08/01/2023
I’ve taken the last couple days to think about what I wanted to say about everything and well now here I am… moonshine was a extremely difficult mustang, when I seen her in the pen at pick up she was kicking the other horses and running crazy. I instantly thought “why didn’t I get another yearling😭” then she loaded up on the trailer and wouldn’t even look at us, she was so stressed out, shut down, and just so terrified. The look of fear in her eyes broke my heart, I didn’t know what I got myself into and I wasn’t sure I would ever get this horse gentled. 2 or 3 days after we got home she got her halter off and I just felt so defeated I knew this horse was gonna be A LOT of work but she was just so genuinely scared of everything I couldn’t just give up on her no matter how many times the thought ran threw my head I just couldn’t give up on her. It took 46 very slow days of working on just approaching her, petting her and loving her before she willingly let us get a halter back on. It took us over a week to get her desensitized to the lead rope enough to walk her around and another two weeks before she was comfortable to even step out of her stall. When we finally got her comfortable enough to walk around our property and we started actual training let me tell you I feared for my life. I’m not going to sugarcoat this she would blow up and bolt away, she’d kicked out at me, she’d run people over, i shed so many tears and went through so many emotions when it came to working with moonshine. This being only my 1 first show horse and my 2nd tip horse I really thought I was way in over my head and there’s no way I could train mustangs. Then moonshine started realizing I wasn’t trying to kill her and she started to trust me. She started to enjoy me being around and started nickering at me and following Kayla around in the pasture and eventually she gave in and started picking up what I was asking out of her. I learned so much from her, most importantly patience, but I gained so much from moonshine and seeing how far she has come around and to see her learn to love is such an amazing thing. She would pick up things the first time being asked, however with such a late start to everything we really just focused on the basic’s because I didn’t want her to set back and fear being around us again. We just worked slow with her doing short sessions a few times a day and perfecting the basics like trotting in hand, pivoting, leading properly, etc. I was so overwhelmed with the show I thought about backing out because while moonshine has improved incredibly she’s nowhere near ready for a show. However even though moonshine wasn’t the furthest in training and I had no clue what to expect at a horse show we still went and showed and it was the most amazing experience! I learned so much and seen so much and everyone there was beyond supportive. Moonshine and I may not have placed the highest but we went out there and we placed! Our best class (which we practiced for the most) was showmanship which we placed 10th in and on top of placing moonshine never bolted off on me and thats huge for us! I’m proud of moonshine for how far she’s come and how much her wall has come down for her to trust me. I cannot wait to show again next year and I’m hoping there’s a open show so that I can show beauty 🤞🏼🫶🏼
