Heelers & Hoofprints Ranch

19/04/2024

Anyone want to help name her? Throw a name in the comments and one of you will name this pretty girl!

14.3 hand Appaloosa mare #6510
Twin Peaks CA HMA
4 years old

18/04/2024

We got a rooster, meet Peanut!!!!! he is going to make absolutely beautiful chicks with my hens!!!! as soon as I move, I am ordering Easter egg chicks too 😍

Going to get a pig pen ready too to have a few pigs as well in July/August! Aiming for the beginning of 2025 to have my first cows!

18/04/2024

And now, it’s official 🥳

17/04/2024

All I’m saying is that if you speed past my horse and I at 45+ miles an hour… I now carry a slingshot with marbles 🙃

16/04/2024

I’m glad it’s not just me, Mugsy is struggling with parenthood too 😂

16/04/2024

I love riding and listening to some Zach Bryan. Shadowfax and I are working on building up some muscle so we’re going longer and longer trail rides with long trotting being the primary goal! And of course…some loping for me 🤷🏻‍♀️😉
Mustang Megan

13/04/2024

So I won my first IA horse last year, but then was convinced by a “friend” who turned out to be a snake in the grass, to let her go. And then she yanked me along, saying the horse was still mine, and I could have her at any time. Kept trying to pay her, supply feed, anything, and she wouldn’t let me. Turns out She went behind my back and gave my horse to her trainer 🙃

It has upset me for the better part of a year, and now I finally get another big, beautiful bay mare that is MINE and STAYING MINE!!!!! So I’m excited for her to come home and meet her, can’t wait to see who she is 😍

She will be available in a year after she is titled, sold foundation, and well under saddle!

6 year old Bay mare #8053
15 hands
coyote lake (Oregon) HMA

12/04/2024

I’m going to post these lovely ladies one by one that are coming home with me from the IA. I am super excited about this mare, she checks all the boxes for me! Thick, tall, flashy, well minded! it’s also why I went for 4 mares, I knew that one of them is guaranteed to be shadowfax herd mate, and my personal mare!

Here’s to hoping we click! If not, she’ll be available in a year as a titled and well broke mare 😍

Palomino mare #7534
15.3 hand
Sheepshead-Heath Creek (Oregon) HMA
Captured 9/21/2021
Mustang Megan

09/04/2024

IA wins that will be staying until they are titled, solid foundations, and well broke. Two of these horses will be staying forever though 😍

Bay mare #8053 15 hand, coyote lake OR
Palomino mare #7534 15.3 hand, sheepshead
Appaloosa mare #6510 14.3 hand, twin peaks
Bay filly #8769 13 hand, calico mountains, born in holding Fallon

08/04/2024

What a win!! Small victories win the war

In a rare legal victory for wild horse advocates, a judge has ruled U.S. land managers failed to adopt a legal herd management plan or conduct the necessary environmental review before 31 mustangs died during the roundup of more than 2,000 horses in Nevada last summer

06/04/2024

Heading out for a nice sunny ride!

04/04/2024

Absolutely this!

HOW TO TELL IF A TRAINER IS TOXIC

Positive trainers DON’T:

❌ Put down trainers who don’t train exactly the same way they do.

❌ Gatekeep methods or traditions.

❌ Put moral judgements on differences in training approaches.

❌ Shame professional trainers for ‘doing it for the money.’

❌ Use shame or fear to motivate others.

Positive trainers DO:

✅ Support other trainers who are committed to continually evolving their horsemanship.

✅ Acknowledge that different horses and scenarios require out of the box thinking.

✅ Acknowledge that making a living as a trainer is a business, and it’s OK to approach it as such.

✅ Use positive reinforcement to motivate and inspire others.

03/04/2024

Have you ever just come to the abrupt realization that you don't see anything the same anymore?

The two year old that you once would have approved of starting under saddle now looks like an incredibly immature baby that you can't imagine asking to carry a load.

Physical issues that lead to training and performance issues you no longer view as the problem but perhaps the solution to the actual problem.

