FLYING COLORS – Sooty Buckskin Mustang mare from Warm Springs Canyon, NV
If Colors were human, she would be the CEO of her own enterprise. She would head up her business with class and poise and not be easily rattled by others. She would be very confident in her own skin. Others would be drawn to her because being in her presence made them feel safe. She would be kind and fair, but real. She would not allow herself or others around her to be treated disrespectfully. She would love and be loved openly and freely.
Above images are Colors on day one of gentling.
Colors is the 6th wild Mustang I adopted and gentled. Her golden sooty buckskin hair-coat changes hues with the seasons – from yellow, to gold to almost black. I was able to select her in person at the wild horse adoption for the Extreme Mustang Makeover called “Mustang Million” in 2013.
She has always been very comfortable in her own skin. Never had any fear of humans or life with them. I have always had great respect for her uncanny ability to be so confident in herself. The gentling process was different with her, because she was so confident that she did not see me as anyone she needed to pay attention to – all the other Mustangs had been almost the opposite, they saw EVERYTHING I did and responded to it.
The gentling and training process with each Mustang has developed a new piece of a brilliant puzzle that I feel is being put together by I Am Herd. On auction day when I saw her I absolutely knew she was THE ONE. It was not due to her conformation, it was her presence. There was a unique Energy about her that sets her apart. Now that the competition is way behind us I see more clearly why she was the Mustang I needed. Her puzzle piece fits absolutely perfectly with the others that I have been developing for years now. Without her there would be a gaping hole, but with her it just fits.
Some of you may have seen Colors and I on TV in the Fall of 2013 or reruns afterwards. She and I were a featured team on the National Geographic (Nat Geo WILD) show called Mustang Millionaire. I was selected to be a featured trainer due to my Reserve Championship win the year prior with my Mustang partner Silver Lining. I have always felt I was meant to share the message of believing in your ‘Self’ and your dreams with as broad of an audience as I could. That was my motivation for being a part of the show.
Up until the 2013 competition I had been blessed to make the finals at every Mustang event I had competed in. I felt very guided through every step of the way in those competitions and in this competition as well – even with cameras and the producers trying to create their reality show out of our experience. Colors and I had our perfect freestyle planned. One that I was certain would move the hearts of the audience members to believe in their own dreams as well – just like I believed in mine. Nashville singer/songwriter Templeton Thompson and Sam Gay even partnered with me to write a song called Believe in Me. Oddly enough, the competition that broadcasted my journey to the world ended up being the one that I did not make the finals in. Nothing went wrong, Colors was great, we just ended up finishing a couple holes out of the finals. No finals meant no freestyle.
We lost. Done. Over. Go home.
Well, the emotions that engulfed me as the cameras rolled after I found out I had not made finals took me entirely by surprise. The only way I can explain it is it felt like we were on a trip up the side of a mountain. We were climbing higher and higher – eyes set on the top of that mountain where we fully expected to stop, hang out a bit and have a party. Then we reached the top. There it was, the mountain peak, but we did not stop to party, we just kept climbing. Climbing where you ask? Heck I am not sure I know. What I do know and felt then with everything within me is that what we are climbing towards is exactly where we are supposed to be headed and I can not help but feel that I Am Herd is up in the clouds of this climb.
I wrote a poem not long after coming home from the Mustang Million competition that I want to share with you. It really sums up – everything.
A beautiful painting has darks and lights,
A brilliant sunset has shadows and brights.
A mesmerizing song has high notes and low,
In a well lived life, people come and people go.
We love living in the brightness of the day,
Run and Hide from the dark they say.
But bright would simply not be bright,
without the contrasting darkness of the night.
I have felt so aligned, my path so true.
Up the side of this mountain with God’s Colors I flew.
We reached the tip top and I was ready to proclaim,
Here we are, we made it, we’ve won this Game.
But as we saw that mountain top grow near,
were I thought we’d surely stop to say; We’re Here, We’re Here!
Much to my surprise at that spot this ride just got faster,
And for a fleeting moment it felt a bit like disaster.
But as we flew higher and higher I started to see,
This divine path has always been meant to be.
If along this ride I feel darkness and pain,
It is only meant to highlight all I have to gain.
As much as the desire to win has directed my sail,
A deeper desire has guided the gale.
The burning desire to change a another’s soul
With the help of a wild horse, This truly is my goal.
It is a desire that resides in the blue part of my flame
A desire built not from fortune, not from fame.
A desire that was planted in my soul before I was born.
A desire so true, so real, it simply had to be worn.
I have not always been so aware, of this tiniest of seeds,
But it is the Source of all of my needs.
For the times I have felt my path line up perfect and true
Were the times that my heart was uplifting You.
Knowing our hearts deepest wish is a powerful thing.
It is the only way to let our hearts truly sing.
My wish is simple, so simple it’s complex
and it has nothing to do with what competition might come next.
It has everything to do with painting a picture of wild horses.
One with shadows to highlight the most brilliant of Sources.
Brilliant wild horses are my partners in dance,
Gifting the sight of God’s Colors, if only a glance.
For the Gift of God’s Color is the grandest of all.
Through the dance of a wild horse, all hearts it will call.
To Gift another with the vision of Love
A vision the was gifted to me, directly from Above.
Uplifting others through a vision, painted with a horse
Of all the desires of my heart, This is the Source.
I will strive every day to stretch closer to the goal
Of Colorfully lifting the hearts of others – soul, by soul .. by soul.
-MMJ
Below is a video from a live performance at Breyerfest with Templeton Thompson. This was during the time we were writing Believe In Me together. (You can download the song Believe in Me on itunes or www.templetonthompson.com ) Colors was less than 60 days from wild at this performance. What a Mustang she is!!!
Colors and MMJ performing at Breyerfest with Templeton Thompson singing. Colors was ~ 60 days out of the wild at this point.
I Am Herd may be just beginning this year in 2015, but the seed was planted long ago. I am honored you are sharing our journey by viewing this site.
-mmj