Seven oh six, a fifty five KRCD talk station. But everyone's having a happy Friday. I think this will put a smile on your face. If you're not having a happy Friday. Welcome to the fifty five krc Morning Show from an organization called Mustang Journey. Troy Day, Troy, Welcome to the show. It's great to have you on today.
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
I appreciate what you're doing because I am a huge supporter of, of course, the American veteran and first responders. My sister was a twenty five year police officer of the CINCINNTI Police Department, and I'll tell you I do get the idea of stress from a job, and I learned from her over the years what they face under pressure and the crap that they go through each and every day.
And of course the American veteran, most notably combat veterans, deal with post traumatic stress and day to day hardships. Are just being in the military obviously a very stressful reality. You obviously recognize that we're going to talk about your Trust and Valor program, but first let my listeners know about Mustang Journey. The organization how you got started what you do. It's online at Mustang Journey dot org. It's fascinating.
Yeah, no, I appreciate that, and thank you to your family members for their service. Mustang Journey is a five on one C three nonprofit organization. We operate solely on donations and volunteers.
And what we do is.
We adopt, tame, gentle and rehome wild mustangs. And you know, in this as you even mentioned what a great way to help and support two iconic American symbols of freedom, the wild mustang and the American soldier.
So I understand you work with the Bureau of Land Management. Now these are as you mentioned, wild mustangs, and so they're they're they're they're rounded up and collected. Is is there are they? Do they represent a problem out in the wild? Is that the reason that they're collected and rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management?
Yeah.
What has happened is the free ranging ranchers has gone to the government and ask them to remove the mustangs. They actually the ranchers actually round them up with helicopters. They claim that the wild mustangs are taking all the resources in the foliage and water.
Yes, huh, Well, I suppose you probably questioned that reality or that that assertion, but nonetheless, because of those claims, they are rounded up, and I imagine that's got to be quite stressful for the wild mustangs just in and of itself.
Yes, it is very stressful. And that's you know, we've noticed, you know, a parallel you know, examining the parallels between the life of a wild mustang from the round ups separated from their families and then also to the to the first responders and also veterans. You know, there's uh, there's that that time to decompress that they need the stress from around up, the stress from as you mentioned, even the combat, the traumatic experiences possibly even loss uh
you know in combat. Yeah, so the highlights you know, shared a characteristic extent or you know, I guess you could say themes of camaraderie, you know, forging that trust between the veterans, the first responders and that wild mustang trust is going to be one.
Of the biggest ones understood.
So you mentioned gentling the mustang and and and getting into uh an animal that's that's rideable. So you're you're you're looking to it, I guess the old word for it is breaking a horse. I mean, I think about the old Western days and I'm a gonna break a horse. You got a wild horse, and you learn how to calm it down, put a saddle on it, and make it into something that's actually rideable.
Right exactly. And that's where we use the term gentle. There is no heartbreaking of these horses. They've already been through enough stress trauma. So we use these We use the type of training where you gentle them and it's it's there's no there's no heartbreaking of.
The horses, understood, and I appreciate your having a concern for the horse and and appropriate treatment. That's what it's all about. And so and that's where the veterans and first responders come in. You train them how to gentle the horses, and then you ultimately place them. It's it's like a forever home for the for the mustang after you go through this process.
Yeah.
So we actually we have different programs for the veterans and first responders have to say one of those individuals, they just want to learn to how to take care of the horse. That's we have something what we call a care team. That's where you just we teach them how to feed, water and muck and just spend some time with the horse. And that's really when some of the trust is built. Just take taking care of them. We also have a handling program where you can learn.
To halt or lead load a horse if.
You want to just kind of take it knowledge and experience A little step further. You mentioned the trust and valor that's learned how to tame a wild mustang from what we call untouchable to someone where you can halt or lead and load in a trailer. And then we are moving on to hopefully in a very near future, a riding program in these individuals, veterans and first responders help us get them to their forever homes.
