Oct 21: Babies are Picked Up

Today I decided to skip school since the babies were going to be adopted and I wanted to be there. The lady was a bit late, but not by much, than we went out and started showing them off. She had been interested in Comet because of her injury and wanted to take her in as a rescue horse and she had already chosen Gatsby by looks and the pics. She had seen of him. She had to choose between Partner and Comet which seemed to be a very hard decision. Finally Partner walked up to her and put his head in her arms. She immediately melted and decided to adopt both of the boys but also take Comet because she had some friends who were interested in her. We loaded them up easily and, after a few tries to get out of our driveway, she headed out. We were sad to see them go but we were also happy that they got a good home. Now, the next step is the fall horse show.

Day 100: 4 Babies

On October 1^st we brought back 3 more Mustangs than we expected. There were no registered bidders there which meant that all of the Mustangs would go for minimum bid. One of the horses got bought by a man that already boarded his horses at Reber Ranch. 2 of the other Mustangs ended up going home with there trainers and the three that didn’t went home with me. The three that came home with us were super sweet and nice. It took them a while to warm up to us but they were soon running up to the gate when they heard us call them, and they would put there heads on our shoulders (which is very rude but sweet). We had a lot of fun working with them every day and my sister was even thinking of keeping one, Gatsby. Partner and Gatsby are practically twins, both bay with at least one full sock on there hind feet. I like to call Partner ‘Clue’ because his stripe (on his face) looked liked like a question mark. There was also Comet. She is very sweet and fun to work with but she has a wound on her head. We had a vet come out to check it out and found that her skull was actually fractured and she would have to take medication twice a day. Even with the add on of special care for one horse it has been a great journey and we look forward to finding them great homes.

Day 99:Mustang Final

On Oct. 1^st the 2011 Mustang Yearling/ Washington Youth final event took place. We were super excited and could not wait to see everyone with there Mustangs. I made sure we had everything we could possibly need and more before we set out to Reber Ranch. My sister and I had decided to bring Reece in the night before so she could get settled in before she had to work the next day. We got there at about 6pm and the first thing we did was give Reece a quick bath. She had not had one in a while and she was in a strange place so she was not very happy about having to get wet. Right after her bath we took her outside to dry off. We finally got her tucked into bed at around 10, then we went to a friends house to get some rest before the big day.
   The next morning we left the house about an hour later than planed but we were still there in plenty of tome to get ready and clean up before the morning meeting. I worked with Reece some in the morning just to get her stretched out then we went to the morning meeting to go over the days events. The meeting went by quickly then we were all lining up to with our horses all clean and ready for vet check. Reece had been up most of the night so she was really sleepy which was the main thing we got marked down.
    The next thing to do was showmanship. The pattern was all things that Reece new and was good at but she decided she was to tired and did not want to have her best performance.
     Soon after that we had trail class to do. Again there was nothing new but Reece decided she didn’t like it anyway. She was afraid of the newspapers on the ground, she did not feel like trotting, and she didn’t want to back either. She loaded into the trailer like usual and even turned around to have her halter taken off like I would normally do, but the judge saw that as trying to get out. She ground tied well and side passed fine to even if it wasn’t quite strait. So far it has not been our best day.
     Finally we had the free style. This was the event I had been looking forward to all day. We both got all pretty and dressed up like fairy princesses and I even made my ‘greenstick’ into a magical wand. Reece was awake and ready at this point and we were both excited to show off what we could really do. I had put together a routine with the song ‘Fireflies’ by Faith Hill. The routine was originally supposed to be at liberty but she was so sleepy I figured I better leave the halter on during the whole thing. I had her move her haunches and forehand, side pass both ways, trot slow and fast, send at a walk and a trot and around cones. I lifted a pole between her legs and as my finally I got up on a fence and sent her butt around both ways like I was going to mount her. The fence I had always done this move on was about 4ft high but the fence I used at the event was about 6ft high, and I was wearing a slippery dress. I almost fell off the fence a number of times and when it came time to lay over Reece like I had planned she decided not to stand still. So I improvised by simply putting my knee on her rear and striking a pose. We did really well and had a lot of fun.
    I ended up with 4^th place over all and the horsemanship award which made me very proud of our work together. Each of the trainers went home with a belt buckle, a shadow box, and a leather bracelet with your mustangs brand on it. We even came home with 3 more special surprises...