All of the things you would have considered behavioral issues you can now see as the balance issues that they are. You no longer want to address the behavior but instead the reason for the behavior.

You are no longer fooled by words. Anyone can say anything about their training and approach...but the horse will tell you a lot about whether the words match the action, if you're educated enough to see it. Some things are debatable...other things definitely aren't.

You now recognize that you are a nervous system and your horse is a nervous system...and that the priority is to keep you upright and alive. That matters, A LOT.

You recognize that developing a horse is an endeavor that takes years. YEARS. Years of a lot of time and a lot of commitment. There's truly no substitute.

You also realize that getting here has meant admitting that there were times when you were wrong. That there were times when you did harm with the best of your intentions. That you had to walk away from circles of people whose beliefs and approach no longer lined up with what you now know...or maybe they walked away from you? Either way, it's hard to stand alone sometimes.

You realize you've had to become a beginner a thousand times over...and you'll continue to find yourself in that spot a thousand more times in the future, plus some. Maybe even at some point today.

You realize that even when it feels like you haven't grown at all...you actually have. That growth is something to be proud of, no matter where you're at on your journey.

- Terra

02/04/2024

Shadowfax and Karma had some visitors yesterday! He got groomed and walked around and given lots of hugs and cuddles. Karma did surprisingly well too, I swear she is meant to be a kids horse ironically enough.

Today of course it’s raining again, just as it was starting to finally dry out again. So the horses are just watching the rain fall from inside their shelters

29/03/2024

🩵Life Lessons of a Horse Person:

1. People who don't take care of their own horses will be the first ones to tell you how to care for yours.

2. You should never buy a cheap girth!

3. A handsome horse who's badly behaved will become a lot less attractive in about 15 min.

4. People who think they have nothing more to learn about riding, hit the ground the hardest.

5. Children and ponies are natural allies and often have identical dispositions.

6. The richest horse people often look the poorest.

7. The closeness of a horse is one of the sweetest smells in the world.

8. A solitary ride through the bush is more beneficial than six months with the best psychiatrist.

9. The worse a person rides, the more likely they are going to blame it on the horse. !!

10. The best thing about going to the barn first thing in the morning is that horses don't care how you look.

11. If a dealer insists a horse is worth twice what he's asking, he's usually worth half that much.

12. The best way to appreciate how another person rides is to get on
their horse.

13. I can recognize another horse person no matter what town, city, state, county or country I visit.

14. You can never have too many hoof picks.

15. It is not wise to argue with something that outweighs you buy 1,000 pounds

16. I'd rather have a horse with a perfect mind than a perfect head.

17. Eight hours is too long to be in the saddle!

18. If you think you have left the water on in the barn - you have, if
you think you have closed the pasture gate - you haven't.

19. When someone asks you if you like their horse, always say yes

20. The happiest people I know own horses, dogs, cats and at least one
deranged goat or donkey.

21. If you're looking for the perfect horse you will never own one.

22. Owning a horse can either make a marriage or break it.

23. I can't stand to have an empty stable.

24. You shouldn't talk about your first place ribbon to someone that
came in second.

25. If someone says that a horse has a little buck, it has a BIG buck.

26. If we need rain, schedule a show, if you want it to quit raining
put down fertilizer or grass seed.

27. I've never warmed up to someone that didn't want to walk down to
the stables.

28. A clean stable and a sparkling horse are among life's great pleasures.

29. Even giving away horses can be too expensive, and free horses are never truly free.

30. No matter how badly behaved you are, your horse always gives you a
second chance.

31. A more expensive horse doesn't make a better one.

32. Losing a horse can break your heart, but it will have been worth it.

Author unknown
❤️

27/03/2024

Well safe to say the ranch name is in full effect!

Lady- red heeler 3.5 years old
Mugsy- blue heeler 1 year old

And the new girl…Sassy 7 weeks old! As far as dogs, go, you have now met the three mascots of the ranch! I am hoping within the next three years that my ranch name is what comes up when someone finds a heeler in a shelter.

I plan on dedicating 2-4 acres on the new property SOLEY for rehabbing, teaching, and adopting heelers to their right homes. Not these three, but any others that are brought to me.