So the concept is this is this is very therapeutic for perhaps maybe a veteran who's struggling with post traumatic stress. You're giving them something that's really beneficial. It's distracting for them in the sense their mind isn't on other more traumatic things. They're helping this horse get, you know, you know, become I guess is I hate to use the word usable, but you know it's it's a wild animal, but you're turning it into something that someone might want to adopt.
And I guess all this is really beneficial to the psychology of the veteran or first responder in that regard.
Yes, sir, you know there's a lot of there's a lot of life skills that you can learn just by just by spending time and and and here's the thing. It's it's not us, It's it's it's the horses. I I kind of, you know, just kind of missed myself as a as one beggar showing another beggar where to get the information from. And you know, those life skills,
you know, there's it's not a a canned answer. You don't know what that individual is going to receive from spending time with the Mustangs, but some of those, you know, transitioning life skills could be you know, confidence, confidence back into the civilian world, if you will. Sure, patience is another one. Your presence being in the moment is a big one that one has. That one has been a
big one for me spending time with the Mustangs. And then you kind of mentioned it there too, is just a peace of mind, right, even if it's for just a little while, it's just a peace of mind so you can forget about your your daily challenges just for a little while.
Yeah, I mean everybody has something along those lines. You know, people who can't go to sleep at night, they think about all the crap they did during the day, all the things they need to do tomorrow. And it's the worst possible time to think about those things because you're supposed to get a good night's sleep so you can
then cope and deal with it the next day. So in this regard, when you're working with the Mustang, you have a task at hand, you have to have presence, you have to pay attention to what's going on in front of you. You have this beautiful, beautiful horse Mustang in front of you that's obviously, you know, enjoyable to be with. It's a distraction from the day to day cares of life. I can see the brilliance of this just in thinking about along those lines, Yes, sir, wow.
Yeah, And I think that's you know again, you know, you're not sure what the individual is going to get out of it, but that's you know again, just being able to focus, you know, focus and then use those to move on. You know, you hold on to that for a little while to get you through your next day until until you can come back and spend more time with them.
So this is does the program, this Trust Environur program? Is it for a specific period of time? Is it? Is it sort of like a show up when you need a kind of thing. How does it work? How does it operate?
We can Yeah, anyone could reach out to us and we can fit it into their schedule. We do have some type of a schedule right now. However, we do have folks coming that you know can't make it, you know, for instance, on a Sunday. Maybe they can't make it on a Sunday, so we will open up other times for them to come in and spend time with them, all right, and then just go and then go through the programs or you know, even at their even at their level where they're at.
The horses.
We've had several folks come through that have had, you know, grew up of horses. They possibly even maybe trained horses before going into the military, and or they have little little to know knowledge at all about horses, and we just start them with the horses where their knowledge is at.
Now, how long does it take from when you get one of these wild mustangs from the Bureau of land management. How long does it mean, I guess normally take I suppose different mustangs very like personalities. There one can take a longer time to train, others may adopt and accept the training earlier. But generally speaking, start to finish from when you get the mustang initially till it's properly gentle and manageable. What's the like of time?
You know what?
You you made a great point. They're just like humans. We all have our we all have our personal bubble to begin with. That's when it starts. We can start building that trust and we like to. Uh, twelve months is what we like to shoot for. Can some get uh you know, rehome prior to that, yes, do some take a little bit longer, yes, but that's we We figure that twelve month period is a good time, uh to get them, to get them decompressed, to get them
through the training, and then uh typically put them. We have X amount of hours we want to put them under saddle before before.
We do rehome them. That's our goal.
However, there have been some folks that have adopted the horses at the time and they wanted to finish the horses off themselves. Oh, and that they can they can do that as well, And that's an agreement between the individual who's adopting us on the board at Mustang Journey determine the best if that's going to be the best scenario for the horse, all.
Right, case by case basis, This makes perfect sense. I know some people who are truly horse people, and I can see them perhaps wanting to pursue that path, but they've owned horses for decades and they know everything there is to know about them. Now is there is it difficult to rehome these horses? Is there a waiting list or do you have to reach out and sort of market them? How does that work for Troy?
