Trading Your Mustang
If you are not satisfied with the Mustang you adopted from the auctions, you may choose to resell or trade him or her here. You may not gain any profit from these auctions; you may only sell your horse for the amount you paid for him or her. If you trade your horse for a horse that sold for a higher value than yours, you must pay the difference unless the owner of the higher-valued horse chooses to willfully ignore the difference in price.
Horses purchased by users not intending to enter their horses in the Mustang Million may still sell or trade them to users intending to enter them in the Mustang Million; however, they must sell them for the winning bid, not including the 500c paid after winning a horse that would not be competing in the Mustang Million. That 500c will be refunded from RVEC upon sale of the Mustang. Users may sell their purchased Mustangs at any price to other users who do not intend to enter them in the Mustang Million. The rules of trade only apply for users looking to purchase or trade in order to enter them in the Mustang Million.
After Monday, July 10th, Mustangs participating in the Mustang Million may no longer be sold or traded until after the event is complete.
More Information on the RVEC Mustang Million
As you probably already know, RVEC's Mustang Million is made up of four different parts: Adopt, Gentle, Train, and Compete. Now that the Adopt section is complete, we can explain the three remaining sections in greater detail. These three sections rely on the use of written and/or visual art to convey the events of the Mustang's training. Bonuses will be listed for each of the three sections, but remember that the greatest favor you can do for yourself in terms of bonuses is playing to your strengths. Visual and written art are weighted equally here as well as any other medium through which you choose to express your Mustang's journey. You are by no means expected to include all or any of the bonuses listed by the tasks; my intention in including so many suggestions is to give everyone plenty of options to choose from or jog thought to come up with other ways to go above and beyond the task at hand. Please note that visual art should be accompanied by a short description to explain everything that has happened in the picture.
Gentling Your Mustang
Now that you have adopted your Mustang(s), it's time to work on getting them used to the human world. There are four tasks that must be completed through visual or written art before you can move on to training your Mustang: unloading your Mustang from the trailer and introducing him or her to his or her new environment, haltering your horse yourself, tacking your horse up, and gentling your horse, or conditioning your horse to human touch and entering into a working horse/human relationship.
Unloading your horse is primarily intended to display your abilities as a visual or written artist, as your Mustang's reaction to the trailer and new environment will most likely not be influenced significantly by any interactions with your character. Rather, you should set up your horse's general personality and behavior and use the unloading as a sort of introduction. You should focus on your Mustang's stats and attributes as much as reasonable here, but the scene is very open-ended with a lot of possibilities. Any events that happen here may later go on to influence your horse's reaction to other human interactions, so keep that in mind in writing his or her unloading and future training. As a bonus, you can choose whether or not your horse will be wearing a halter and lead rope courtesy of the BLM at the time of his or her unloading; wearing a halter will make it easier to catch your Mustang when the time comes to gentle him or her, but it could be dangerous if it becomes caught in something or if the Mustang steps on the lead rope and becomes fearful of the halter or if the halter is poorly sized and unable to be removed. Alternately, although choosing for your horse not to wear a halter may be safer and less hassle later on, being unable to catch your horse if necessary or for gentling could make the process of gentling and caring for your Mustang more difficult and lengthy. BLM halters are dull, solid-colored nylon halters and should not replace the halter you eventually choose for your Mustang. Additionally, having something unexpected but realistic happen will also be a large bonus.
Haltering your horse for the first time is your next task. Make sure you take personality into account and don't rush the process. If your horse doesn't accept the halter, that's all right. This does not have to be the first time you have attempted to halter your horse but it must be strongly implied that it is not if you choose not to record the other times. Disobedience, refusal, or panic on the part of your horse will not reflect poorly on you as a trainer; rather, immediate and extreme compliance is likely to signal drugging or extreme duress of the horse. Just make sure you take your horse's attitude and personality traits into account during haltering and you'll do well during this section. Remember that if your horse was already haltered by the BLM, you must still complete this section by haltering your horse yourself. As always, personality traits are a booster for any given task. Additionally, choosing a specific type of halter and explaining why your character chose that type of halter for the Mustang is a big booster.
