Bringing home a Mustang is the moment most people prepare for. What happens afterward is where the real learning begins.

Adopting my first Mustang became one of the best decisions of my life, but I began with assumptions and expectations that made parts of the journey harder than they needed to be.

In this solo episode, I share the most important lessons I learned through experience, what I would approach differently now, and what prospective Mustang adopters should consider before bringing home a wild horse. I also discuss the responsibility that begins after adoption and why building a relationship with a Mustang may require us to reconsider what progress is supposed to look like.

This is not a list of rules or a promise that every Mustang journey will unfold the same way. It is the guidance I wish I had received before mine began.

Whether you have already adopted a Mustang or are still considering it, this episode offers an honest look at the learning, adjustment, and personal growth that can follow the decision to bring one home.

CONNECT WITH THE TOUCH OF A MUSTANG

Website: https://thetouchofamustang.org/
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Follow The Touch of a Mustang as we uncover the places and principles that lead to healing, resilience, and freedom of mind.

This episode is the first in a series of moving meditation—designed to be listened to while you're walking, driving, doing chores, or spending quiet time with your horse.

You don’t need to sit still with your eyes closed to gain the benefits of meditation. In fact, movement can help the body process emotions, regulate the nervous system, and make it easier to stay present. This practice focuses on letting go of what's outside your control and finding acceptance with your world.

There is no pressure to get it “right.” Just begin listening and let these words support you wherever you are.

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https://thetouchofamustang.org/

Addie Gonzalez finally bought the horse she had always wanted. Instead of the partnership she imagined, she brought home Echo, an older, completely feral Mustang mare whose fear and reactivity left Addie wondering whether she had taken on more than she could handle.

Eighteen months later, Echo was racing down a skijoring course and turning heads.

Getting there required Addie to confront her own fear, self-doubt, and expectations. Progress came through sleepless nights, difficult setbacks, and small moments of trust that slowly changed what both of them believed was possible.

Addie shares what it took to build a relationship with a wild Mustang, why Echo continually reflected what Addie needed to face within herself, and how learning to trust her horse helped her trust herself. We also explore Mustang training, skijoring, and the internal transformation that can unfold when a horse refuses to follow the path we planned.

This is not simply the story of a feral Mustang becoming a competition horse. It is the story of a horse and human changing together.

ABOUT ADDIE GONZALEZ

Addie is a ranch manager, soil scientist, and first-time Mustang owner living in Montana. Her path has taken her through breeding barns, a NASA internship, and the ranchlands of the West, but it was her relationship with Echo that changed how she understood horses, trust, and herself.

CONNECT WITH ADDIE

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eagonzalezmt

CONNECT WITH THE TOUCH OF A MUSTANG

Website: https://thetouchofamustang.org/
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Follow The Touch of a Mustang as we uncover the places and principles that lead to healing, resilience, and freedom of mind.

After surviving a suicide attempt and struggling with PTSD, retired Army and Navy veteran David Flounders found an unexpected path forward beside wild Mustangs. The horses needed patience, safety, and purpose. So did he.

Together with mental health professional Kathleen Flounders, Dave founded Samson’s Strength Sustainable Veterans Project, a place where veterans can rebuild connection and purpose alongside rescued horses.

Kathleen brings more than three decades of experience serving military families, first responders, and people navigating trauma, addiction, and homelessness. Her early research into whether horses could influence depression and self-esteem in children helped shape her commitment to experiential approaches to mental health.

Dave shares how gentling wild Mustangs reflected his own recovery and why building trust with a horse can reach veterans in ways words do not always reach. We also explore what it means to create a place where neither veterans nor rescued Mustangs are defined by the most difficult parts of their past.

At Samson’s Strength, horses including Super Moose, Mustang Blaze, and The Goddess Artemis are more than animals receiving sanctuary. They become partners as veterans begin finding stability, responsibility, belonging, and reasons to move forward.

This conversation does not present horses as a replacement for mental health treatment. It reveals what can become possible when veterans and horses are given a safe place to begin again.

CONNECT WITH DAVE, KATHLEEN, AND SAMSON’S STRENGTH SUSTAINABLE VETERANS PROJECT

Website: https://www.sssvp.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sssvp.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samsonsstrengthveteransproject/

CONNECT WITH THE TOUCH OF A MUSTANG

Website: https://thetouchofamustang.org/
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Follow The Touch of a Mustang as we uncover the places and principles that lead to healing, resilience, and freedom of mind.

Better performance does not begin by asking more from your horse. It begins by creating enough trust, clarity, and understanding for your horse to remain willing and confident in the partnership.

