Milestone 4: "Milo"

Milo is a 2012 gelding who is presumed to be a Thoroughbred-Warmblood Cross. He stands roughly 16.2 and is full of personality. Shelby adopted Milo from the SPCA when he was a 2 year old. When Shelby took him in, Milo was essentially feral. Extremely wary of people, growth-stunted and underweight, Milo put Shelby’s patience and training to the test. Since then, he has come a long way and blossomed into an unrecognizable horse compared to the one he used to be. Shelby attributes much of her equine education to Milo’s training and discovering what has worked for him. Read all of Milo's story here.

Blueprint MSH: “Banksy”

Banksy is Shelby’s first homebred foal. He was born May 28, 2019 and is by the Oldenburg stallion, Banderas, and out of a Thoroughbred mare, In Fine Fashion. Banksy attended the German Oldenburg Verband inspection as a foal where he was awarded Premium. He has been trained with rewards based methods and is now lightly started under saddle, with plans to enjoy riding trails and jumping with him more in the future.

Fast Bid: “Harlow”

Harlow is a 2014 16.2hh Thoroughbred mare who Shelby acquired after she retired from the racetrack in September 2020. Harlow had a fairly successful racing career spanning 4 years, with her first ever start taking place in the country she was bred in, Ireland. She enjoyed the winter off before starting to be educated for her new career in 2021. Harlow is a very brave and naturally talented jumper who shows a lot of promise as a sport horse. She has primarily been used for pleasure riding, trail riding and some jumping. She had a couple of years mostly off after developing a head shaking problem in 2022 and has been coming back into more work since this has been addressed.

Juniper

Juniper is a 6 year old 14hh Mustang mare that was purchased out of the BLM’s Sales Authority Program by Shelby back in 2022. She was rounded up originally in Antelope Valley, Nevada and was completely wild and unhandled at the time Shelby picked her up with her fellow mustang companion, Mesa. Shelby gentled her at liberty on a large acreage using rewards based methods and has begun the process of starting her under saddle bridleless.

Mesa

Mesa was adopted alongside Juniper in 2022, however, she was originally rounded up from a different herd in Mount Ellinor, Utah. Mesa is 6 years old and around 14hh. Like Juniper, she was gentled at liberty with rewards based methods. However, prior to being purchased by Shelby, Mesa spent a substantially longer amount of time in the holding pen and seemed to possess a lot more trauma than Juniper. She arrived unhandled but had a lot more fear of humans and less curiosity. It has taken a while to get her to warm up to humans but she has become friendly towards her chosen people and while she remains cautious of newcomers, she is a lot more trusting of humans overall. Eventually, the plan is to start Mesa under saddle bridleless as well but we have been giving her the time she needs to properly settle into domesticated life and build trust.