Tacking up your horse comes next, and if your character wants to hop on now they can, although it isn't necessarily recommended and should be written accordingly. The tack you choose for your horse now, whether it's an old dusty saddle you pulled out of the back corner of your tack room or a brand new set you bought at the finest tack shop in town, will be assumed to be the tack your horse is ridden in for every event thereafter unless a change is specified later. Your horse is not required to be ridden with any particular type of tack and may be ridden tackless in freestyle events, but if you choose to go without any given piece of equipment, be prepared to double the amount of training it takes for your horse to excel at any particular movement. You are still required to place a saddle and some form of bitted or bitless bridle on your Mustang for the purposes of this activity, even if you choose to forego it later. For bonus points, have your character explain their reasoning for the items they've picked out. This is a great opportunity to explore and explain your horse's conformation with regard to riding and possibly acknowledge any potential weaknesses. You may also choose to switch your horse's tack later once you get to know him or her, and if a decision is made that alters tack for the betterment of the horse, that will also be a bonus. Realism is key here for the biggest boost to your entry.
Gentling your Mustang is the final step before beginning training. Go crazy here, or be super chill. Whatever you want to use to have that breakthrough moment with your Mustang, go ahead. If you don't want a breakthrough moment and would rather take it in steps, that's awesome. This step just needs to show that your horse trusts you enough to begin training, and that can be as simple as haltering your horse in the pasture without a hitch or rubbing the ears of a head-shy horse to as complicated as you want to make it. As always, realism is key, take your horse's personality into account, and going above and beyond will give your entry a huge bonus. This would be a great time to take the day off, play with your horse, do a bit of desensitizing, etc.
Training Your Mustang
Now your Mustang has been gentled and is most likely ready to accept training. Your horse is still a wild animal, however, so keep that in mind during his or her training. You're going to be introducing a lot of new and foreign things to your Mustang so don't forget about that while working on his or her progress.
In order to train your Mustang, you must complete 3-5 training sessions, depending on the category(ies) you choose to enter. For Legends, you must detail a minimum of five; for each Specialty class you enter, three; and for Youth, five non-riding sessions. Ideally, these sessions practice any moves or maneuvers necessary for the horse's chosen discipline, and recommended moves will be listed in greater detail later on. The more training sessions and commands you practice, the higher your score will be, but you are only required to do the 3-5 rides/sessions in order to enter. This is where you should really start focusing on your horse's trainability and let that dictate your sessions in part. If your horse struggles, that's okay; that's just part of training. Horses who respond perfectly to training and commands, even with a trainability at 10, will lose points for suspected drugging. All horses have their off days or get confused; including that will make for a more realistic session. Additionally, there exists a concept of "implied training" within RVEC's Mustang Million, where it is not required that the horse masters the movement that day. If you attempt to teach a horse a maneuver and the horse is unable to fully grasp the concept and in a later post the horse and rider wrap up practicing that move, for example, it is implied that the horse and rider went back the next day and the day after and practiced until he or she picked it up. As such, it is not necessary to end every session having accomplished something big, although it is necessary to suggest somehow that the movement was eventually learned. Realism is key. Take your horse's personality and physical attributes into account and acknowledge potential weaknesses that will account for difficulty completing maneuvers for big points. Taking time off between rides just to care for, play with, and bond with your Mustang will also boost your entry. Taking proper care of your Mustang, including grooming and feeding him or her, will go far in the competition and is especially important in Youth competitions. Putting in more rides than necessary to continually practice and learn more moves will earn you bonus points. If you intend to compete in the freestyle portion of Legends, you should make a point to practice as many parts of your routine as you can to ensure that it goes over well while being performed. This is an excellent phase to RP out with another player.
Your Mustang cannot be assumed to do as well at a movement as another horse who did practice that movement when your horse did not. However, you are not required to complete more than the necessary amount of rides if you don't want to. It's a matter of balancing out what you can put sufficient energy into, making up for your horse's weaknesses, and capitalizing on his or her strengths to score well in a competition. No one has enough time to perfectly master every move.