Ashley Dudas, known as The Savvy Equestrian, helps riders improve performance by first examining the relationship beneath it. As a professional horsemanship instructor, clinician, and horse development specialist, she has spent years developing young horses and helping equestrians communicate more clearly across disciplines.

Ashley explains why partnership is not a softer alternative to results. It is the foundation that makes sustainable progress possible. We discuss what young horses need as they enter training, how riders can recognize gaps in communication, and why developing the horse matters more than simply producing the desired behavior.

We also explore how remote instruction and modern technology are expanding access to horsemanship education. Through the Savvy Equestrian Membership, Ashley works with riders around the world as they learn to better understand their horses, address problems, and build partnerships that can support whatever they hope to accomplish together.

This conversation is for riders who want more from their horses but are willing to first ask whether they have built the relationship that makes more possible.

ABOUT ASHLEY DUDAS

Ashley Dudas is a professional horsemanship instructor, clinician, and horse development specialist. Through The Savvy Equestrian, she helps riders develop communication, trust, and partnership with their horses through in-person and remote education.

CONNECT WITH ASHLEY

Website: https://thesavvyequestrian.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_savvy_equestrian_/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18xhAPkRaV
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thesavvyequestrian
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.savvy.equestrian
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@the_savvy_equestrian_
X: https://x.com/SavvyEquine

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Follow The Touch of a Mustang as we uncover the places and principles that lead to healing, resilience, and freedom of mind.

After 24 years together, Jaime Davis said goodbye to Whisper, the horse who had been beside her through some of the most difficult chapters of her life. Her mother had died the year before, and Jaime believed her life with horses might be over. Then an untouched Mustang filly named Willow arrived.

Jaime’s story with horses began at 13, when she started working at a local horse rescue and witnessed both the heartbreak and hope of giving horses another chance. She adopted her first horse at 14 and later bred her to a BLM Mustang stallion, bringing Whisper into the world.

Over the years, Jaime struggled with anxiety, self-doubt, and an emotionally abusive marriage. Those experiences affected her sense of self and her connection with Whisper. After leaving the marriage, she began rebuilding her life and, with support from her now husband, found her way back to the horse who had known her for decades.

Losing Whisper felt like the end of that story. Willow became the unexpected beginning of another.

Jaime shares how an untouched Mustang revived the passion she thought grief had taken from her, what horses offered through anxiety and major life transitions, and why opening ourselves to a new relationship does not mean replacing the one we lost.

This is a story about grief, healing, and the animals who help us find our way back to parts of ourselves we thought were gone.

ABOUT JAIME DAVIS

Jaime lives in Montana with her husband, two dogs, and four horses. She owns a dog-grooming salon and creates handmade tack through Two Bay Ranch Co.

CONNECT WITH JAIME

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/my.dog.and.pony.show
Two Bay Ranch Co. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twobayranchco
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/19g1ix8LKt/

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Follow The Touch of a Mustang as we uncover the places and principles that lead to healing, resilience, and freedom of mind.

We spend much of life resisting opposites, fighting natural cycles, and trying to force outcomes. Justin Dunn believes horses offer another way. They respond to the patterns of nature that humans have spent centuries trying to understand.

Justin is a horseman, teacher, and founder of the American Mustang School. In this conversation, he explains how he applies ancient Hermetic principles including Polarity, Correspondence, and Rhythm to horsemanship and everyday life.

Rather than treating these principles as abstract philosophy, Justin uses the immediate feedback of the horse to make them visible. We explore what horses reveal about our internal state, why harmony cannot be created through force, and how observing nature can change the way we respond to uncertainty, conflict, and change.

Justin also describes how riding and swimming with horses in the waters of St. Croix became an embodied way to explore rhythm, presence, and the relationship between our inner and outer worlds.

This conversation invites us to question the patterns shaping our lives and consider what horses may already understand about balance, awareness, and living in alignment with the natural world.

ABOUT JUSTIN DUNN

Justin Dunn is a horseman, U.S. Navy veteran, author, and founder of the American Mustang School. He created The Sacred Art of Horsemanship, an approach that brings together horsemanship, self-awareness, leadership, and Hermetic philosophy.

CONNECT WITH JUSTIN

Website: https://www.justindunnhorsemanship.com/
Books: https://www.justindunnhorsemanship.com/justins-books
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@americanmustangschool
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/americanmustangschool
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@justindunnhorsemanship
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justin.w.dunn

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Follow The Touch of a Mustang as we uncover the places and principles that lead to healing, resilience, and freedom of mind.