Day 92: New and Fun!

Even thought the final competition was really near we decided it would be fun if we had something new and different to do. The first thing that we thought of was a lion stand that I could have her stand on, but that would take up to much room in out trailer. The next thing we thought of was a teeter totter, that would be easy. All we would need is a sturdy piece of plywood and a long round log. We went down to our handy dandy shop (which was cluttered with just about anything you would need if you were remodeled houses like my dad.) we drug down the supplies we would need to the arena, including a few barrels, 5 gallon buckets, 2x4’s and 4x4’s (just in case we decided to get creative). Soon after we set up the teeter totter, I was attempting it with Reece, the first time she did great…but after that she realized that it was scary and she fell once she hit a point on the bored. She would resolve her fear by jumping off the bored (usually towards me) the second it began to tip. After a few times of trying the ‘fun new thing’ my sis and I decided to make an ‘archway’ to hang things like tarps from. Reece had gotten really good at the tarp on the ground ,but she still was not fond of it touching her anywhere else. We hung up the tarp and her immediate response was ‘you can look but you don’t touch’. after a few min. she decided it was okay to walk under it but she defiantly would not stop to smell the flowers. I decided we had enough fun for the day when she would stop by it and let me rub her with it.

Day 85: ‘Jumping’ Out of My Way (When I am on the Fence.)

While I was working with Reece I realized that we were getting lazy about reactions on a dime and I was letting her saunter around lazily. She was obviously getting bored and she didn’t want to work at her best. I decided to change it up some. I could send her while sitting on a fence, but the farthest I had ever gone with that was having her nose in my lap and she would swing her but around and back up when I asked her to. I backed her all the way up and had her face so she was parallel with the fence. It took a few tries but she finally figured out what I was asking her to do. Now she was listening and honestly trying to learn rather than just going through the motions. I asked her to walk forward and after a few confused ‘I’ll just walk to mommy’ s she figured out it was like I was sending her, just like if I was on the ground. Soon she was listening well enough to be side passing away from me and do semicircle ‘lunging’. she was again interested and jumping at what I asked her to do.

Day 79: Cone Control

today I decided to work on Reece and her sending in a more refined way. Instead of just having her switch directions I walked about 5ft. Away from her (to the side of her haunches) and had her weave around 4 cones that I wad set up near a fence. In order to do this exercise you need to be able to maneuver both the front and back end of your horse with out having any physical contact with them. I have done this exercise with her many times but I wanted to make it a cleaner and more…….pretty looking maneuver. It took a few times but before long she was listening well and I barely had to tilt my head to control where she went. I was very proud of our achievement that day and we both had a lot of fun getting to maneuver her easily.

Day 74: Giving to Pressure (No Dilly-Dallying!)

When I went out this evening Reece had been pacing (which was obvious because of the worn down area by the fence …and I had seen her doing it). Just a slightly important fact of my fields layout is the second you open the gate you are on a downward slope, at the bottom of this hill is a section to the right (the diet pen) and a section to the left (The hill pasture that we kept Reece earlier in the summer) then straight ahead is the arena. If you go out pat the arena there is much more field that goes way out across a creek and all the way across Cherry Valley. With the way our fencing is set up you can close 3 gates and keep the animals up in the section of field near our house so they can’t go out past our arena. It makes it so you don’t have to walk out in the huge field to catch a horse.
Anyway I had all the horses in the close pasture (to the house) and Reece was in the right section. I closed the gate behind me (mostly because of our calf that thinks I am his mother) and did some liberty work with Reece in the smallish area.
If there is one thing I have realized about Reece it is that, if you want to get anything done, you have to get her attention first. Once I got her attention she was amazing but I noticed that she was being a bit slow to move away from me when I asked her to. I got her into the arena and did some work with sending her around me in a circle then changing her direction. Then I worked on having her leg yield away from me. Once I got her moving well and responding quickly I let her be done for the day and let her out with the other horses.
Again, as a reminder, I would love to see y’all at Reber Ranch this Sat. Oct. 1 and hope you’ll come cheer on all the ‘Stang trainers.