Start Here – Walk the Quiet Miles With Us

This is where the long ride begins long before we ever swing a leg over and point two mustangs toward the border. It is a home for quiet miles, honest stories, and the slow work of becoming the person two wild-born horses can trust.

If you are new here, this page will help you understand who we are, what we are doing, and where to go next.

Meet the Mustangs

Fading Hoofbeats follows two USFS- mustangs:

• Floki – a black gelding with a sun faded coat and a watchful eye, adopted from McGavin Peak in northern California.
• Lagertha – a glossy black mare from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory, brave in her own quiet way.

They are not show horses or movie horses. They are the kind of horses who, with time and trust, can carry a person safely through rough country and still stand quietly while babysitting grandchildren in the paddock.

What Is the Long Ride?

Before long, I will ask Floki and Lagertha to leave everything they know and walk into a long trail life with me.

The plan is a roughly 4,000-mile loop:

• We will start near the Mexican border in Arizona and point our noses west until we touch the Pacific coast.
• From there, we will follow the coast north through California before turning inland toward the high country.
• Along the way, we will pass through the wild horse territories that once held Floki and Lagertha—McGavin Peak and Devil’s Garden.
• After that, we will swing northeast into the interior West, threading our way through mountain and high desert country and finally reaching the Canadian border, before turning south again toward New Mexico and the southern border.

Along the way, we will thread together:

• Training and trust work at home
• Real miles under saddle
• Tree plantings and small acts of repair and love for nature. Floki was rounded up from McGavin Peak because there wasn’t enough food out there for the wild horse population to survive—we want to do what we can to help restore as many of these areas as possible.
• Stories from public lands and wild horse country

This site is where that journey is being built, one small piece at a time.

If You Love Stories of Courage and Connection, Start Here

If you want to feel the heart of Fading Hoofbeats, begin with these:

• Roots Along the Quiet Miles – why we are planting trees and carrying memories along the route.
• Floki’s Trust – A Quiet Moment in the Pasture – a small, ordinary moment that changed how I ask for big things.
• When Trust Trembles – what happens on the days we get it wrong and have to start again.

If You Are Here for Wild Horse and Adoption Info

If you came looking for practical information about wild horses, HMAs, and adoption:

• Start with our Wild Horse HMA Guide – Start Here post, which explains how the guide series works.
• Then visit the HMA Guides page to find guides by state as we publish them.

Those two pieces will help you use the guide series as a resource instead of feeling lost in letters and acronyms.

Trail Breaks and Puzzles

Alongside the big stories, we have small “Trail Breaks” – short posts and puzzles you can enjoy with a cup of coffee between chores or in the quiet after a long day.

Trail Breaks live on the Trail Breaks and Puzzles page, and many of them pair with specific stories like Roots Along the Quiet Miles or The First Hour in Camp.

If you want a gentle way to wander through the world of Fading Hoofbeats, that is a good path to follow.

Support the Mustangs

If our work with these mustangs and this long ride speaks to you, and you would like to help keep hay in the pasture and hooves on the trail, you can read about ways to support the ride on our Support the Mustangs page.

There is no pressure. You walking alongside us, reading, sharing, and caring about these horses is already a gift that we treasure.

Stay in Touch

If you would like to follow along as we publish new stories, guides, and trail breaks:

• Sign up for Updates From the Trail on our homepage.
• Follow Fading Hoofbeats on Facebook for new posts and pasture updates.

Thank you for being here. The road is long, the miles are real, and we are glad to have company.