Mountaineering Mustangs! Throughout the month of January, we are featuring mustangs and mustang crosses.
Did you know that dressage riders who choose a mustang as their mounts are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program, as the American Mustang & Burro Association, Inc. is a participating organization?
Here, a young rider from Region 9 tells us how her riding journey led her to fall in love with dressage, and subsequently, a mustang dance partner!
By Kalyn Callaway
My name is Kalyn Callaway, and I started riding dressage at ten years old. I am a big horse nerd, no doubt. All I talked about before I actually started riding was toy horses or horse movies. But when I had my first lesson when I was 7, I hated it. I felt stuck because all this barn would let me do was walk; they did not really teach. I wanted to learn and wanted to advance with horses.
I told my mom I did not want to ride because I was bored with it, so I stopped. I thought maybe I just didn’t like riding, but I wanted to event so badly. A couple of years passed with me loving horses from afar, but not riding, and then we found a barn – Wind Dance Equestrian Center! I had my first lesson on a lesson horse named Bongo, and I had so much fun! I was finally learning how to do new things.
The instructor, Gabrielle Hibbert, asked what I wanted to do, and I said eventing. Let’s be honest, it was a big goal that little me wanted to achieve. Gabrielle started me with dressage, and I quickly fell in love with it. I leased my first dressage horse, Zen, who was donated to Gabrielle’s lesson program, around a year after I started, and I would help Gabrielle with barn chores so I could earn extra lessons.
There was a point where I would go to the barn every day after school to help out and ride. I progressed fairly fast; I just wanted it so bad, and I wanted to be one of the best. I still do!
In the summer of 2022, I went to my first show with Zen, and after that, I was hooked. Then along came this silly grey mustang mare named Storm, who was owned by Gabrielle’s husband, Matt Ward. After not having had a father figure in my life, Matt became just that. He told me all kinds of stories about Storm – how she was rescued by two twin sisters, how she bolted across a pasture the first time he rode her – and I began to play with her, grooming and walking her around. I eventually got to ride her, just at the walk and a little trot.
Unfortunately, we had some struggles with hay availability the next year and had to sell her. She was purchased by a woman in Wyoming, but it didn’t work out, so Matt and I went to pick up Storm and another horse named Bella Rose. Secretly, I was quite pleased that it hadn’t worked out; she was coming back! I started to work with Storm again, just fun and easy riding.
That winter, I started working with her more seriously…and I just fell in love. Out of all of the trained horses at the barn, I picked the spunky grey mustang. I did some Western with her, started working on her canter again, and got her fit. We went to a Buck Brannaman clinic, where she was so good, and we learned so much. Being the youngest one in the group was fairly stressful, but she got me through it. After working in Western dressage, I ended up returning to classical dressage. It brought about a sense of childhood nostalgia, motivating me to stick with the discipline again.
Now, both being fifteen, Storm is the one and only horse for me. She has helped me through so many tough times, times when I wasn’t sure where to look for answers. She gave me the answers in her own way, or helped me find them, I suppose. The heart of a mustang is far greater than anything else I have ever seen. It’s like they truly understand things deeper than anyone else understands. She is a perfect challenge.
They are such complex creatures that I will forever admire, and her complexity has taught me immeasurable amounts of patience and the art of respecting nature. I try not to work against the wild side of her brain, but instead to work with it and embrace it.
I never thought I would be where I am, let alone with a mustang. I have known Storm throughout my whole riding journey. She was always that horse in the background that people didn’t pay much mind to, and for some reason, I just had a feeling about her, and I’m quite thankful that I followed through. I love Storm, and I love every piece of knowledge, love, and understanding she has given me.
