Speaker 1: Seven oh six, a fifty five KRCD talk station. But
Speaker 1: everyone's having a happy Friday. I think this will put
Speaker 1: a smile on your face. If you're not having a
Speaker 1: happy Friday. Welcome to the fifty five krc Morning Show
Speaker 1: from an organization called Mustang Journey. Troy Day, Troy, Welcome
Speaker 1: to the show. It's great to have you on today.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I appreciate what you're doing because I am a huge
Speaker 1: supporter of, of course, the American veteran and first responders. My
Speaker 1: sister was a twenty five year police officer of the
Speaker 1: CINCINNTI Police Department, and I'll tell you I do get
Speaker 1: the idea of stress from a job, and I learned
Speaker 1: from her over the years what they face under pressure
Speaker 1: and the crap that they go through each and every day.
Speaker 1: And of course the American veteran, most notably combat veterans,
Speaker 1: deal with post traumatic stress and day to day hardships.
Speaker 1: Are just being in the military obviously a very stressful reality.
Speaker 1: You obviously recognize that we're going to talk about your
Speaker 1: Trust and Valor program, but first let my listeners know
Speaker 1: about Mustang Journey. The organization how you got started what
Speaker 1: you do. It's online at Mustang Journey dot org. It's fascinating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I appreciate that, and thank you to your
Speaker 3: family members for their service. Mustang Journey is a five
Speaker 3: on one C three nonprofit organization. We operate solely on
Speaker 3: donations and volunteers.
Speaker 2: And what we do is.
Speaker 3: We adopt, tame, gentle and rehome wild mustangs. And you know,
Speaker 3: in this as you even mentioned what a great way
Speaker 3: to help and support two iconic American symbols of freedom,
Speaker 3: the wild mustang and the American soldier.
Speaker 1: So I understand you work with the Bureau of Land Management.
Speaker 1: Now these are as you mentioned, wild mustangs, and so
Speaker 1: they're they're they're they're rounded up and collected. Is is
Speaker 1: there are they? Do they represent a problem out in
Speaker 1: the wild? Is that the reason that they're collected and
Speaker 1: rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: What has happened is the free ranging ranchers has gone
Speaker 3: to the government and ask them to remove the mustangs.
Speaker 3: They actually the ranchers actually round them up with helicopters.
Speaker 3: They claim that the wild mustangs are taking all the
Speaker 3: resources in the foliage and water.
Speaker 1: Yes, huh, Well, I suppose you probably questioned that reality
Speaker 1: or that that assertion, but nonetheless, because of those claims,
Speaker 1: they are rounded up, and I imagine that's got to
Speaker 1: be quite stressful for the wild mustangs just in and
Speaker 1: of itself.
Speaker 3: Yes, it is very stressful. And that's you know, we've noticed,
Speaker 3: you know, a parallel you know, examining the parallels between
Speaker 3: the life of a wild mustang from the round ups
Speaker 3: separated from their families and then also to the to
Speaker 3: the first responders and also veterans. You know, there's uh,
Speaker 3: there's that that time to decompress that they need the
Speaker 3: stress from around up, the stress from as you mentioned,
Speaker 3: even the combat, the traumatic experiences possibly even loss uh
Speaker 3: you know in combat. Yeah, so the highlights you know,
Speaker 3: shared a characteristic extent or you know, I guess you
Speaker 3: could say themes of camaraderie, you know, forging that trust
Speaker 3: between the veterans, the first responders and that wild mustang
Speaker 3: trust is going to be one.
Speaker 2: Of the biggest ones understood.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned gentling the mustang and and and getting
Speaker 1: into uh an animal that's that's rideable. So you're you're
Speaker 1: you're looking to it, I guess the old word for
Speaker 1: it is breaking a horse. I mean, I think about
Speaker 1: the old Western days and I'm a gonna break a horse.
Speaker 1: You got a wild horse, and you learn how to
Speaker 1: calm it down, put a saddle on it, and make
Speaker 1: it into something that's actually rideable.
Speaker 3: Right exactly. And that's where we use the term gentle.
Speaker 3: There is no heartbreaking of these horses. They've already been
Speaker 3: through enough stress trauma. So we use these We use
Speaker 3: the type of training where you gentle them and it's
Speaker 3: it's there's no there's no heartbreaking of.
