The Original Five
Five mustangs. Five stories. One road ahead.
They weren't chosen because they were perfect.
They weren't chosen because they were the prettiest horses in the pen, the easiest horses available, or the ones everyone else wanted.
Each of the Original Five came to Fifty Shades of Bay for $125 or less.
Each arrived with a different story.
And each is still becoming the horse he will be when the journey begins.
Meet Uno, B.E.E.F., Clifford, Ernest and Kuzco.
Five horses preparing to carry Fifty Shades of Bay across America.
UNO
B.E.E.F.
CLIFFORD
ERNEST
KUZCO
Support the Original Five
Their journey begins in 2027. Their care begins now.
Your support helps provide feed, board, hoof care, veterinary care, training, and the everyday needs of Uno, B.E.E.F., Clifford, Ernest, and Kuzco—the five mustangs at the heart of Fifty Shades of Bay.
Every bag of feed, farrier visit, vet appointment, and day of preparation happens long before the first expedition mile.
You can give once.
You can give monthly.
You can give a little.
You can give a lot.
Your donation amount does not determine your place in the Herd. Every contribution—large or small—helps care for the horses and move the mission forward.
Clifford, our Big Red Bay, will give everyone who donates a virtual smooch. Become a monthly supporter and he may even throw in one of his signature wet “dog kisses.”
The miles haven't started yet. The mission already has.
Why these five?
Fifty Shades of Bay began with an idea: if we are going to ask people to look differently at America's mustangs, then the horses carrying the mission should represent the horses we're asking people to see.
Not the most expensive.
Not the most polished.
Not necessarily the easiest.
The ones waiting for a chance.
Some of the Original Five spent years in holding.
Some had already been adopted.
Some had struggled to fit into the places they were supposed to belong.
One didn't even fit the original picture of what an Original Five horse was supposed to look like.
Perfect.
Because neither do people.
Their stories are different, but together they remind us of something important:
Where you've been matters.
Where you are matters.
But neither gets to decide, by itself, where you can go next.
UNO
TAKE THE CHANCE.
The One Worth Taking a Chance On
5 years old • Bay • Born in BLM holding in Cañon City, Colorado • $125
Uno is number one. Literally.
He was the first horse I intentionally chose with the idea that he might become part of what would eventually become Fifty Shades of Bay.
Uno was born in a BLM holding facility and by the time I saw him online, he was five years old… Five years is a long time for a young horse to wait for someone to choose him.
For the auction online, Uno had one awkward photograph and a grainy video where he was anxiously running around the pen.
With about 30 minutes left in the auction, and no bids... I took a chance and put in minimum $125 on him.
When the auction closed, nobody had bid against me, and he has proven to be the best $125 I have ever spent.
WHO UNO IS
If Uno were a person, he'd be a surfer dude.
Windswept hair. Easygoing personality. Calm curiosity.
He approaches most new things as though he's thinking:
Yeah, man. We can probably do that.
The wild-looking horse I picked up from holding quickly became one of the sweetest and easiest mustangs I've ever started.
He even encountered a large body of water for the first time by simply walking into it until he was swimming.
Apparently nobody told Uno that was supposed to be scary.
WHAT UNO MAY TEACH US
For the first five years of Uno's life, nobody chose him.
That never meant there was anything wrong with him.
Sometimes the environment we're standing in doesn't show the world who we really are.
Sometimes incredible potential can sit unseen for years.
Being overlooked does not determine your worth.
Sometimes someone simply has to take the chance.
B.E.E.F.
TRUST AGAIN.
The One Who Learned He Could Let His Guard Down
Bay • 6 years old • Little Colorado HMA, Wyoming • $125
B.E.E.F. was not my first choice.
Or my second.
He was somewhere around third or fourth.
Then the adoption ran in the opposite order from what I expected, and suddenly the biggest horse there—one a BLM employee had specifically told me to watch—was standing in front of me.
While other horses reacted to the commotion around them, B.E.E.F. stood toward the back.
Leg cocked. Calm. Cool. Collected.
I bid $125… And nobody bid again.
My third-or-fourth-choice horse became one of the Original Five.
BIG ENERGY-EFFICIENT FRIEND
B.E.E.F. originally stood for Big Energy-Efficient Fellow.
And the energy-efficient part remains extremely accurate.
When the herd comes running to see me, B.E.E.F. comes too.
Eventually.
The others may trot or run.
B.E.E.F. walks.
He's headed in the same direction. He simply sees no reason to waste all that energy getting there.
We call it B.E.E.F. Time.
Somewhere along the way, after a few of what I affectionately call our “F-you moments,” Fellow became Friend.
Because that's who he was becoming.
WHAT B.E.E.F. MAY TEACH US
B.E.E.F. came to me guarded.
Touch could make him defensive. He had boundaries, and some of them came with very clear warnings.
We didn't build trust by pretending those boundaries weren't there.
We acknowledged them.
We communicated.
We worked through uncomfortable moments.
And slowly, this enormous guarded horse began letting more of himself become accessible.
B.E.E.F. reminds us that sometimes defensiveness is protection learned through experience.
Being guarded does not make us incapable of connection.
Trust isn't something we demand.
Sometimes it's something we build.
Preferably without expending unnecessary energy.
CLIFFORD
YOUR VALUE IS NOT YOUR PERFORMANCE.
The One Whose Value Was Never His Price
10 years old • Bay • Rock Creek HMA, Nevada • $125
His name used to be Tango.
Then I met this enormous red bay mustang with the personality of an oversized dog, I knew that ‘Tango’ didn’t fit him, and there was really only one appropriate option:
Clifford the Big Red Bay.
