Hello Everyone!

Hey,


I'm Diane Ward a mustang enthusiast. I'm writing this blog on behalf of the Mustang Heritage Foundation's youth representative program where I'll be talking about my experiences with mustangs, and as a representative.


I competed last year, 2009, in the Extreme Mustang Makeover yearling edition with Allegro, my palomino mustang. We won and it was a fantastic experience, unlike anything I've done with horses. The extreme mustang makeover is a competition through the Mustang Heritage Foundation to promote the mustangs, and it IS extreme. You get your wild mustang through a random drawing and train the horses for competition for a 100 days (depending on which competition you're doing). Let me stress that theses horses really are wild, with no real human handling prior to the competition. Even though the rules differ from the adult categories to the youth, the point is to demonstrate how trainable and versatile the breed is. With the yearlings we competed in a in-hand course which combined showmanship with every day things your horse would be required to do if it were adopted out (trailor-loading, catching your horses in a roundpen after releasing it, picking up its feet, etc..) and then a 3 minute freestyle for the 10 finalists.


Here's a link to the Extreme mustang makeover official site:


http://http//www.extrememustangmakeover.com/index.php

I thought I'd post some pictures of myself and Allegro too:


Allergro as yearling in TN last year:

My freestyle with Allegro:

Pedestal work with me standing on Allegro:

I realize the stands seem vacant... -_-

But wait there's more...




If anyone's interested in seeing me perform with Allegro and the in-hand part of the competition, here are the links to the youtube videos:

The Freestyle Final:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfRLIvI8kUk

The In-Hand Competition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ggbG_dcdik

My Performance at the Dixie National Freestyle Reining Competition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOiUoRSJ_cQ