Speaker 1: The horses, understood, and I appreciate your having a concern
Speaker 1: for the horse and and appropriate treatment. That's what it's
Speaker 1: all about. And so and that's where the veterans and
Speaker 1: first responders come in. You train them how to gentle
Speaker 1: the horses, and then you ultimately place them. It's it's
Speaker 1: like a forever home for the for the mustang after
Speaker 1: you go through this process.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So we actually we have different programs for the veterans
Speaker 3: and first responders have to say one of those individuals,
Speaker 3: they just want to learn to how to take care
Speaker 3: of the horse. That's we have something what we call
Speaker 3: a care team. That's where you just we teach them
Speaker 3: how to feed, water and muck and just spend some
Speaker 3: time with the horse. And that's really when some of
Speaker 3: the trust is built. Just take taking care of them.
Speaker 3: We also have a handling program where you can learn.
Speaker 2: To halt or lead load a horse if.
Speaker 3: You want to just kind of take it knowledge and
Speaker 3: experience A little step further. You mentioned the trust and
Speaker 3: valor that's learned how to tame a wild mustang from
Speaker 3: what we call untouchable to someone where you can halt
Speaker 3: or lead and load in a trailer. And then we
Speaker 3: are moving on to hopefully in a very near future,
Speaker 3: a riding program in these individuals, veterans and first responders
Speaker 3: help us get them to their forever homes.
Speaker 1: So the concept is this is this is very therapeutic
Speaker 1: for perhaps maybe a veteran who's struggling with post traumatic stress.
Speaker 1: You're giving them something that's really beneficial. It's distracting for
Speaker 1: them in the sense their mind isn't on other more
Speaker 1: traumatic things. They're helping this horse get, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: become I guess is I hate to use the word usable,
Speaker 1: but you know it's it's a wild animal, but you're
Speaker 1: turning it into something that someone might want to adopt.
Speaker 1: And I guess all this is really beneficial to the
Speaker 1: psychology of the veteran or first responder in that regard.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, you know there's a lot of there's a
Speaker 3: lot of life skills that you can learn just by
Speaker 3: just by spending time and and and here's the thing.
Speaker 3: It's it's not us, It's it's it's the horses. I
Speaker 3: I kind of, you know, just kind of missed myself
Speaker 3: as a as one beggar showing another beggar where to
Speaker 3: get the information from. And you know, those life skills,
Speaker 3: you know, there's it's not a a canned answer. You
Speaker 3: don't know what that individual is going to receive from
Speaker 3: spending time with the Mustangs, but some of those, you know,
Speaker 3: transitioning life skills could be you know, confidence, confidence back
Speaker 3: into the civilian world, if you will. Sure, patience is
Speaker 3: another one. Your presence being in the moment is a
Speaker 3: big one that one has. That one has been a
Speaker 3: big one for me spending time with the Mustangs. And
Speaker 3: then you kind of mentioned it there too, is just
Speaker 3: a peace of mind, right, even if it's for just
Speaker 3: a little while, it's just a peace of mind so
Speaker 3: you can forget about your your daily challenges just for
Speaker 3: a little while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean everybody has something along those lines. You know,
Speaker 1: people who can't go to sleep at night, they think
Speaker 1: about all the crap they did during the day, all
Speaker 1: the things they need to do tomorrow. And it's the
Speaker 1: worst possible time to think about those things because you're
Speaker 1: supposed to get a good night's sleep so you can
Speaker 1: then cope and deal with it the next day. So
Speaker 1: in this regard, when you're working with the Mustang, you
Speaker 1: have a task at hand, you have to have presence,
Speaker 1: you have to pay attention to what's going on in
Speaker 1: front of you. You have this beautiful, beautiful horse Mustang
Speaker 1: in front of you that's obviously, you know, enjoyable to
Speaker 1: be with. It's a distraction from the day to day
Speaker 1: cares of life. I can see the brilliance of this
Speaker 1: just in thinking about along those lines, Yes, sir, wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think that's you know again, you know,
Speaker 3: you're not sure what the individual is going to get
Speaker 3: out of it, but that's you know again, just being
Speaker 3: able to focus, you know, focus and then use those
Speaker 3: to move on. You know, you hold on to that
Speaker 3: for a little while to get you through your next
Speaker 3: day until until you can come back and spend more
Speaker 3: time with them.
Speaker 1: So this is does the program, this Trust Environur program?
Speaker 1: Is it for a specific period of time? Is it?
Speaker 1: Is it sort of like a show up when you
Speaker 1: need a kind of thing. How does it work? How
Speaker 1: does it operate?
