Wendy:I am very proud of Murphy. The change in him is extreme. It is almost like I have a different horse in some aspects.
In the past 10 days, we have made a break through, finally!!!!! I can see that he has so much more confidence in me. He looks to me when he is a little unsure of things and when I ask him to try, he gives me his heart. That is the coolest thing.
I have to be honest, I wasn’t necessarily impressed or not impressed with Mustangs before. I’ve worked with them before and it was just another horse, but this guy is winning my heart. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not perfect, but it is amazing that even with all the days he’s had no work at all (due to the rain) he has made such a big change.
When I thought about signing on with the Extreme Mustang Makeover challenge, my first reaction was, it sure would be nice to win some extra cash and get some exposure. But I guess where I’m at in my life, I decided not to focus so much on that and to try to focus on how I could grow and improve myself. I wanted to get something else out of it, win or lose.
This far into it, I’ve learned a lot about myself. It’s made me remember how much I love horses, how much I love to teach them and take my time with them, to build their confidence slowly and progressively.When you do this for a living, there is always the clock breathing down your neck. The customer wonders why you aren’t riding their horse yet, and why they aren’t neck reining yet, and why the horse isn’t absolutely perfect after 60 days of training. Then you remember why you got into training horses in the first place: because you love horses. It’s easy to forget that. I will be forever grateful to Murphy and God for reminding me of that.
