06/14/08 Day 1

Last night we made the 4 hour drive to Palomino Valley NV to pick up my mustang for the 2008 Extreme Mustang Makeover. In case you have never heard of the event, here is the rundown:
200 horse trainers were selected nation-wide to compete in a competition to be held in Fort Worth Texas in September featured on RFDTV. These trainers are each given a 3-4 year old wild BLM mustang and have 100 days to prepare for the competition, which includes an in-hand course, conditioning class, and horse course (ridden obstacle course). Top ten finalists will be given the opportunity to perform a freestyle exhibition to decide the winner. Over $50,000 will be awarded in prize money and all the mustangs will be auctioned off for charity after the event.

So far Artista seems to be a very likable mustang. I was able to touch him in the trailer and by the time we got home he was eating hay out of my hand in the round pen. He is definitely scared but he really wants to trust. We stopped in Reno for dinner and he watched with interest as we passed a firetruck, cars, vans, people, buildings, and even strollers. Despite the culture shock he was very calm and stoic for the entire trip. We put him in the round pen here at the ranch and his fellow mustang Cash is helping to teach him what people are all about. This morning when I went outside to feed, Cash whinnied to me as normal and Artista also let out a nicker following his lead.

I also want to send out a big thank you to Growney Motors for sponsoring the truck we used to pick up Artista. Ironically Lane Frost's cousin Cary Frost was the BLM wrangler that helped us to load Artista into the chutes and trailer. All just a few miles out of Red Rock NV. What are the chances of that??

Stay tuned and bookmark this blog to support Robert and Artista's journey to Fort Worth.