{"id":36026,"date":"2023-01-31T02:47:43","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T09:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mustang-camp-wins-award-for-best-illustrations-in-childrens-book\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:28:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:28:56","slug":"mustang-camp-wins-award-for-best-illustrations-in-childrens-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mustang-camp-wins-award-for-best-illustrations-in-childrens-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Mustang Camp wins award for best illustrations in children\u2019s book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The children\u2019s book \u201cPeabody Gets Adopted,\u201d which tells the story of a donkey foal at Mustang Camp, received a Winnie award for the illustrations done by Aline Grindatto.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Veronica Moore, a collaborator on the book \u201cPeabody Gets Adopted,\u201d accepted the award for best children\u2019s book illustrations on behalf of the other book collaborators and Mustang Camp in Blanco, New Mexico, where she is a board member.<\/p>\n

The Equus film festival was held Dec. 1-4 at the Rancho Murieta Inn in Sacramento, California. The Winnie book awards were announced Dec. 4.<\/p>\n

Volunteer animal trainers from around the globe created a children\u2019s book about a baby burro who finds a home. The book features illustrations by French artist Aline Grindatto, photographs by English photographer Jasna Furlan and story by Mustang Camp\u2019s director, Patricia Irick, and volunteers Moore of New York City and Christine Ng of New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The book was inspired by a real donkey foal at Mustang Camp named Peabody, and Moore said the book came about after she and the other volunteers wanted to find a way to help the horses and burros find their forever homes when they volunteered at the camp in 2017.<\/p>\n

\"Peabody
Peabody (right) and Powell were two of the burros who were trained by Mustang Camp before being adopted in 2017. (Veronica Moore\/Special to the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt was the summer of donkeys,\u201d Moore laughed. \u201cThere were three baby donkeys that summer of 2017, and we were just having a ball, and we thought they were the cutest things ever. And so yeah, we just thought, well, we\u2019re just having a blast. Let\u2019s just make a story. And Aline (Grindatto) is such a good artist, and her illustrations are beautiful. You know, it\u2019s just a simple thing about, you know, how do we get these guys adopted and events that happened at Mustang Camp?\u201d<\/p>\n

The book is based on the true story of Peabody, an anxious donkey who finds his place in the world with the help of his best friend, strict mother and a friendly zebra. It features photos and watercolors of the actual Mustang Camp animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all fell in love with the baby burros \u2013 the story virtually wrote itself,\u201d Irick said. \u201cWe all contributed to the book, which was finished after everyone had returned home, despite the distances among us. This story helps young readers understand animal adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore went to Mustang Camp expecting to work exclusively with horses, but ended up falling for a different animal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlong comes donkeys and they just steal your heart. It\u2019s the craziest thing,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThey\u2019re so smart. And they process differently. They\u2019ve got that seven-second delay like, \u2018Is it worth it? Should I trust this person?\u2019 They teach you patience. They make you a better trainer. Learning how to train with positive reinforcement changed my life. In everything, how I see things, how I view the world \u2026 and it\u2019s such an amazing way to train animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Veronica
Veronica Moore poses for a photo with one of the burros she helped train during her time at Mustang Camp in 2017. (Veronica Moore\/Special to the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cPeabody Gets Adopted\u201d is available through the Mustang Camp website, www. MustangCamp.org<\/a>, and Amazon. Proceeds support equine rescue and training at Mustang Camp.<\/p>\n

The Mustang Camp recently made headlines for its work with the feral horses of Mesa Verde National Park.<\/p>\n

In September, 19 horses were rounded up using a low-stress, bait-and-trap capture method.<\/p>\n

Ownership transferred to the National Mustang Association Colorado Chapter, which will oversee the adoption process.<\/p>\n

The band of 14 mares, a stallion and four males were transported to the Mustang Camp in Blanco, New Mexico, to be tamed by horse trainer Patricia Barlow-Irick.<\/p>\n

Moore found out about Mustang Camp\u2019s program while living in New York and decided to apply, never thinking she\u2019d be chosen to fly out to Southwest Colorado to help tame wild horses and burros. She said the experience taught her so much and gave her an appreciation for the Four Corners area as well as the mustangs that live there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many things that stick out to me. You know, it was like so stunningly beautiful out there. It was just like waking up and being on a movie set almost. Just the natural beauty was gorgeous,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Eight mares and four geldings (castrated males) will be ready for adoption within the next two weeks, said Becky Leonard, ambassador of the Mesa Verde Horse Adoption Project.<\/p>\n

Those who are interested in applying to be part of Mustang Camp\u2019s training program can apply online at https:\/\/www.workaway.info\/en\/host\/8557982744dd.<\/p>\n

Reporter Jim Mimiaga of The Journal contributed to this article.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

collaborator is on the board of the New Mexico camp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[202,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-briefs","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83210,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36026\/revisions\/83210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36026"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}