About Viento

This is a photo of Viento- my beautiful equine companion, teacher, and muse.

Viento is my living, breathing dream.

He has been by my side for a very long time, galloping through my thoughts and dreams since I was old enough to stumble upon a pixelized version of him in my favorite childhood video game.

The original, pixel version of Viento. (Credit to Horse Isle 1: Secret Land of Horses)

Viento is everything to me - my friend, my teacher, my muse. He will make so many appearances throughout my time with this blog that I decided to make him his very own About Me page.

So, about Viento:

He is an eight-year-old (as of January 2026) American Mustang gelding from the Snowstorm Mountain HMA in Nevada. He was gathered by the Bureau of Land Management on September 23rd, 2018. He was passed over three times in a row and thus became a Sale Authority mustang. He was eventually purchased and trailered to Ohio. He changed hands twice since then- I am his third owner.

I have known Viento for over a year now, and owned him for about nine of those months. When I met him, I was a different person. I was a bit naive and optimistic, and I wanted my dream cremello mustang more than anything in the whole world. Now, I'm not saying that I am no longer naive or optimistic... I am sure I am, in many ways. But back then I did not necessarily know what I was getting myself into. That being said, given the chance for a do-over I would do nothing different.

I was in the middle of planning a getaway marriage/elopement to my favorite Greek island when I met Viento. I fell in love with him on sight, of course, but I told myself I would save up and buy him in a few years or so.

Well, the world had other plans. His mustang-trainer owner before me injured her shoulder and decided to sell Viento to free up time in her schedule for other horses. She was about to advertise him for sale on Facebook when I reached out, rather sheepishly, saying that I was interested in buying him before that happened.

My husband is the most supportive man on the entire planet. In the middle of our extravagant Greek marriage plans, he listened patiently to his future wife while she explained the feeling that this was her horse and that she just could not imagine passing up the opportunity to purchase him. After much discussing and planning, we agreed to purchase him on a lease-to-own agreement, paying him off over the course of the following six months.

I was elated. Viento was going to be mine, could this be real? One of my very biggest, craziest dreams was out there and coming true!

Up until this time, Viento had lived about three and a half hours away from me. I made the gargantuan effort to visit him once a week while he was there, but the travel was definitely starting to wear on me by this point. I needed a better solution. Luckily, his former owner saw this, too, and offered to trailer him to one of her friend's boarding facilities which was much closer to me while we paid him off. We eagerly agreed, and Viento made the journey to northeastern Ohio.

In February, we paid off the lease-to-own. A few days ago (October), we moved Viento to a barn even closer to our house, cutting away valuable minutes of drive time and saving a significant amount of gas mileage. Fast forward to now- we have weathered a harsh winter together, we have spent time getting to know each other, and we have been incredibly frustrated and unsure of ourselves together. Our journey together is far from over, but yesterday did mark a substantial turning point in our relationship. Something just clicked into place, and our connection strengthened exponentially. I view him as much more than a mere dream, now. He is my best friend and confidant, my magical unicorn, and I cannot wait to share all of our adventures with this new Barn Witch community for many years to come.