Speaker 3: We can Yeah, anyone could reach out to us and
Speaker 3: we can fit it into their schedule. We do have
Speaker 3: some type of a schedule right now. However, we do
Speaker 3: have folks coming that you know can't make it, you know,
Speaker 3: for instance, on a Sunday. Maybe they can't make it
Speaker 3: on a Sunday, so we will open up other times
Speaker 3: for them to come in and spend time with them,
Speaker 3: all right, and then just go and then go through
Speaker 3: the programs or you know, even at their even at
Speaker 3: their level where they're at.
Speaker 2: The horses.
Speaker 3: We've had several folks come through that have had, you know,
Speaker 3: grew up of horses. They possibly even maybe trained horses
Speaker 3: before going into the military, and or they have little
Speaker 3: little to know knowledge at all about horses, and we
Speaker 3: just start them with the horses where their knowledge is at.
Speaker 1: Now, how long does it take from when you get
Speaker 1: one of these wild mustangs from the Bureau of land management.
Speaker 1: How long does it mean, I guess normally take I
Speaker 1: suppose different mustangs very like personalities. There one can take
Speaker 1: a longer time to train, others may adopt and accept
Speaker 1: the training earlier. But generally speaking, start to finish from
Speaker 1: when you get the mustang initially till it's properly gentle
Speaker 1: and manageable. What's the like of time?
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 3: You you made a great point. They're just like humans.
Speaker 3: We all have our we all have our personal bubble
Speaker 3: to begin with. That's when it starts. We can start
Speaker 3: building that trust and we like to. Uh, twelve months
Speaker 3: is what we like to shoot for. Can some get
Speaker 3: uh you know, rehome prior to that, yes, do some
Speaker 3: take a little bit longer, yes, but that's we We
Speaker 3: figure that twelve month period is a good time, uh
Speaker 3: to get them, to get them decompressed, to get them
Speaker 3: through the training, and then uh typically put them. We
Speaker 3: have X amount of hours we want to put them
Speaker 3: under saddle before before.
Speaker 2: We do rehome them. That's our goal.
Speaker 3: However, there have been some folks that have adopted the
Speaker 3: horses at the time and they wanted to finish the
Speaker 3: horses off themselves. Oh, and that they can they can
Speaker 3: do that as well, And that's an agreement between the
Speaker 3: individual who's adopting us on the board at Mustang Journey
Speaker 3: determine the best if that's going to be the best
Speaker 3: scenario for the horse, all.
Speaker 1: Right, case by case basis, This makes perfect sense. I
Speaker 1: know some people who are truly horse people, and I
Speaker 1: can see them perhaps wanting to pursue that path, but
Speaker 1: they've owned horses for decades and they know everything there
Speaker 1: is to know about them. Now is there is it
Speaker 1: difficult to rehome these horses? Is there a waiting list
Speaker 1: or do you have to reach out and sort of
Speaker 1: market them? How does that work for Troy?
Speaker 2: You know, that's a great question.
Speaker 3: The Mustang network, if I could say, it's it's across
Speaker 3: the United States and there's several thousands horses out there,
Speaker 3: several thousands of people that are involved with Mustangs. But
Speaker 3: it's a very intimate community. And there's a story about
Speaker 3: a horse spirit that we had a very photogenic horse
Speaker 3: in the herd management area in Honaky and Utah. She's
Speaker 3: a well done documented horrors by professional photographers. She's been
Speaker 3: on some PBS shows and uh once we put her
Speaker 3: up for adoption, there was a a Mustang owner actually
Speaker 3: owns a Mustang. She owns her herd mate in sunny
Speaker 3: San Diego. So it just goes to show you it's
Speaker 3: it's intimate, but yet it's a tight knit.
Speaker 2: Uh network.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 3: And once when you know, once you put it out there,
Speaker 3: you know folks, folks will find them, Folks will find
Speaker 3: a Mustang.
Speaker 1: I get it. Well, you know, my wife and I
Speaker 1: have just that way of example. It seems to be
Speaker 1: somewhat of a parallel. We're Doberman lovers and there are
Speaker 1: there's a network of Doberman rescues, just like there are
Speaker 1: there's a network of pitbull rescues or any other breed,
Speaker 1: but they are interconnected. So if you know there's somebody
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati that's looking for to rescue a Doberman, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be any it doesn't there's not
Speaker 1: one necessarily in the area, you could reach out to
Speaker 1: the one and can tell they reach out with one
Speaker 1: in Indiana. You know, That's that's how that works.
