I love doing new things, especially when they involve interacting with people! Recently we had the opportunity to do both when Next Level HorsemanshipTM was invited by Centre County Reads, Schlow Centre Region Library, to showcase our mustangs at two events they were hosting. They were reading the book Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls which has material about mustangs in the content. Pat Griffith of Schlow invited NLHTM to give a talk to the reading group at the library to discuss the history and heritage of the mustangs as well as how NLHTM became involved with mustangs in the NLHTM Training Program. So, on January 23 the NLHTM team presented a slide show on the mustangs at the library and met an enthusiastic audience there who were very interested in this wonderful breed of horse. Then on January 29th we brought our awesome mustang partners to the Pennsylvania State University’s Ag Arena to showcase their talents with a freestyle performance and trick training demonstration. What FUN it was!
On that very wintry day, the NLHTM was met by over 400 WONDERFUL spectators who braved the snow and ice just to get a glimpse of this magnificent breed! Wow – we were SO happy to be there for them to give so many people the opportunity see our guys perform and to touch and interact with them at the ‘meet and treat’! It was great to see so many people in support of this event and I would like to personally thank all who attended. It was especially nice for me to see all the children in attendance – I loved seeing the look in their eyes when they got a chance to feed the mustangs treats and see their storybook fantasies of wild horses come to life!
One of the best things we do at Next Level Horsemanship TM is teach – we teach/train horses in our NLHTM Training Program and we teach people too, through our NLHTM Clinic and Expo series, and the Leasing program. Now, we were given the opportunity to teach our local community about the mustangs and their heritage, versatility and train-ability through this demonstration.
So many people were interested and surprised to find out how many mustangs there are in the wild and that so many are awaiting adoption because of the need to control their population. At NLHTM we have 6 mustangs that we gentled and trained to be loving partners.
They are ALL spoiled rotten, but well behaved, and enjoy their new life with the rest of our domestic horses. Some of them are available for you to learn from and enjoy through the NLHTM Leasing program. This program allows you to ‘Ride it Like You Own It’ -a chance to learn and experience horsemanship without all of the financial commitment (see our link under the Horses tab for details).
Next Level HorsemanshipTM continues to remain involved in promoting the mustangs through interactions with the Mustang Heritage Foundation, where we gentle mustangs for people interested in adopting them, and with the Bureau of Land Management. For more information on our mustangs specifically, visit the ‘For the Love of Jazz, Durango, and Jacuzzi” links on the home page. For information on how you can adopt a mustang, contact us or visit the BLM’s website at www.blm.gov.
We’re looking forward to our next event – which happens to be really soon. Our first NLHTM Clinic is this month, February 19-20. If you missed our demonstrations at the Ag Arena and would like to see the mustangs – come audit this clinic and you can visit them then. If you’d like to register for the clinic as a participant, contact us soon!! See you next time ~Suzanne