravel with Ruby Fremon | Episode 64
What happens when you have spent years helping others heal, then find yourself struggling with trauma you have not resolved? For Ruby Fremon, that question…
The Touch of a MustangWhen the Life You’re Supposed to Want Isn’t Yours with Baiba Wisse | Episode 63
What happens when the life you worked hard to build pulls you further away from yourself? After 15 years in the corporate world, Baiba Wisse reached a point…
The Touch of a MustangWhat Horses Reveal When We Stop Asking Them to Perform with Katja Jensen | Episode 62
A photograph can show us a horse as we want them to appear. Katja Jensen wants to capture who they are when no one is asking them to perform. Through…
The Touch of a MustangWhat Horses Offer Veterans Beyond Talk Therapy with Kathleen Saucier | Episode 61
Some veterans can describe what happened to them and still struggle to feel safe, connected, or at home in their own lives. A horse does not ask them to…
The Touch of a MustangWhat Nonprofits Get Wrong About Competition with Rob Harter | Episode 60
Two nonprofits can care about the same problem and still behave as if only one of them is allowed to solve it. When protecting an organization becomes more…
The Touch of a MustangWhat Horses Reveal When We Stop Performing with Chloe Elgar | Episode 59
What changes when we stop approaching horses with something to prove? Chloe Elgar believes horses respond not only to what we do, but also to what we carry…
The Touch of a MustangThe Science Behind Why Horses Change Us with Dr. Leanne Nieforth | Episode 58
People who have experienced a meaningful connection with a horse often know that something changed. Science faces the harder question: What exactly happened…
The Touch of a MustangWhat It Really Takes to Rescue a Horse with Rescue Ranchito | Episode 57
Saving a horse from slaughter is the moment everyone sees. The real work begins after the trailer pulls away. Erin and Casey of Rescue Ranchito reveal what it…
The Touch of a Mustang8 Kids and a Dream of Mustangs with Nicci Lynn | Episode 56
Eight children would give most people a reason to postpone a dream involving wild Mustangs, entrepreneurship, and even more responsibility. Nicci Lynn decided…
The Touch of a MustangHow Horses Helped Him Become a Better Man with Luke Reinbold | Episode 55
Luke Reinbold began working with horses as an impatient young man with an anger problem. The horses did not need him to become more forceful. They required him…
The Touch of a MustangTaught to Love Better by a Difficult Mustang with Jimmy Wiseman | Episode 54
Jimmy Wiseman believed the challenge was to change a difficult Mustang. Instead, the horse changed him. As a trainer and owner of 3Y Ranch & Rehab, Jimmy had…
The Touch of a MustangSaving Mustangs from the Hidden Slaughter Pipeline with Ashley Avis | Episode 53
A Mustang can leave public land, pass through multiple hands, and disappear into a system most Americans never see. By the time someone asks where the horse…
The Touch of a MustangShe Rode 3,000 Miles Solo Across America with Mustangs | Episode 52
Three thousand miles. Six months. One woman traveling from Mexico to Canada with a dog, a Quarter Horse, and three Mustangs. Patricia returns to The Touch of a…
The Touch of a MustangHow to Come Back When You’re Too Scared to Ride | Episode 51
Fear can take one moment in the saddle and follow you long after the danger has passed. After an intense riding accident, I had to confront what happens when…
The Touch of a MustangA Horse Showed Him What Fear Was with Jeff Cook | Episode 50
You may believe working with a wild Mustang is about changing the horse. Jeff Cook has learned that earning a Mustang’s trust changes the person too. Jeff is a…
The Touch of a MustangWhat I Wish I’d Known Before Adopting a Mustang | Episode 49
Bringing home a Mustang is the moment most people prepare for. What happens afterward is where the real learning begins. Adopting my first Mustang became one…
The Touch of a MustangLetting Go and Finding Acceptance | Meditation Series | Episode 1
This episode is the first in a series of moving meditation—designed to be listened to while you're walking, driving, doing chores, or spending quiet time with…
The Touch of a MustangThey Said Her Mustang Was No Good with Addie Gonzalez | Episode 48
Addie Gonzalez finally bought the horse she had always wanted. Instead of the partnership she imagined, she brought home Echo, an older, completely feral…
The Touch of a MustangWhy Veterans and Mustangs Need Each Other with Dave and Kathleen | Episode 47
After surviving a suicide attempt and struggling with PTSD, retired Army and Navy veteran David Flounders found an unexpected path forward beside wild…
The Touch of a MustangWhat Your Horse Needs Before Better Performance with Ashley Dudas | Episode 46
Better performance does not begin by asking more from your horse. It begins by creating enough trust, clarity, and understanding for your horse to remain…
The Touch of a MustangShe Thought Her Life with Horses Was Over with Jaime Davis | Episode 45
After 24 years together, Jaime Davis said goodbye to Whisper, the horse who had been beside her through some of the most difficult chapters of her life. Her…
The Touch of a MustangThe Ancient Principles Horses Already Understand with Justin Dunn | Episode 44
We spend much of life resisting opposites, fighting natural cycles, and trying to force outcomes. Justin Dunn believes horses offer another way. They respond…
The Touch of a MustangWhat It Really Means to Honor the Horse with Henry Merrill | Episode 43
Calling ourselves horse lovers means little if our decisions leave a horse confused, fearful, or unprepared for what comes next. Henry Merrill believes…
The Touch of a MustangAfter Losing His Job He Found Wild Horses with Tim West | Episode 42
When Tim West and his wife both lost their jobs during COVID, the future became deeply uncertain. Tim turned to nature with his camera and found something he…
The Touch of a MustangWhat It Takes to Give a Wild Horse a Future | Episode 41
Removing a wild horse from danger does not guarantee it a safe future. What happens next depends on people who understand its behavior, prepare for the…
The Touch of a MustangA Second Chance for Retired Racehorses with Rebecca Forcier| Episode 40
In this episode, we’re joined by Rebecca Forcier, the inspiring founder of Wild Hearts Thoroughbred Adoption Society, a registered charity based in beautiful…
The Touch of a MustangUnveiling the Value of Mustang Horses in the Domestic World with Matt Manroe | Episode 39
Step into the world of Mustang Champions with Executive Director Matt Manroe in this captivating episode. Discover how this trailblazing organization is…
The Touch of a MustangLife is Not Meant to be Free of Struggle with Cope Wilson | Episode 38
In this powerful episode, I sit down with Veteran Cope Wilson to explore his journey from the harrowing front lines of war to life-changing moments of despair…
The Touch of a MustangOne Woman’s Upcoming 3,000-Mile Trek Across the U.S. with Her Mustangs | Episode 37
In this episode we sit down with Patricia Petrina (better known as Penny Pett on Instagram), an avid horsewoman and back-country enthusiast, who is about to…
The Touch of a MustangBuilding a Community of Healing with Mustang Recovery Challenge | Episode 36
In this episode, we sit down with the team behind The Mustang Recovery Challenge, a transformative nonprofit that blends substance use prevention and mental…