Challenge ACCEPTED
Horse and Rider|Summer 2021
When teenager Rebecca Kennedy decided to sign up for the Extreme Mustang Makeover, she did it because she wanted to challenge herself as a rider. But she ended up learning so much more after working with her untouched mustang.
NICHOLE CHIRICO
Challenge ACCEPTED

The first time Rebecca Kennedy saw a mustang compete in the Extreme Mustang Makeover she had been searching the internet for horse-training content and stumbled across videos of the competition that immediately caught her attention.

Like many tech-savvy teens, she began to scour the internet to learn more about the event and watch any kind of mustang-related video she could find. From there, she quickly learned that the Extreme Mustang Makeover offered a youth division at their competition in Fort Worth, Texas, and immediately knew she had to get involved somehow. →

Last-Minute Entry

Through her research, Rebecca found the entry form to the youth division and immediately ran down to her parents to ask if she could enter the event, but there was one problem: they only had a couple of days to fill out the paperwork and gather the letters of recommendations that were required to even be considered.

“When Becca came to us and said she wanted to try and be part of this youth event, we immediately started working on filling out all the paperwork that comes with signing up for this event,” Rebecca’s mom, Tara, explained. “From that moment we were just running around trying to get everything filled out and submitted in time. Then we were just sitting there holding our breath seeing if she’d even be accepted to participate.”

It wasn’t until the Kennedys were on vacation when Rebecca found out that she would have the opportunity to work with an untouched mustang and compete at such a prestigious event.

This story is from the Summer 2021 edition of Horse and Rider.

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This story is from the Summer 2021 edition of Horse and Rider.

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