Calling ourselves horse lovers means little if our decisions leave a horse confused, fearful, or unprepared for what comes next. Henry Merrill believes honoring the horse means taking responsibility for its future and giving it the foundation it needs to succeed.

Henry is a third-generation horseman whose life has been shaped by ranching, colt starting, philosophy, and military service. He grew up learning from his father, who started horses for respected clients including Harriet Peckham and Fred Hervey, before serving as a combat infantryman after 9/11.

After earning a degree in philosophy, Henry returned to horsemanship and continued developing his approach across Idaho, Oregon, and Arizona. His experience as a working student with Martin Black and within a collegiate horse-starting program helped shape his commitment to trust, self-regulation, and nonviolent training.

Henry now works with the American Mustang Project to help Mustangs develop the skills and confidence they need to find successful homes.

We discuss what trainers owe every horse they handle, why nonviolent horsemanship still requires clarity and responsibility, and how preparing a horse for long-term success is different from simply producing short-term results. Henry also explains why the effects of our training continue long after a horse leaves our hands.

This conversation asks us to look beyond what we can accomplish with a horse and consider what kind of future we are preparing that horse to live.

ABOUT HENRY MERRILL

Henry Merrill is a third-generation horseman, Mustang trainer, philosophy graduate, and military veteran. His approach to horsemanship centers on developing confident, willing horses through trust, self-regulation, and nonviolent methods.

CONNECT WITH HENRY

Website: https://henrymerrillhorsemanship.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehenrymerrill/

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Follow The Touch of a Mustang as we uncover the places and principles that lead to healing, resilience, and freedom of mind.

When Tim West and his wife both lost their jobs during COVID, the future became deeply uncertain. Tim turned to nature with his camera and found something he did not expect among wild horses: a new sense of purpose.

What began as a way to find peace became a commitment to photographing the fleeting lives of wild horses before those moments disappear.

Tim shares his first experiences photographing wild Mustangs, what spending time in their world taught him, and why capturing their lives requires more than finding a beautiful image. His photographs preserve moments of family, freedom, conflict, and connection that many people would otherwise never witness.

We discuss how visual storytelling can help people care about wild horses they may never see in person, why photographs can carry emotional weight long after the moment has passed, and what is lost when wildness disappears from the landscape.

This is more than a conversation about photography. It is the story of finding direction during uncertainty and using art to help others see the value of lives that could easily remain unseen.

ABOUT TIM WEST

Tim West is a photographer whose work includes wild horses, portraiture, musicians, and artists. Through his images, he searches for the beauty and truth within his subjects while documenting the lives of wild horses before the moment is gone.

CONNECT WITH TIM

Website: https://www.timwestphotography.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timwestphotography/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@timwestphotography
Etsy: https://timwestphotography.etsy.com

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Follow The Touch of a Mustang as we uncover the places and principles that lead to healing, resilience, and freedom of mind.

Removing a wild horse from danger does not guarantee it a safe future. What happens next depends on people who understand its behavior, prepare for the responsibility of adoption, and remain committed after the urgency of the rescue has passed.

In this special panel discussion, Shalyce Cluff turns the reins over to Hollie Tenberge for a conversation about what wild horses need both on and off the range.

As Hollie trains for Wyoming’s Run With the Horses marathon, she shares how the challenge became a mission to raise awareness, support Mustang rescues, and build connections that could lead to lasting adoptions.

Animal behaviorist Samantha Couper brings knowledge from studying wild horses in their natural environment. She explains how understanding feral horse behavior can help adopters interpret their Mustangs more accurately and build safer, more cooperative relationships.

Melissa of Stargazer and Nora shares how photographing wild horses led her from documenting their lives to becoming responsible for two adopted Onaqui Mustangs after their roundup.

Together, the panel examines the realities of wild horse adoption, what helps Mustangs succeed in domestic homes, and how people can support these horses even when adoption is not possible.

This conversation moves beyond admiring wild horses. It asks what responsibility begins once we decide their lives are worth saving.

CONNECT WITH THE PANEL

Samantha Couper:

Equine ABCs: https://equineabcs.com/
Understand Horses: https://understandhorses.com/

Stargazer and Nora:

Website and social links: https://linktr.ee/stargazer_and_nora
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stargazer_and_nora/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StargazerandNora
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stargazer_and_nora
Email: [email protected]

Hollie Tenberge:

Run With the Horses: https://marathonformustangs.my.canva.site/

BOOKS MENTIONED

Wild Horse Country
Wild Horses of the West
Horses in Company
Horse Behavior

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Follow The Touch of a Mustang as we uncover the places and principles that lead to healing, resilience, and freedom of mind.