Mustangs Gone Sane

01/21/2026

Love every word of this!

A Spoiled Horse

As a trainer I’ve recognized for years that training a spoiled horse feels like fighting a cancer of the mind. It’s incredibly rewarding once the spoiled mind has been healed. We just hope it’s not re-infected by the original behavior shaper. 🫣

I’ve finally gathered enough information about spoiled horses, it’s time to do a deep dive!! We’re about to talk about: how they are created, how to spot them, and how to fix them! This is about to be one of my favorite writings I’ve ever released. 🙌🏼

Cause
Spoiled is not about kindness, treats, and comfort. Spoiling is:
RELIEF WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITY! 🤯

A spoiled horse is:
▫️ Protected from pressure
▫️ Rescued from discomfort
▫️ Rarely asked to adapt

They don’t learn:
▫️ Emotional regulation
▫️ Cause and effect
▫️ How to try through confusion

What They Look Like
Low resilience + high entitlement + fragile nervous system.

They often look confident or bold, but internally they are:
▫️ Easily overwhelmed
▫️ Easily offended
▫️ Easily shut down or explosive

The mentality they carry:
👶🏼 “I shouldn’t have to.”
👶🏼 “This feels unfair.”
👶🏼 “Someone else will fix this.”

Nervous system response:
▫️ Low tolerance for frustration
▫️ High reactivity to pressure
▫️ Poor recovery after stress

They never learned how to stay mentally present when things got hard.

Typical spoiled horse behaviors:
🐴 Won’t stand tied
🐴 Pushy in personal space
🐴 Explosive over small corrections
🐴 Selectively obedient
🐴 Lazy until suddenly reactive
🐴 Refuses before it tries
🐴 Melts down over small things
🐴 Shuts off instead of working through confusion

Horses do not do these things because they are “bad”, they do them because they never learned how to COPE.

Spoiled horses are anxious and not confident. Reasons being:
▫️ They often overreact
▫️ They don’t trust their own ability
▫️ They rely on others to regulate their world

At times they may appear dominant, lazy, or entitled. But under all that is crippling fear and a huge lack of confidence. This is where their dramatic spooking comes from when their comfort bubble is popped.

How To Fix Them
The three biggest things that WILL
NOT WORK to fix a spoiled horse:
❌ More pressure suddenly
❌ More softness
❌ Inconsistency

What WILL WORK to fix a spoiled horse:
💚 Predictable structure
- We need to offer our horses consistent training with the same rules and clear expectations.
💚 Gradual discomfort
- They need small manageable challenges with no rescuing. They need to feel the frustration and learn to think through it.
💚 Teaching the effort ➡️ relief connection
- Trying = Relief
- Avoiding = Work
💚 Emotional neutrality (from trainer)
- Our part: no anger, no pleading and no guilt. 🙅🏻‍♂️

Calm, boring, consistency is what will rewire your spoiled horse into your ultimate partner. 💪🏼

What you’ll get:
🐴 Calm under pressure
🐴 Confidence with understanding
🐴 Willing and not reactive
🐴 Trust in you as a leader

Good trainers aren’t just training movement. They’re training nervous systems. The more you understand about a spoiled mind the more you can avoid or even fix it. FYI humans experience it much the same way. 😉

01/04/2026

Took the boys to go play today! Venom had a buddy his own age finally and it was good for him to get to know him as they will be showing and traveling a lot together this spring/ summer and probably the rest of their lives😂
I also took this opportunity away from home to teach Venom to lay down. He took to it very quickly and I’m extremely happy with him🖤

12/26/2025

Took him 2mins to figure out ground driving. Making it too easy on me 😂

12/22/2025

The natural confidence this boy has is insane! He wore this kids saddle for the first time ever today stood in the middle of the round pen while I did the usual desensitizing, tossing it on and off a few times… not a flinch! Then cinch it up yeild both hindquarters not a care in the world. Sent him around w/t/l no buck, kick out, NOTHING! Going to to find a way to rig up a back cinch to fit this little saddle but I’m betting he will take that just great too🤩

12/17/2025

Hoping the algorithm will bring my page back to life and excited for the new year to come! I’ve re-made my flyers and am excited to open my books. Below Is Venom my coming 2yo hancock bred c**t learning a few basics. I will be showing Venom pretty often next year, can’t wait to share how smart this boy is as he learns more!
PS- his momma will be coming back soon to be started under saddle😁

12/03/2025

🤔 Where did my wild horse or b***o come from?
Now you can find out — and more — with the BLM’s new Wild Horse and B***o Public Dashboard.

With just a freeze mark or microchip number, adopters and trainers can look up an animal’s gather location, facility history, health records, and adoption timeline. You can also explore broader data on gathers, fertility control, and facility stats.

Learn more and start your search today: https://www.blm.gov/blog/2025-12-03/where-did-my-horse-come-blm-launches-new-way-adopters-trainers-and-others-learn

11/20/2025

Please keep your horses home and stay safe!

🚨 𝐄𝐇𝐕 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 – 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 🚨

Horses in Oklahoma have tested positive for Equine Herpesvirus (EHV), a highly contagious viral disease. It spreads easily through nasal discharge, shared equipment, trailers, stalls, and even human contact. Horses can carry the virus before showing symptoms, so strict quarantine is essential.

𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐬:
🐴 Respiratory: cough, clear nasal discharge, fever
🐴 Neurologic (EHM): hind-limb weakness, incoordination, urine dribbling, tail weakness, sudden inability to stand
🐴 Reproductive: late-term abortion in mares

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐬:
✅ Call your vet immediately
✅ Quarantine symptomatic or exposed horses
✅ Monitor all horses’ temps twice daily (Normal = 99–101.5°F)
✅ Follow strict biosecurity measures

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐬 – 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬:
🏥 Place signage on the door asking horse owners to inform your team if they have attended any of the affected events. If they have, please instruct them to wait outside so appropriate precautions can be taken.
🏥Take a detailed history of potential exposure and travel
🏥 Examine and take the patient’s temperature 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 entering the clinic
🏥 Antiviral medications can be given prophylactically to exposed horses to reduce the risk of developing EHM. For more information regarding this treatment, please reach out to our equine internal medicine team.

🩺 Stay vigilant, protect your herd, and work closely with your veterinarian.

Questions ➡️ 405-744-7000

10/18/2025

For anyone looking for a beautiful pasture ornament I have just the one! He has been in training for a few years and it has been decided by his owner that he is better off staying turned out as he does not like people. I agree, as I know this horse well and it would definitely be best for him to be turned out and left alone. I will make another formal post later. If Chester looks like a horse you’d like to see out your window everyday let me know😊

08/11/2025

Hey everyone! Long time since I’ve posted, at the beginning of summer we bought some land!! Been extremely busy getting it cleaned out and usable I’ve only just put my horses out there last week. Today I got my temporary stalls up until I can go take down the ones I built last year. We’ve also got the round pen where I want it, just needs leveled and I’ve got to move some dirt! Things are looking good! I do have a spot picked for an arena as well so that will be a fall project. We still have another 3 acres to clean up. Really excited to get to work again soon will keep y’all updated as things improve. I want to thank all of my regular clients so much for being patient with me these last 2 years it really means a lot!

03/27/2025

Was a great day riding horses all over town, even hit up the taco truck! People sure don’t slow down or move over for riders anymore good thing we are prepared for that!