LOVELAND, Colorado - I followed a couple of friends, Cayla Stone and Madison Olver, also a student of Cayla's, into Day 1 of the Extreme Mustang Makeover today and was amazed at how gentle many of these mustangs are. They have been in training 100 days or less and can do things seasoned show horses would think twice about, especially the part about loading into a strange trailer surrounded by strange humans. All of the exhibitors who work so hard to help save these wild horses deserve applause. Thousands of dollars in prize money is at stake and the mustangs not kept by their foster humans will be auctioned at the end of the event.
There are also non-competing mustangs and burros available for adoption in pens outside the arena, priced at $125 each. The Extreme Mustang Makeover concludes tomorrow, May 30, starting at 10 a.m. at The Ranch and is part of the Rock'n Western Rendezvous. Tickets start at $15 for adults, $10 for children (2 - 12). Calypso, standing at about 13.2 hands, boards at our place and has already debuted in eventing at the Spring Gulch Equestrian Area. She loves to jump. Samba, about the size of a hackney pony, would make a beautiful children's eventer.