I am so excited to announce the newest sponsor of the Nevada Discovery Ride -- Gentle Control Hackamore! You may have noticed Sage wearing this unique hackamore in just about every photograph from the first Nevada Discovery Ride and since. I have been riding Sage exclusively in this headstall for 3+ years and thousands of trail miles, and you bet we're gonna use it on our next long ride. The whole point of the Nevada Discovery Ride project is to show how trainable and reliable mustangs can be as riding horses, and to that end I have tried to use the most minimal aides when riding or training Sage. That's why I ride exclusively in a Gentle Control Hackamore - I love how truly gentle it is. There's nothing in his mouth and there's no constant pressure. This hackamore encourages soft hands and fingertip reins. It also allows for neck reining, suppleness, and collection, without painful pressure points or leverage. We're honored to have this Ogden, Utah-based company as a sponsor of the Nevada Discovery Ride and we highly encourage you to check try out their hackamore on your own horse.

This week I was lucky enough to see a special screening of the new documentary Unbranded! 

3,000 miles, 16 wild horses, 5 states, and 4 men. The journey of a lifetime riding from Mexico to Canada through the deepest backcountry in the American West to see our remaining open spaces and prove the worth of 50,000 wild horses and burros currently in holding pens.   

The film is incredibly well produced - with stunning videography and an emotional storyline. I found it particularly moving, especially given my own long riding adventures and wild horse adoption efforts. I feel like these gents from Texas are kindred spirits! I highly recommend you keep and eye out for this film and plan to see it when it is made available to the public. You can learn more about their project here: http://unbrandedthefilm.com/ and watch the trailer below.

Howdy everybody! It's not even technically summer yet, but it is hot, hot, hot here in Reno. The drought has made it really dry out there, which means the wildfire risk is already pretty high and the water levels are pretty low. For Sage and I that means we'll be heading up into the mountains as much as possible this summer. This week my friend Carol and I enjoyed a nice ride just outside the Mt. Rose Wilderness area. Even just a little elevation made the high temps much more bearable and made for some great views of the city below. We also got to practice some bridge crossings and chatted with some nice hikers and cyclists on the trail too. I met one nice hiker couple who recently moved to Nevada and was shocked to hear that Sage was a mustang! They were quite impressed with him!

In Discovery Ride news, planning continues for next year's ride. As always, I'm playing with gear, trying out some new things to see if they can stand up to the rigors of a long ride. We learned on the last ride that most things just aren't made with enough quality to handle constant use on the trail! I am also working on securing a few new sponsors and promoting the ride in general. I think things are coming together nicely and I think we will have some announcements to share pretty soon :)

In wild horse news, I am so excited to find out that the Bureau of Land Management just started another prison adoption program! As you know, Sage came from the prison program in Carson City. It is just the best program out there for wild horse adoption and one that I wish could replicated at every prison. The new program is in Elk Grove, California through the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center and the first batch of gentled horses will be up for adoption at the upcoming Napa Mustang Days in Napa, California. They will also be premiering the highly anticipated Unbranded documentary during the expo, so if you are in the region you won't want to miss it! Finally, if you are in the Reno area next month you should plan to check out the first-ever Nevada Mustang Fine Art Show - a three-day art exhibit featuring amazing wild horse art, with proceeds benefiting the Wynema Ranch Wild Horse Sanctuary.