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The emotions evoking "Million Dreams" Freestyle

Writer's picture: Mirka CrewMirka Crew

The "Million Dreams" Freestyle featured mustangs Marvel and Right on Trac in Fort Worth, TX January 19th, 2024 in the Mustang Champions Freestyle.

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This unforgettable performance brought the audience to the edge of their seats; laughing, cheering with excitement and getting teary-eyed. 

This performance was inspired by my personal journey of becoming a horse trainer in the USA;

 

Twenty years ago, I came to the United States with $200 in my pocket and my family's warnings in her ear: "You'll never become a horse trainer; instead, you'll clean stalls all your life."


I fought the fears and doubts occasioned by such discouragement through the firm belief that the only limit to our success is the one we place on ourselves. Our ability to realize our dreams depends primarily on whether we allow self-doubt to undermine us.  Whether we get to manifest our dreams or not depends mainly on how much we allow our fears and self-doubts to stop us.  


Whether we believe that we can achieve something or not, either way we are right. Belief leads to achievement, for success is a story that we create in our heads; only fear can destroy that belief and stop us in our tracks. Fear kills the belief that we can succeed which easily stops us in our tracks. We may not know how to achieve our dreams, but self-belief is the key to their realization.


Every day in our lives we are faced with many challenges. Leading up to the trip to Fort Worth, my weanling Sunraya got injured on the fence, slicing her extensor tendon. I spent 6 weeks and most of our savings trying to save her life. Sadly, she didn't make it. In order for me to be able to go to Fort Worth, TX to perform and have a financial buffer for unexpected expenses (such as a truck breaking down), we had to sell all of our cows. The winter time is not the ideal time of the year to sell them, because many people do not want to have to feed cows through the winter, especially with the hay prices these days. We took a loss on it, but it provided me with money to cover the trip.


There was a bigger challenge we faced however. It was the ice-storm and the 100-year record cold temperatures. I called our layover host one day before the ice storm to inquire about the extremely steep hill which normally isn't a problem at all. She laughed on the phone, not understanding why her hill in Louisiana could possibly be an issue. The next morning I got a call from her, with a serious tone of voice, she said DO NOT COME! She sent me photos of several inches of snow and a thick layer of ice covering her water troughs.


Kelly Stewart, who was supposed to meet us in Montgomery, said that her truck drive brother was warning her that we were going to drive into the ice storm if we leave as planned, the next day early in the morning.


Due to having to doctor Sunraya every other day, I couldn't leave even a day sooner. I didn't have other options any way I looked at it. We were to attempt to drive into the ice storm and hope for the best.


A trip that would have normally taken us 1.5 hours, took 6 hours. We only hit a rain storm, not an ice storm, but we hit the effects of the ice storm and the extremely cold temperatures. Even though I kept my speed low, I still lost control over the truck and trailer, fish tailing and sworwing from lane to lane. Going back at the point was not an option, the route back home was iced over more as it was more shaded. The sun was melting some of our side. Stopping also wasn't an option. We were about to live through the coldest night of 100 years in Louisiana. I needed my horses to have a chance to move around and stay warm.


Driving with sweaty palms and adrenaline rushing through my veins, I started getting a tension headache. It was very hard to relax when we kept passing wreck after wreck, semi trucks mainly jack knifed or slid off the road, tipped over, their load scattered around, or face planted with the hood of their truck into a pond, sweaping another large vehicle into the pond with them. We got delayed several times behind wrecks or taking side roads to go around them.


We were blessed with an amazing layover and even advised Elisa Wallace to layover with us, warning her of the road conditions ahead. Mary Miller-Jordan also sent her warnings as the Shreveport area which was still ahead of us, was supposedly the worst and the news coverage confirmed it.


We made a plan to postpone our departure the next morning by 2 hours, allowing the temperatures and the traffic to melt the ice more. The first couple of hours we still hit some ice patches but the rest of the trip was thankfully dry. We made it there safe and sound, but lat for the production meeting.


As I was warming my horses Marvel and Trac in the warm-up pen, an accident occurred. A spooked horse of one of the pre-show performers lost its rider and was galloping down the concrete aisle next to the warm-up arena, dragging a flag behind him. This spooked most of the horses in the warm-up arena, including mine and especially Trac, who was calm up until this point, with his head down, both ready to perform. I had 7 minutes to get them calm enough again to start our performance. Elisa Wallace was at a disadvantage; they were calling her name to go ahead and go in. She was in the middle of the aisle where the accident happened, and both of her horses were quite panicked. As an experienced performer, she managed to go in and get through her performance.


Now it was our time to go...


I have now performed many freestyles in front of a large audience, but never before have I felt so connected with the crowd! We all held our breath as the horses bravely faced numerous challenges in the electrifying atmosphere. Relief washed over us when they turned to me for guidance. We were awestruck by the beauty of their bond as they moved in perfect harmony during their liberty dance. The magic of all three of us uniting together was palpable. Trac amazed us with his incredibly challenging liberty jump, which he confidently executed on his own, without my direction. Our cheers reached their peak as the synchronized liberty spin unfolded at the end—a move I spontaneously discovered during practice and couldn't wait to unveil, as it had never been done before. Most importantly, we all left feeling inspired by the limitless possibilities!


It was such a gift and a tremendous blessing to have Sedrick Hicks of PS91 Digital Arts present to capture this performance on a video.The two videos on Youtube and Facebook together have reached over 20+K people, leaving hundreds of comments for this touching performance;


"Watching this heartfelt display of connection with horses has left me in tears. It's truly a beautiful show of grace and dedication."  M.B.

"This was just so beautiful...the trust and love they have for you is so on display here...this is what training, all training, is all about..." K.M.F.

"Such a beautiful technical performance. Congrats!" C. M.

"Magical. Disney moment! Have you thought about a disney movie or career?' C.D.M.E.

"Witnessing this incredible bond has brought tears of joy. This post has ignited even more inspiration on my personal journey." M.B.

 

My biggest goal has been to inspire you to be bold when it comes to your dreams and your passions. Tapping into the belief, rejoicing in one's drive and hunger, leads to action and the search for answers, to the understanding that there are no limits, that the sky is, no matter what we are told, limitless. We tap into that belief, take massive action, add the drive and hunger to it, and we never stop searching for answers. We become unstoppable and we get results. Those results give us certainty to reach for another dream.

 

Life is such a precious gift. It is up to us to open it.

 

The opening = action.

Inspiration = the desire to live a dream.

Living = action.

 

Immersion = Figuring how to. Taking one small step at a time. Taking chances. Jumping on opportunities. Being scared but acting brave. Being scared but doing it anyways. Ditching all excuses. Scheduling the time to do it. Making it a top priority.

 

INSPIRATION + IMMERSION = SUCCESS




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