Extreme Mustangs, Extreme Cowgirls....

A good friend of mine is off and running. Okay, not running- she's driving. Juliane is headed to Sacramento, CA to compete with her assigned mustang mare, Sangria. With her is Jenny, who is training mustang MissFire. What an adventure!

The Extreme Mustang Makeover allows trainers of all levels to take in a wild mustang off the range and compete in a variety of classes designed to test the skills, trust and training of these mustangs. All Mustangs competing in the Extreme Mustang Makeover events will be available for adoption through competitive bidding at the end. (Buyers must complete a Bureau of Land Management adoption application and be approved before bidding, to ensure good homes). It's a pretty amazing concept and there are some amazing and brave trainers out there.

In April, Juliane had a serious accident while riding Sangria and suffered injuries bad enough to land her at Harborview (our local high risk trauma medical center). Eye orbitals and facial bones fractured, her lip and mouth split open to her nose, more than 10 teeth broken off or cracked beyond repair, along with a broken nose and septum - this was a sore cowgirl. We were all worried about her and watched as she recovered and healed, never once blaming her mustang but looking inward to ask herself how she could have better managed the accident. (She writes about her accident here).

Thanks to friends, family members and loads of donors we were able to raise funds to cover her dental costs and most medical expenses. My dentist, Dr. Ron Sherman (superdentist- love him!) matched donations to help Juliane get all the veneers and crowns required to fix her teeth. He said he had never in 21 years of dentistry seen so much support for a person injured.

Dr. Sherman deserves a huge thank you for his generosity but even more so for his amazing cosmetic work- he is one dentist who uses state of the art dentistry for the health of the tooth combined with unparalleled cosmetic technique for natural looking beautiful work. His site is here: Dr. Ron Sherman, First Impressions Dental Care. You can tell him Cowgirly sent ya!

Back to Juliane, with two black eyes and a face covered in bruises, swelling and stitches she went back to work. She returned to groundwork with Sangria and once cleared by the doctors returned to the saddle. Sangria and she both benefited, and the results are obvious- there is a bond and trust between horse and rider.

She has not had as much time to blog as she wanted, but her entries are introspective and interesting as she teaches Sangria and shares what she's learned about mustangs and training in general- her blog is here: Juliane and her's a link to trainer Jenny. Here they are competing in a drill event last month on their mustangs.






When not making over mustangs, both train rescue horses for the unique Cowgirl Spirit Rescue Drill Team (who will be featured on King 5 Evening Magazine this Friday at 7 pst with a new interview with Juliane about her experience). Cowgirl Spirit is preparing for a big drill competition, so both trainers return sans mustangs but with many rescues and a team ready to compete all summer.


Well, I just had to share this story, it's been amazing to watch my friend learn and grow alongside her mustang companion and I wish her all the luck in the world. Her fantabulous boyfriend JC is flying down to support her, and all of us back here in Washington know that she and Sangria have had an experience that changed both of their loves.

Ride on, Cowgirls, Ride on!