Competing With Your Mustang
There are three different sections of the Mustang Million that your Mustang can compete in: Legends, Specialty, and Youth. As previously mentioned, Legends and Youth will run no matter what, and each Specialty class if there is enough interest. Specific requirements and suggestions for each division will be discussed in detail later on.
Legends includes three sections: horsemanship (which will be judged on your sessions and horse-handler relationship developed over the training process, as well as your submission to the contest itself), pattern (which will be judged on overall training, writing/art effort, and physical stat acknowledgement [as in, if a horse has weak hind legs, acknowledging in the writing/art that the horse may have a difficult time with a pivot]), and trail (which will be judged on attitude and character stat acknowledgement in writing/art as well as horse-handler relationship and overall training). The top 50% of contestants in Legends will move on to the Finals, in which contest each participant will come up with a freestyle routine, include a link to any necessary music, and write/complete visual art for such a routine. That will be judged on realism, former training, effort in writing/visual art, creativity, and overall excellence. Finals performances will be judged without regard for former scores in the preliminary rounds.
Youth includes three sections: handling/conditioning (which will be judged on your sessions and horse-handler relationship developed over the training process, the physical condition of the horse, and your submission to the contest itself), pattern (which will be judged on overall training, writing/art effort, and physical stat acknowledgement [as in, if a horse has weak hind legs, acknowledging in the writing/art that the horse may have a difficult time with a pivot]), and trail (which will be judged on attitude and character stat acknowledgement in writing/art as well as horse-handler relationship and overall training). All classes will occur in-hand and riding is not permitted at any point, even during the freestyle routine. The top 50% of contestants in Legends will move on to the Finals, in which contest each participant will come up with a freestyle routine, include a link to any necessary music, and write/complete visual art for such a routine. That will be judged on realism, former training, effort in writing/visual art, creativity, and overall excellence. Finals performances will be judged without regard for former scores in the preliminary rounds.
Specialty classes include hunters, dressage, pattern, cow work, trail, driving, and freestyle, and horses are judged according to training, physical conformation in accordance with the discipline, writing/art effort, and general creativity (for freestyle). Physical conformation stats that lend themselves well to the various classes will be discussed in greater detail later on.
The competition will most likely take place RP-style, and an additional award will be given out to an outstanding participant, so when the competition takes place, you are encouraged to continue interacting with your horse or engaging with the crowd and competition before and after your performance. For example, if the entries for the trail class are open from an arbitrary 15th to 18th, you may choose to groom your horse beforehand, invite another user to lunch, participate in the trail class, untack and reward your horse, and then watch other members compete in several different posts throughout that time period. All of that, except for the actual participant post, is entirely voluntary but will increase your chances of receiving that additional award and prize, so it depends upon the time you have available and how fond you are of that sort of participation.
In all three sections of the Mustang Million, bonuses include going above and beyond, keeping everything realistic, and framing your horse as an individual. You will have to spend a good deal of time cultivating a relationship between horse and handler as well as coming up with unique events and setbacks even during the competition, as "robotic" horses will be penalized for being drugged and "perfect" horses will be penalized for speculated abusive techniques. Going out of your way to create a story, particularly RP-style where you are interacting with other characters and their horses, will earn you huge bonus points. Detailing mistakes during your entry form will not penalize your horse; your rider will be more in tune to what's happening with the horse than the judges will be, so don't be afraid to acknowledge that something went wrong lest you receive a lower score. By this point, you should have a good feel for your horse; simply keep everything accurate and engaging and you'll score well. Remember to take into consideration the massive crowd and new environment your Mustang is in and include his or her reaction for maximum points. It's okay if your horse freaks out; many do, and that's just part of the event. Everything you've been training for has culminated here, so bringing in things from previous experiences will be a huge help for your entry. Most importantly, enjoy what you're doing! Have fun during the competition and it'll be sure to show in your entry.