25/03/2024

I’ve literally never been away from Shadowfax since I got him in June of 2022. It has been a weird feeling not seeing him every day.

Not hearing his cute nicker as I open the door to bring breakfast.

Not going outside to give him big butt scratches and tell him about my day.

Bringing out random snacks just cause he’s a good boy and will follow me around to do our silly tricks I’ve taught him.

I love this horse more than I could ever explain. I am so excited to give him a hug and smell that glorious smell that is his scent. I think he’s going to love living down south and I’m very excited for us to finally plant roots and make our own ranch together!

See you tomorrow Shadowfax ❤️

24/03/2024

We’ve all got that 1 horse 😂

23/03/2024

Can anyone answer me the question of why people build such beautiful, ritzy, high end barns yet still only do a 12 x 12 stall?

Why did that become the standard?

As someone who has slept in a 12X12 quite a few times, it’s not very much room, and that’s coming from a feeble two legged 😂. Especially thinking of the size with an 800-1500lb horse.

23/03/2024

My favorite thing to teach horses is how to believe in themselves. That they have nothing to fear and everything to believe in

FB & Hoofprints Ranch

22/03/2024

So last year when I finally met ml.mustangs in person I brought my mustang Shadowfax and my two heelers Lady and Mugsy.

Mugsy was only 8 weeks old and of course we had to introduce him to horseback riding cause it’s not just us humans who ride!

I love to teach my dogs to ride horseback. You never know if there’s an emergency where I will need one of them to hop up in the saddle. Sometimes it’s getting away from a mountain lion, rattlesnake, bear, or seeing someone with an uncontrollable dog, running up to us while we’re out on the trail.

Lady is nimble enough she can jump up by herself if asked! Mugsy however, he’s a THICK boy now and mama definitely has to lift him up 😂

How are your dogs with horses?

20/03/2024

It’s taken me 6 months of thinking EVERYDAY but I finally found the name I want to name my ranch…

Heelers & Hoofprints Ranch

This will be what is LLC’d, put on the front gate entry, freezebrand design, and merchandise that will go to helping fund and adopt out mustangs! It fits what I love and I haven’t found another place called it so I’m very happy!

Lots of big announcements coming, including me planting roots somewhere FINALLY so I can open up my own boarding and training stable again!

Haven’t had that since 2011-2016! The biggest thing about my new facility…it’s going to be mainly for mustang gentling, not only by myself but open to boarders as well.

Mustang tough pens/stalls built for mustangs and their trainers in mine. Can’t wait to get it rolling and start bringing in training mustangs not only for myself but for everyone!

Thank you for following along 🤩

14/03/2024

Shadowfax, 2018 Snowstorm HMA gelding getting ready for a day of pushing and roping cows.

28/02/2024

There is something really fulfilling about making home made bread and butter, and collecting eggs from the chicken coop.

No hormones
No antibiotics
No additives

Just healthy free-range naturally fed chickens that really enjoy their life! Very excited to get a milking cow but buying raw milk from neighbors will do for now!

I much prefer having my personal page Mustang Megan to be my horse training page. I’m going to revamp this page into a homestead/diy project/page of all the random things I do. Including horses but that mostly will be on the other page.

Especially with the facility/homestead I’m creating, it makes more sense for what’s to come for not only this year but 2025/2026! I’ll still be training horses, but it’ll only be a fraction of everything that’s going on!

25/02/2024

UPDATE: NVM Jenna Nelson is trying to get him back so if you can help her help!!! She owns Heart Horsemanship at Southington Mustang Academy

Ok my PayPal is [email protected] and this mustangs bail is $750. Anyone that would like to help see if we can’t get him out, I can take him on instead of a client training spot. He seems to need it more

I HAVE A HOME!! THANK YOU JENNA🧡

LOCATED IN CANFIELD OHIO
6 year old Mustang gelding, 14/14.2 hands. Good clean legs, feet need done. Appears to have been caught as a 2 year old, have some paperwork that came with him. Has had a saddle on him. Needs a steady , calm hand.