You know, that's a great question.
The Mustang network, if I could say, it's it's across the United States and there's several thousands horses out there, several thousands of people that are involved with Mustangs. But it's a very intimate community. And there's a story about a horse spirit that we had a very photogenic horse in the herd management area in Honaky and Utah. She's
a well done documented horrors by professional photographers. She's been on some PBS shows and uh once we put her up for adoption, there was a a Mustang owner actually owns a Mustang. She owns her herd mate in sunny San Diego. So it just goes to show you it's it's intimate, but yet it's a tight knit.
Uh network.
I get it.
And once when you know, once you put it out there, you know folks, folks will find them, Folks will find a Mustang.
I get it. Well, you know, my wife and I have just that way of example. It seems to be somewhat of a parallel. We're Doberman lovers and there are there's a network of Doberman rescues, just like there are there's a network of pitbull rescues or any other breed,
but they are interconnected. So if you know there's somebody in Cincinnati that's looking for to rescue a Doberman, and it doesn't have to be any it doesn't there's not one necessarily in the area, you could reach out to the one and can tell they reach out with one in Indiana. You know, That's that's how that works.
Wet.
I understand how that connection works. So there is a Mustang community out there. So I'm glad to know that because I, yeah, my wife would love to own a horse, and I just you know, like, honey, there's no way. So it's just that it seems to me it would be an uphill challenge to place these Mustangs, but apparently it's not now moving aside from the uh the Valor program, uh, the Trust and Valor program. Do you take volunteers? But I know you're located in Goshen, So my listeners know that,
and uh do you do you? Are you looking for volunteers? I know you want donations, and so I'm encourage my listeners if you want to donate to this wonderful cause, it's Mustang Journey dot org. There's a little donate button. But how about just folks who would like to spend some time there mucking or leading or doing whatever does you need them to do?
Absolutely, absolutely, we're always looking for volunteers, you know, to support Mustang Journey and h typically the draw to Mustange Journey is the care team that I mentioned, Folks that just want to kind of come out and just you know, take care of them, you know, feed water, mock, pick up a miller and you know, and just spend time with them. But they can certainly reach out to us and there's obviously some some paperwork that they would need to fill out, and yeah, just and and get started.
You have two or three orientations, depending on the level of horse knowledge.
Uh.
You know, when you feel comfortable being the in the pen and taking care of them, then we'll just kind of not turn you loose, but go through the orientation and then you can start taking care of them.
We have a we have a community. We have a we have a community.
Calendar that you can you can put your name on a certain time.
It's called time.
Tree and uh, you can put your name on the on the calendar when you want to. If you once a week, once a month, twice a week, it's up to you.
That's wonderful that I have a feeling you may get some calls on this or some some outreach. And I see on your your website you got how much a bail of hay is, how much the grain is, and you know veterinary visit and all that. There's donation levels. You can be a sponsor of a horse for a full year at a certain level, so there's a multitude of ways to help out. Or you can just show up and uh and and help them clean the stalls out and work with some some beautiful mustangs and they
are absolutely beautiful beasts. Troy Day, thanks for the time you spend with my listeners today and explaining Mustang Journey to my listening audience. I think it's a wonderful thing you're doing. And keep up the great work and uh hopefully we'll have you back on the show down the road again sometime.
Absolutely what I appreciate. Thank you for having me certainly appreciate it, and like.
To invite you and your wife out anybody come on out and meet the mustang.
Well, get the horse part out of her system for a little bit. She grew up on a farm and had a horse when she was young, so that's where that comes from. And thanks again for the work.
It's the way you can, you know, have somebody else take care of the horses. You can just come out of time with him.
I like that idea, man, I like that idea. And thanks again for helping the American veteran and first responder Troy Day. It's been a real pleasure. Mustang Journey dot Org is where you find the organization and help them out in some way. Troy, take care of yourself and keep up the great work. It's seven twenty two at fifty five KR see the talk station bottom of the ar. We're gonna hear from Daniel Davis with a deep dive to stick around for that, But first a word for ammer