Sponsorship by Purina

Three Mustangs competing in the Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Extreme Mustang Makeover have been chosen to take part in the Purina Mustang Challenge to show how the proper nutrition in Purina feeds can transform a horse in three months. Two of them are Cohn Livingston and my sister Rachel.

They'll be be given free feed up till the competition in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Extreme Mustang Makeover on October 21-23 at the Tennessee Miller Coliseum on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.

"Purina has a long history of providing superior nutrition to equine athletes," said Patti Colbert, Mustang Heritage Foundation's executive director. "Many of America's Mustangs are removed from the wild each year due to lack of food and water sources so their body conditions sometimes reflect this. We appreciate Purina sponsoring this challenge to show how proper nutrition can improve the health and well-being of Mustangs."



About Land O'Lakes Purina Feed LLCLand O'Lakes Purina Feed LLC (www.landolakesinc.com) is a national organization serving producers and their families through 4,700 local cooperatives and independent dealerships throughout the United States. The company, in combination with its wholly owned subsidiary Purina Mills, LLC, is North America's leading feed company, providing producers, cooperatives and dealers with an extensive line of animal feed, ingredients and services designed www.horse.purinamills.com/ . For more information on Purina horse feeds, log on to www.horse.purinamills.com or www.purinadifference.com.



Here's where I got some of the info for this post if you want to go and read the full article by Jennifer K. Hancock:

http://cs.thehorse.com/blogs/press-release/archive/2011/08/10/mustangs-begin-competition-on-purina-feed-plan.aspx

Big Mak wins at 4-H

Here's the link to the BLM's facebook page where they posted Rachel's picture with Big Mak: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=255692147779292&set=a.143505385664636.28074.125639020784606&type=1&theater

"Rachel and her adopted mustang, Docs Big Mak recently won the Grand Champion in Halter for grade geldings at the Mississippi State 4-H Championship show. Rachel and Big Mac were up against some great competition, but Big Mac walked out with the BLUE!"


Here are some pictures!

Charity Horse Show Performance

The Ward sister trio of the DLFS Extreme Team preformed at the Walking Horse Charity Horse Show. This was an awesome opportunity because all money raised goes to Blair E. Batson Children's hospital for sick children and cancer patients. DLFS (http://dlfsms.com/Home_Page.html) provided horses for three nights for the show to grant wishes of cancer children who wanted to ride a horse in the show. The show was on April 1, 2011 at 7pm at the Equine Center.

Jasmine

Rachel has decided to name her yearling Jasmine. Jasmine is a filly from Wyoming and was born in the wild (as opposed to being in a facility). Here are some pictures of Jasmine and Rachel during their first week together.

First touch. :)

 

Mustang Pickup

It's time again for the Extreme Mustange Makeover (http://www.extrememustangmakeover.com/emmtennessee.php)! We picked up the mustangs yesterday, but I'm only just now getting around to writing about it. It always seems the first day has enough stuff happening to supply at least several posts, so I'll continue with this later.

Pictures from the pickup at Piney Woods:

My sister, Christine, petting one of the yearlings. Looks like they're friendly again this year!

Loading the mustangs in the trailers is done by running them into a small chute where they can be safely haltered and then running them into the trailer.

Rachel Ward's and Big Mac's videos from Fortworth Mustang Magic

More on Mustang Magic!

Here's a video of some of the highlights from the Mustang magic! I'll have the full video of their routines posted later!

Some pictures of Rachel:

She's standing on the horse here.

The competitors

‎2011 Mustang Magic results:

1) Teryn Muench & Macerick; 2) Miranda Holaday-Lyon & Tensil's Last Nic; 3) Jerry Jones & Short Stack; 4) Bill Lopez & RDH Cowboy's Dream; 5) Logan Leach & Eastwood; 6) J-Dub Weisiger & Funky Gold Medina; 7) Chase Dodd & Peyton Manning; 8) Joe Misner & Latigo; 9) Marc Chancy & Flirty; 10) Ma...rk Lyon and Pepto's Night Out. Congratulations to all of the Mustang Magic trainers!