Speaker 2: Wet.
Speaker 1: I understand how that connection works. So there is a
Speaker 1: Mustang community out there. So I'm glad to know that
Speaker 1: because I, yeah, my wife would love to own a horse,
Speaker 1: and I just you know, like, honey, there's no way.
Speaker 1: So it's just that it seems to me it would
Speaker 1: be an uphill challenge to place these Mustangs, but apparently
Speaker 1: it's not now moving aside from the uh the Valor program, uh,
Speaker 1: the Trust and Valor program. Do you take volunteers? But
Speaker 1: I know you're located in Goshen, So my listeners know that,
Speaker 1: and uh do you do you? Are you looking for volunteers?
Speaker 1: I know you want donations, and so I'm encourage my
Speaker 1: listeners if you want to donate to this wonderful cause,
Speaker 1: it's Mustang Journey dot org. There's a little donate button.
Speaker 1: But how about just folks who would like to spend
Speaker 1: some time there mucking or leading or doing whatever does
Speaker 1: you need them to do?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, absolutely, we're always looking for volunteers, you know, to
Speaker 3: support Mustang Journey and h typically the draw to Mustange
Speaker 3: Journey is the care team that I mentioned, Folks that
Speaker 3: just want to kind of come out and just you know,
Speaker 3: take care of them, you know, feed water, mock, pick
Speaker 3: up a miller and you know, and just spend time
Speaker 3: with them. But they can certainly reach out to us
Speaker 3: and there's obviously some some paperwork that they would need
Speaker 3: to fill out, and yeah, just and and get started.
Speaker 3: You have two or three orientations, depending on the level
Speaker 3: of horse knowledge.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: You know, when you feel comfortable being the in the
Speaker 3: pen and taking care of them, then we'll just kind
Speaker 3: of not turn you loose, but go through the orientation
Speaker 3: and then you can start taking care of them.
Speaker 2: We have a we have a community. We have a
Speaker 2: we have a community.
Speaker 3: Calendar that you can you can put your name on
Speaker 3: a certain time.
Speaker 2: It's called time.
Speaker 3: Tree and uh, you can put your name on the
Speaker 3: on the calendar when you want to. If you once
Speaker 3: a week, once a month, twice a week, it's up
Speaker 3: to you.
Speaker 1: That's wonderful that I have a feeling you may get
Speaker 1: some calls on this or some some outreach. And I
Speaker 1: see on your your website you got how much a
Speaker 1: bail of hay is, how much the grain is, and
Speaker 1: you know veterinary visit and all that. There's donation levels.
Speaker 1: You can be a sponsor of a horse for a
Speaker 1: full year at a certain level, so there's a multitude
Speaker 1: of ways to help out. Or you can just show
Speaker 1: up and uh and and help them clean the stalls
Speaker 1: out and work with some some beautiful mustangs and they
Speaker 1: are absolutely beautiful beasts. Troy Day, thanks for the time
Speaker 1: you spend with my listeners today and explaining Mustang Journey
Speaker 1: to my listening audience. I think it's a wonderful thing
Speaker 1: you're doing. And keep up the great work and uh
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll have you back on the show down the
Speaker 1: road again sometime.
Speaker 2: Absolutely what I appreciate. Thank you for having me certainly
Speaker 2: appreciate it, and like.
Speaker 3: To invite you and your wife out anybody come on
Speaker 3: out and meet the mustang.
Speaker 1: Well, get the horse part out of her system for
Speaker 1: a little bit. She grew up on a farm and
Speaker 1: had a horse when she was young, so that's where
Speaker 1: that comes from. And thanks again for the work.
Speaker 3: It's the way you can, you know, have somebody else
Speaker 3: take care of the horses. You can just come out
Speaker 3: of time with him.
Speaker 1: I like that idea, man, I like that idea. And
Speaker 1: thanks again for helping the American veteran and first responder
Speaker 1: Troy Day. It's been a real pleasure. Mustang Journey dot
Speaker 1: Org is where you find the organization and help them
Speaker 1: out in some way. Troy, take care of yourself and
Speaker 1: keep up the great work. It's seven twenty two at
Speaker 1: fifty five KR see the talk station bottom of the ar.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hear from Daniel Davis with a deep dive
Speaker 1: to stick around for that, But first a word for
Speaker 1: ammer