He's around 16 hands, wide as well as tall, playful, curious, attention-seeking, and deeply interested in stealing whatever stick, flag, or lunge whip I happen to be using.
Imagine a slightly hyper Saint Bernard trapped inside an enormous mustang.
That's Clifford.
A HORSE WITH HISTORY
Clifford has lived more domestic life than any of the other Original Five.
He was adopted young and passed through several people's lives.
At one point, someone paid approximately $5,000 for him.
Later, behavioral problems changed the way people saw him.
He reportedly bucked riders off.
He struggled in some herd situations.
His monetary value fell dramatically.
When I heard about him, I explained one of the founding rules for the mission horses:
I couldn't pay more than $125.
The people responsible for Clifford learned about Fifty Shades of Bay and decided that where he could matter, was more important than recovering what they had once been invested in him.
Clifford came home for $125.
WHAT CLIFFORD MAY TEACH US
I'm still figuring Clifford out…
He's an onion.
Every few days, another layer appears.
One of the first surprises came when I introduced this horse—who had reportedly struggled with other horses—to Ernest.
They became best friends almost immediately.
Sometimes struggling to belong doesn't mean you're incapable of belonging.
Sometimes you haven't found your people yet.
Or, in Clifford's case—
your Ernest.
Our value is not determined by our price, our performance, our mistakes, or whether we fit someone else's plan.
Stop asking:
What is this worth?
Start asking:
Where could I matter?
ADAPT.
The One Who Came Back
4 years old • Bay Roan • Calico Mountains HMA, Nevada • $0
Ernest's story with Fifty Shades of Bay began years before Fifty Shades of Bay existed.
I first met him as a young horse at a mustang summit in Albuquerque, New Mexico back in 2023. Something about him reminded me of Phineas—the first mustang I ever trained and responsible for my love of mustangs.
I wanted Ernest then.
But wanting something and being ready for it aren't always the same thing.
I helped arrange for him to enter another program where the hope was that he could eventually work therapeutically with struggling teenage girls.
Years later, that path wasn't working out as everyone had hoped.
And unexpectedly, Ernest was offered back to me.
This time, the timing was right.
WHO ERNEST IS
Ernest is cautious, curious, sweet, and thoughtful.
He notices things.
He thinks.
He can react when something worries him, but what impresses me is his ability to process what happened and settle again.
He's still young. He still has plenty to learn about unfamiliar people, unfamiliar places, and the enormous world we're preparing to show him.
I don't need Ernest to become fearless.
I want him to learn that he can pause, evaluate, adapt, and move forward.
WHAT ERNEST MAY TEACH US
Ernest was supposed to follow one path.
It changed.
His namesake, explorer Ernest Shackleton, set out to cross Antarctica. When that plan became impossible, success stopped meaning reaching the original destination and started meaning adapting to the reality in front of him.
Maybe Ernest the horse carries a smaller version of that lesson.
The original plan can disappear without your future disappearing with it.
Sometimes the destination changes.
That doesn't make the journey a failure.
ERNEST
KUZCO
BELONG AS YOURSELF.
The One Who Didn't Have to Fit In to Belong
4 years old • Sorrel • Swasey, Utah HMA • $125
Yes…. We know…. He's not BAY. 😂
And that's exactly why Kuzco belongs here.
Before Kuzco was Kuzco, his name on the range was Ralphie.
He was born wild in Utah, and I have photographs and videos of him as a baby on the range—including footage of him getting the zoomies.
After seeing that he was available for adoption, I watched him for weeks.
I wanted him.
I kept saying:
If she still has him in two weeks... if she still has him in another week…
Those weeks passed, and nobody took him.
I took it as as sign and I brought him home when the stars aligned.
THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE
Kuzco has opinions…. Lots of them.
He is athletic, expressive, agile, fancy, energetic, and naturally talented.
Domestic life?… He'll take the good parts.
Treats?… Absolutely.
Touching him when he has not agreed to the terms and conditions?
Excuse you.
He actively seeks connection while simultaneously maintaining very specific ideas about how that connection should happen.
Kuzco still has the furthest to go in his foundational training.
But I'm learning too.
My job isn't to make Kuzco less Kuzco.
It's to become a better communicator with the horse standing in front of me while helping him learn how to safely navigate the domestic world.
WHAT KUZCO MAY TEACH US
You shouldn't have to erase the parts of yourself that make you different in order to belong.
Kuzco is expressive where others are quiet.
Small where B.E.E.F. and Clifford are enormous.
Energetic where others conserve.
Sorrel where everybody else is bay.
He doesn't fit the picture.
He belongs anyway.
THE HORSE WHO ALMOST DIDN'T MAKE THE CUT
When Fifty Shades of Bay became real, I started becoming intentional about which horses would become the Original Five.
And Kuzco created a problem.
He wasn't bay.
I actually considered finding him another home because he didn't fit the picture I'd created in my head.
Then I realized how completely backwards that was.
Fifty Shades of Bay could not build a mission around overlooked horses while excluding one because he was the wrong color.
So I stopped searching for another bay.
I changed the picture.
Not the horse.
FIVE HORSES. FIVE BEGINNINGS.
Ernest reminds us to adapt.
Uno reminds us to take the chance.
B.E.E.F. reminds us to trust again.
Clifford reminds us that our value is not our performance.
Kuzco reminds us to belong as ourselves.
We know what each of them has already taught us.
We have no idea what they'll teach us next.
That's kind of the point.
Meet them now.
Then come back and watch who they become.