Mustang Love Rescue Horses Wilsonville OR

WILSONVILLE, Ore. - July 8, 2020 - PRLog -- Trish Waters, a Wilsonville business owner of Flawless Aesthetics, found a late in life love and passion for horses once she moved to Waters Ranch.  It is no surprise that in 2018 when she learned of the plight of the wild mustang population, she immediately had to become involved to do her part to help and began training with two local Mustang trainers.

It was through this relationship that inspired Waters to become a "Champion" for Teens and Oregon Mustangs, a nonprofit program founded in 2009 to allow all horse lovers, young and old, to be involved with transforming wild horses into gentle, adoptable companions.

Each year the Teens and Oregon Mustangs program in cooperation with The Bureau of Land Management pairs wild mustangs with trainers of all ages through their annual Mustang Challenge.  The program helps to tackle the serious problem of the wild horse overpopulation as well as provide positively life-changing experiences for trainers of all ages through the development of leadership, horsemanship, and teamwork while educating the public about training and adoption of Oregon's wild Mustangs.

Waters, an owner of two mustang horses herself, invited the two trainers and their mustangs to train for the 2020 Mustang Challenge on her local ranch  — Mustang Greta (https://www.facebook.com/Mustang-Greta-and-Heather-Longsh...), trained by Heather Longshore and  Mustang Zena (https://www.facebook.com/Mustang-Zena-and-Peter-Halay-202...), trained by Peter Halay.

Peter and Heather spend about 100 days gentling and training these untouched wild horses. At the end of the 100 days, they will present their mustangs at the Yamhill County Fairgrounds in McMinnville OR. on September 25^th & 26^th, where they'll show their horses' new skills and compete against the other trainers. At the end of the competition, the horses will be auctioned off to approved adopters.

For Halay, Longshore, and Waters, training horses is about more than winning competitions. "For us, it's about spreading awareness about what Mustangs can do and giving a horse a loving home," Waters said.

"Unfortunately, Mustangs can get a bad name, but they are much more than the eye can see.  They can quickly become very willing and trustworthy partners.  'Greta the Great' has been very bold and confident from day one.  It's been fun using her confidence to introduce her to new things. This is very uncommon in wild mustangs," explains Longshore.

As a first-time competitor, Halay has enjoyed developing his relationship with 'Amazing Zena.'  "My favorite part of this training experience is working with an untouched horse and discovering how willing and trusting they are," said Halay.