A New Dawn With a Warrior Mustang

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?

A mustang trainer from Region 5 shares how she is honoring her heart horse’s memory by helping other mustangs find peace in their new, domesticated lives.

By Paige Burnham

My name is Paige Burnham, and my current dressage mustangs are Valkyrie and Korra! 

My adventures with these mares require me to go back to the beginning of my journey with mustangs. It started back in 2018, when I adopted a weanling mustang filly whom I named Zyana. I was immediatly hooked on the process of gentling and working with these incredible horses, and haven’t stopped since! 

Throughout the following years, I worked with many special mustangs, but a mare named Fantasia became my heart horse. Fantasia was a beautiful dark bay mare from the Green Mountain Herd Management Area (HMA) in Wyoming. She had the most beautiful and incredible soul – she truly was a unicorn in horse clothing. I adopted her to be a part of an Extreme Mustang Makeover, but after connecting with her on a soul level, I ended up withdrawing from the competition because, at the end of it, I would have been required to sell her in an adoption auction.

For three incredible years, Fantasia was my partner, and she completely changed my life and my horsemanship. Words can not express the impact that she had on my life. 

On Christmas morning of 2023, Fantasia passed away in a pasture accident, and my entire world stopped. 

After losing Fantasia, I was unsure if I wanted to work with mustangs anymore. I was devastated and almost walked away from the horse world entirely. But one day, on Facebook, I came across a brand new event – the Mustang Classic, to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky, the first-ever English discipline, mustang-makeover-style competition. 

I logged into the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Online Corral, just to see the eligible horses for the competition. The BLM does internet adoptions on the Online Corral, where they offer horses up for adoption, and allow approved applicants to bid on them based on a handful of pictures, and – if you are lucky – a 10-second video (think eBay for wild horses). 

There were over 400 horses available for adoption in this auction, and the first one that showed up was a three-year-old red dun mare from the Sheepshead/Heath Creek HMA in Oregon, who tugged at my heart. I immediately submitted an application and was approved to bid, figuring that if bringing a mustang home was meant to be, it would happen. 

The internet adoptions are open for seven days, and by day three, I had been outbid on the red dun. I had also picked out a bay to bid on, planning to adopt one and see if I actually wanted to dive back into gentling mustangs or not – I was not searching for a new heart horse. 

At the end of the seven days, I had won the bay! I paid for her, but I was still bummed that I had been outbid on the red dun; by the end of the adoption, her bid was more than double my top bid, so I figured that she must have gone to a good adopter. Still, I could not get her out of my head. 

Three days later, I was astonished to get an email that I had a second chance to adopt the red dun – all of the people who had bid above me (at least two!) had passed on her! I was very excited, and paid for her immediately. In the span of a week, I had gone from thinking that I would never gentle another mustang, to having adopted two more! My pick-up date was March 1, 2024, and I was feeling excited about something for the first time in months. 

On February 29, 2024, I drove all the way from Palisade, Colorado, to Elm Creek, Nebraska, to pick up my mares. My plan was to gentle them, maybe compete in the Mustang Classic, and then rehome them. I didn’t want to go into either relationship with the pressure of one being my new forever horse, but something about the dun kept me hooked on her (remember, at this point, I had only seen five pictures of her). On March 1, I went to the Elm Creek Holding Facility and started the journey home with them. The bay seemed super sweet, but the red dun was pretty wild and definitely had some fight in her. 

After getting them home, I started getting to know both mares. The red dun was thin, so I fed her lots and spent time just sitting and letting her get used to me. Within a day, she was eating out of my hand, and would intently watch me the whole time that I was working with the bay. The bay connected with my mom, so she took over her training pretty early on. The bay’s name is now Dandy Ocean Lion, or Dandelion, and she and my mom have found success in the western dressage ring! 

My mom working with Dandelion gave me more time to spend with the red dun, who, at this point, still didn’t have a name. We became closer every day, and I knew she wasn’t going anywhere – she was mine in the way that Fantasia had been, and being with her was healing me.

