Important Announcements

Important Update:
Aside from Twist's YouTube Channel where you can see all of the videos from day one to now, he now has a Facebook page where our regular updates will be posted. This will make it easier for me to keep current updates and pictures posted... so check out 'Twist TheMustang' next time you're on Facebook!

To my Sponsors:

Thank you so much for your time and support through Twist's first three months out of the wild and as I continue his training. I hope that I have been able to make it worth your involvement, and I would like to give one last THANK YOU to everyone!
I am always more than willing to answer any questions about Twist, and would love to do what I can to share about some of Oregon's mustang programs. If you have any questions about either, please email me anytime, and I will be sure to respond as soon as I can! There are so many great things to share with a mustang-- even if you can't bring one home for yourself, there are many ways to get involved!

Introduction

    My name is Kelsey Ford. I am now a senior in high school from McMinnville, Oregon and have grown up loving animals and the open spaces outside; hunting, camping, and anything that gets me out into the fresh air or around dogs and horses is what I love to do.
    I am one of 35 local trainers to have participated in the 2012 Teens and Oregon Mustangs program, a nonprofit organization dedicated to homing numbers of Oregon's wild horses and giving youth trainers the foundations they need for a future with these remarkable animals. This has been my first involvement not only with the program, but with horses altogether; I had only a few months to gain experience around horses before I jumped into training a mustang.
    The first couple of weeks working with my yearling were definitely a huge transitioning period for me, and some days I came home wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into. The road with my mustang Twist hasn't been easy, but I wouldn't give it up for anything-- and I can't imagine ever stopping. Twist will be the first of many mustangs that I hope to train, and he has probably trained me just as much as I have him.

"Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride,

Friendship without envy,

Or beauty without vanity?

Here, where grace is served with muscle

And strength by gentleness confined

He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity.

There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent.

There is nothing so quick, nothing more patient."

~Ronald Duncan, "The Horse"

Meet Twist

Name: Twist
Born: 2011
Gender: Gelding
Herd: Murderer's Creek (Grant Co., OR)
BLM Necktag: 1911

Twist is a black yearling mustang from the Murderer's Creek unit of Eastern Oregon. He was one of the smallest yearlings brought in, and will likely not ever get very big, but he will make sure he does not come out on the losing end for it! Twist is stubborn, determined, and argumentative if ever a horse was.
I quickly grew to love Twist's ornery sense of humor, and there is never a day that he can't make me smile. He may not want anybody to think he needs friends, but at the end of the day he is looking forward to seeing you again and learning something new.

A Part of Something Bigger

The Wild Horses of Oregon
Since its establishment in 2009, Teens and Oregon Mustangs (teensandoregonmustangs.org) has been responsible for the successful adoption of over 100 wild horses coming from Oregon holding facilities. This is an impressive number, to be sure, but is still only a small dent in the overall picture.
There are over two thousand  branded mustangs roaming Oregon's public lands today. With so many horses relying on  BLM (Bureau of Land Management) resources, many face an uncertain future in the wild as the threat of overpopulation and increasingly crowded conditions in government holding facilities leave few options for their continuing sustenance. Many people do not realize that there are so many wild horses in Oregon; some don't even know that there are still wild horses at all. Until I got Twist, I really didn't even know that wild horses still existed, at least not in Oregon, and I think that if more people outside the horse world knew about them, we would have less of a problem supporting the wild horses that still roam the great American West.

Oregon's wild horses need homes, and bringing a mustang into the family is not something that most people would consider. The mustang has a reputation for being dangerous, full of fire, unpredictable, and downright crazy... but there are no words to describe just how far this is from the truth. Wild horses are different from the typical domestic horse, indeed, but they are far from less than. Mustangs are known by those that have been around them for their ability to adapt, their willingness to learn, and their capacity to love: you do not win just a piece of a mustang's heart, but all of it. I am learning this with Twist, and would love to be able to use my amazing experiences with him to win over more supporters for the mustang cause.

For more information on America's wild mustangs, visit these sites:
U.S. BLM- http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram.html
Teens and Oregon Mustangs- teensandoregonmustangs.org
Extreme Mustang Makeover- extrememustangmakeover.com

Thank You... 
I would like to say THANK YOU to all of my local sponsors for the help that you have given me! Had I not received the help that I had, this would have been a very big cost to me, and I am extremely grateful for the generosity of:

Mr. Brian Doty

Mr. and Mrs. Charles and Judy Ford

Mr. and Mrs. Douglas and Brenda Stuivenga

Mr. and Mrs. Jeff and Lori Carroll
Wright Cellars (Carlton)
Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Reed

Mr. and Mrs. John and Vivienne Rich

Mr. Smith and Ms. Wolfe
Ms. Jincy Farley

Buchanan Cellars (McMinnville)

Dr. Kenneth Schmidt

Ms. Dianna Godbey

Ms. Kathy Hight

I cannot thank you all enough for your help! Paying for the three and a half months of care for Twist would have been a huge challenge without my sponsors, and I am so grateful to have been able to have this opportunity.
I hope that I am able to make all of your time and contributions worthwhile!

Once again, thank you!