Rachel and Marc Chancy

Mustang Magic

Pictures from Friday night's mustang Magic Competition:

Rachel and Big Mac practicing before the show. Big Mac has definitely progressed since the yearling challenge !

During the routine.

Personally I love the hair.

Some pictures of one of the adult competitors, J Dubb and his horse Funky Gold Medina

Fort Worth Stock Show Welcomes Mustang Magic - Lucky 13 Mustangs to be trained for January competition


The world-renowned Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo will open its arenas to one of the most unconventional competitions in its more than 113-year history as it welcomes Mustang Magic January 23 and 24.

Mustang Magic, developed from the highly successful Extreme Mustang Makeover competitions, will debut at the Stock Show and feature 13 trainers from across the country that have already shown their mettle as mustang trainers. The trainers are as unique as the horses they are training with stories ranging from an Arizona beauty queen to a former inmate who changed his life in the course of training mustangs.

Produced by the Mustang Heritage Foundation (MHF) in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Mustang Magic will feature Chase Dodd of Soddy Daisy, Tenn., Jonathan "J-Dub" Weisiger of Fort Worth, Cindy Branham of Auburn, Kan., Bill Lopez of Norman, Okla., Weldon Hawley of Vernon, Tex., Suzanne Myers, PhD, of Port Matilda, Penn., Wylene Wilson of Queen Creek, Ariz., Dave Schaffner of Lampasas, Tex., Roeliff Annon, La Villita, NM, Ken Schwab of Hutto, Tex., Joe Misner of Johnson Valley, Calif., Chad Kelley of Monett, MO., and Lonnie Aragon, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Trainers drew for their horses during the 2008 Extreme Mustang Makeover September 19 when the wild horse band was released during the Mission 007: Yearling Edition evening finals. Trainers will train the mustangs until the competition January 23.

"It was incredible to see these horses enter the arena and see how great they looked.," said MHF Executive Director Patti Colbert, "There was such a great variety of color, but otherwise, they were pretty uniform in size and type. The trainers were really looking at the way the animal noticed its surroundings, how it responded to the crowd and how it moved."

Mustangs will be judged on body conditioning and handling, with trainers executing a freestyle routine, oftentimes including shooting, roping, jumping and other feats.

All horses in Mustang Magic competition will be available for adoption January 24.


About the Mustang Heritage Foundation

The mission of the Mustang Heritage Foundation and the goal of the Extreme Mustang Makeover are to increase the adoption of mustangs across the country. The Mustang Heritage Foundation created the Extreme Mustang Makeover event to showcase the recognized value of mustangs through a national training competition. For more information go to mustangheritagefoundation.org.


About the Fort Worth Stock Show

From a one-day affair with a few head of cattle tethered under ice-laden shade trees, the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show has grown into a three-week extravaganza with international appeal for exhibitors and visitors alike. More than 899,000 visitors packed into the Will Rogers Complex in 2008 for the 112th Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show. The legendary 24-day event will return in 2009 running from January 16 through February 8. For more information go to fwssr.com.



About the Bureau of Land Management

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for managing 258 million acres of public lands, located mostly in the West. Wild horses and burros roaming public rangelands are managed in a manner consistent with BLM's overall multiple-use mission, as set forth in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. For more information, visit wildhorseandburro.blm.gov or call 866-4MUSTANGS.

30 days

This competition is about 100 days long and we're at (roughly) day 30.

Rachel has been trying to make the best of time so far, which requires a lot of work and dedication on her part. She's doing a fine job. And it's really neat for me to see her use what she's learned in the past on this horse and to see her growth as a trainer and horseman. I'm certain she will learn a lot from this too. The intensity that she puts into is such that she wants to spend hours working her horse everyday. Teaching a horse from the ground up when it has no knowledge of what we consider training is a great process, and different than working with a domestic horse. With that kind of focus on your skills it's really difficult not to learn something.

Although we have noticed some problems that will need to be fixed most of it is coming smoothly. Rachel is really enjoying the experience but it definitely is challenging, and at some times very stressful.

Rachel and Big Mak explore the possibilities of a feed trough.