She has a facial injury that made it clear that she was an incredibly tough mare, with an excellent attitude – she definitely was a warrior out on the range to have been able to overcome her injuries. I named her Valkyrie, and her show name is Valkyrie of the Dawn, a constant reminder of her strength, and a reminder that our journey together is the dawn of a new life for both of us, together. 

As I gentled Valkyrie, I was privileged with how quickly she came to trust me, and we built a beautiful relationship. She was incredibly fun to train, and re-ignited my love for training mustangs. She took to things quickly and seemed to truly love the work – she would wait at the gate and whinny at me when she thought it was training time. It became apparent that she was a horse that thrived in a training regimen, and we started working towards competing at the Mustang Classic. 

The Mustang Classic was September 13-15, and mimicked an eventing layout. The first day, we would ride a  Training Level dressage test (USEF Training Level Test 2), on the second day, we would complete a Starter level (a maximum fence height of 2’3”) cross country and show jumping course. The final day is a freestyle performance for the top ten placing pairs. This is daunting for any young horse, let alone one who was untouchable as of March 1 of the same year. Valkyrie and I trained hard, particularly on dressage (I was really cautious to avoid over-jumping her), and enjoyed every minute of it. 

We made it to the Kentucky Horse Park and had the adventure of a lifetime – just being at the Kentucky Horse Park and riding on the grounds was a bucket list experience for me. Valkyrie and I got to ride in the legendary Rolex Arena, and she was perfect.

On dressage day, the weather was very rainy, and I had never ridden her in the rain. Despite this, Valkyrie laid down a fantastic dressage test, though unfortunately, I made a mistake, and didn’t make it into the arena in the required time after the bell rang. We still performed phenomenally, and I don’t regret a moment of it. I did choose to scratch her out of the jumping phases, as she was still fairly young, and I wanted to prioritize the long-term soundness of my partner. 

Since the Mustang Classic, Valkyrie and I have competed in schooling shows and USDF-recognized shows, even winning High Point Training Level for the Grand Valley Dressage Society, our local chapter of the Rocky Mountain Dressage Society (RMDS). We have also earned an RMDS medal that we will be awarded later this month. I am so proud of this incredible mare, and I look forward to our future together. I’m hoping to continue our journey in dressage, and enjoy one another for a very long time. Valkyrie is incredibly sweet and has the goofiest personality; she never fails to amaze me and make me smile. 

Valkyrie has played such an incredible role in my healing and provided me with the reignition in my passion that I needed to move forward, and to honor Fantasia’s memory by getting mustangs out of holding and into loving homes. 

In 2025, I launched my horse training business, Fantasia Horsemanship LLC, where I gentle mustangs and help other people learn about gentling and training horses with methods that benefit both the horse and the human side of the partnership, leading to lifelong relationships that makes both the human and the equine better for knowing one another. I am a Branded Partnerships Trainer through the organization Forever Branded, where I bring home mustangs, gentle them, and adopt them out to loving homes. Mustangs mean everything to me, and I now spend my life working to advocate for them and bring them out of holding and into loving homes. 

Anyone looking for a new dressage partner should absolutely consider a mustang. Gentling a mustang is incredible for both the horse and the human, and the relationship you build with a wild horse will be unlike any other relationship you have ever had! Mustangs come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and they can excel in dressage. I would recommend that you look into Herd Management Areas, as different HMAs have different genetic lineages that result in types of horses suitable to different jobs. 

I prefer traveling to holding facilities and viewing the horses in person, but I have also had very positive experiences adopting through the Online Corral. Always look for what the potential could be, not just the horse in front of you. With a balanced diet, grooming, and training them how to relax and be loved, it is incredible how much they change from how they look in holding. Never hesitate to listen to your heart when you are looking at them.

In November 2025, I adopted another dun mare, with the hope of returning to the Mustang Classic in 2026. This mare was another, pulling-at-your-heart-type of horse, and I fell in love with her the second I saw her picture. I won her in an in-person adoption. 

Unfortunately, it was announced in December 2025 that government funding for the Mustang Classic was cut, and the event has been canceled for 2026. However, this mare has Fantasia’s magical spirit; she is another forever horse for me, and I cannot wait to get her into the dressage ring! 2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year for me with both Valkyrie and Korra!

Life is short – adopt the mustang and enjoy the ride!