Throughout January 2026, we featured mustangs and mustang crosses on YourDressage, finding out just how beloved these Mountaineering Mustangs are to our community – so much so, we couldn’t fit all the stories into one month!
In this story, a rider originally from Sweden shares how she pivoted her training program to focus on one of America’s most iconic breeds – the mustang!
By Linnea Helander
My name is Linnea Helander, and right now, I have three mustangs of my own, and two here for training. I moved to the US from Sweden five years ago.
I had always worked with horses with issues or killpen rescues, and wanted to move into taming mustangs. The first mustang that came into my life, Ohana, was a little bay mare. After just having moved to our property in Guffey, Colorado, I was working with a client’s horse in their roundpen by the road, when a lady drove up asking about our arena. We chatted for a while, and she asked me if I wanted a horse. She had a ten-year-old mustang that they had owned for a year and still could not get close to.
I told her I would come look at her the next day, where I would discover the absolute sweetest little mare, with a big forelock and a tangled mane. I decided that she was coming home with me, and after working with her for a week, I could halter and lead her onto the trailer!
This was how I got involved with the mustangs. And having a long dressage background, that’s what I wanted to do with them. While Ohana never settled 100% and is living her best life at The Wild Horse Refuge in Craig, Colorado, I have some very lovely young mustangs right now!
Nova, born in 2021 at the Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area (HMA) in Colorado, is supposed to begin her competition career this year, showing in both dressage and jumping. She was given to me by another mustang trainer in our area after being deemed too dangerous to be around people. Despite her reputation, she has been absolutely lovely and is the sweetest kid you can ever imagine. Nova is my heart horse, and while it wasn’t love at first sight, we have absolutely grown together, and I can’t see my horse life without her.
Leo, born in 2021 at Little Colorado, Wyoming, is the mustang I am currently gentling and starting under saddle, and hopefully, we can do a couple of shows this year (we were supposed to go to the 2026 Mustang Classic before it was canceled). He has been a more challenging mustang and has been very reactive, but he did turn a corner and recently had his first ride without any problems!
In 2024, I gentled Freya, born in 2021 at the Stewart Creek HMA in Wyoming, and then sold her to a lady who now boards and trains with me. Hopefully, she can also do some shows this year.
While I have others, too, these are the three that are and hopefully will be my dressage horses this year!
This will be our first show season, and as someone who is pretty fresh into mustangs specifically, helping a well-gentled mustang find their own home is always a big win for me.
Last year, I took Nova to a mounted patrol clinic, and she handled herself really well for a young horse with very little exposure to the big horse world. There, she walked through fire, smoke grenades, flares, police sirens, and much more. Just being in an indoor arena with sixteen other horses was a big deal for a mustang who lived in the mountains.
It’s been a journey getting back to where I am now. In 2022, I had a bad accident; I dislocated my right elbow really badly, and I lost the ability to straighten my arm. It is now stuck at a 90-degree angle, and it has changed my riding a bit. I’ve had to relearn how to be soft without being able to straighten my arm.
I plan to take it easy our first show season, and mostly focus on fun and exposure. We are fine-tuning softness and confidence, and working on finding forward movement while being light in the contact and engaged in the hind. I do a lot of my work with young horses while ground driving, allowing them to find their own balance without a rider before asking with someone on their back. I like starting my horses slowly and quietly, so now, at five years old, we are ready to start working a bit more seriously!
Mustangs have really taught me more about body language than any horse before. While I have been in the horse world for 25 years, working with a wild horse is very different. They are so very clear in their cues and haven’t been influenced by people. It has absolutely taught me to communicate on a different level with the domestic horses that I work with. I have found a balance in my training program, where the horses can be seen and heard, but also have rules to follow.
Nova was said to turn her butt and kick when she came here – turns out, she is just asking for butt scratches, and she will chase you backward to get them. Leo hears me getting ready in the house and will stand and wait for me by the gate to come out and work!
My advice to anyone who decides to gentle a mustang is to just keep working on it! When I started with mustangs, I had a long background with horses, yes. But I was also just injured, my confidence was knocked to the curb, and we had absolutely nothing set up for horses on our property. I have built everything from the ground up, and after almost four years, I’m finally at a spot that I feel pretty comfortable in.
Don’t feel like you can’t do it because you don’t have a fancy arena or setup. I spent my first year of work on dressage programs in a big, uneven field, fine-tuning on the roads around our area. As long as it’s safe and secure for mustangs, and you have a network that can help you if you run into issues, you will be fine.
