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.

Day 69: Work after Rest

I decided that since Reece did so well at fair I would give her a few days off to bask in her victory. When I went out into the field with the intent to catch her she decided that she still wanted more rest days. It took me way longer to catch her than usual and I decided that if she was going to be a snot about catching I better find a way to reverse the bad habit she was going to form. After catching her and getting her attention back from a few days of rest I brought her into our round pen and did some pen work with her at liberty (no halter). I had her walk, trot, switch directions on a dime, halt back exc. all with out touching her then I had her come to me while I stood still in the middle of the pen. By the time I was done working with her the other horses had decided to come up and take a look so I locked her up in the field close to my house with some other horses and let her play of the rest of the night.

I would also like to invite EVERY ONE to the final showcasing of the Yearling Mustang/ Washington Youth program to support all of the youth who trained Mustangs this summer (Me and Reece being one of them). J
The adress is:

	Reber Ranch 28606 132nd Ave. S.E. Kent, WA

Day 61: Last Day of Fair

On the last day of fair I did a trail in hand class with Reece. We had to open and pass through a gate, trot around cones, trot over a ‘fan’ of logs, back between poles (which we had some trouble with. She didn’t want ton stop but instead would turn and face me which I admit could have been my fault.), walk over a bridge that was surrounded with plastic animals, and side pass (side step) over a pole. Even though we had some trouble with the back, we got first with a blue. After trail I did a lunge line class. I had only lunged a horse a few times in my life and I had never lunges Reece until that day so it was a bit shaky but we still got first with a blue. Right after that class I cleaned out her stall and packed up all of our things. I was ready to go by 4 but ended up having to wait till late to leave. When we finally got home Reece was extremely happy to see the rest of the horses. Over all we had a lot of fun and going to this show boosted my confidence in our work together. I really look forward to the final event and I am sure I will be impressed with the other ‘stangs as well.

days 58-60: 1st 3 Days At Fair

I decided to show Reece at the Evergreen state fair in Monroe WA to see what we could do. I hauled her into the fairgrounds the day before we would have any classes and she settled in nicely. She ate hay and was completely calm. I tucked her in at about ten that night and was back at the fairgrounds by 6 the next morning. That day I had two showmanship classes back-to-back and we did great! She was very responsive and we got grand champ w/ blue danishes (colored ribbons that tell how well you did. Blue-great, red-not bad, and white-needs improvement). We had a lot of fun and I found that Reece loves kids. She would drop her head for them and let them rub on her face a lot.

We had no classes the next day but I still brought her out a lot to stretch and roll in the lunging area (which she loved). I also herd a lot of stories from older couples (and a few young ones) about the mustangs they had. Most of them were second hand but a few of them had trained the horses themselves and they were amazed by what we had done in such a short time, it made me very proud of Reece and also thankful that she is such a calm girl.

Days 54 & 55: Russell Beatty Clinic

For the last 2 days I have been participating in a Russell Beatty clinic. Russell Beatty is an endorsed Dennis Reis instructor who has a passion for horses and teaching others how to work with them in a way beneficial to both the horse and the owner. When we first arrived at the clinic which was 2hrs away from home Reece was a bit excited and did not want to pay very good attention to my instruction but in the next 10min. She settled down and began paying acute attention to me and she was very responsive. Russell helped point out some things I was doing that were causing Reece to get confused and may cause problems in the future when I begin to ride her or do more complex or delicate work with her. By the end of the two days Reece was being very respectful of my space and I could sit up on a fence and send her hind quarters around to make her parallel with the fence then back her off all the way to the end of the 14ft lead line. Russell also taught me how to collect have Reece give me lateral and vertical flections from the ground. She also began giving me vertical flections with a left and right shape.
While we were there I kept getting comments like ‘There is no way that is a Mustang!’ and ’Is that really a yearling? She is so well mannered.’ She made me very proud and I am really happy with the work I was able to get done with her.
For anyone in 4-H Russell Beatty is only charging $100 a day instead of $150. I highly recommend him and some of his clinics coming up in this area are:
Roy Wash on Tues, Weds & Thurs Sept 20, 21, & 22
Rainier on Tues, Weds, & Thurs Sept 27, 28, & 29
Renton which is for a weekend on Sat & Sun Oct 22 & 23rd.

Day 52: Niece and Nephew Come To Play

My sister came from Montana to visit and she brought her 2 kids with her as well. My niece, Tassin, is 8 and has an undersized cerebellum that makes it so she can not walk without a walker and my nephew, Riley, is a 7 year old ball of energy. Tassin and Riley had not yet met Reece and were very excited to see her for the 1^st time. When we went out there at first I had to push Tassin in the walker because it is hard for her to get it to move out in the field and Reece fallowed us down the hill and showed no sign of being scared of the walker. When we got down to the arena I put Reece’s halter on her and did a bit of warm up work to make sure she was paying attention before I let the kids play with her. I then had Riley come in and send her over poles in the round pen and he also sent her hind quarters away from him and also her forehand. Then he led her out of the round pen and handed her off to Tassin. I had to push Tassin in the deep sand but she had total control of Reece while she led her over our ‘bridge’ and around the arena a few times. Reece was totally calm and that was the first time I have noticed how much she love kids and how gentle she is around them.

Day 48: Farrier Comes Out

This morning I woke up to a car pulling into my driveway and immediately looked at my clock and sighed. I had slept in and my Aunt was here to watch as the horses feet got done. I jumped out of bed and got dressed as quick as I could then went down to greet my guest. She had brought 2 more people I did not expect as well. Kendal was eleven and loved horse and with her was her mom who also liked horses but was not as interested as her daughter. We went almost immediately down to catch horses and I showed them how to tie the halters and lead the horses correctly. I put Kendal in charge of our pony Spud and I mainly looked after Reece but I also had my aunt hold and brush her some. Another family friend, Sandy, showed up right after we caught the horses with her nice and they also got a chance to brush the horses and lead them around. The Farrier was late so my aunt Becky, who would be staying with me for the next 3 days, stayed with me and when the farrier showed up helped me hold the horses and put them away when we were done. Reece did very well and her front feet were handled with no problem at all but when he got to her back feet she did move away some at first then stood still just fine. The work I did with her paid off and Greg was surprised to see how well Reece did when I had only had her for 48 days. She did great and I am very proud of her.

Day 43: The Family Goes to Canada

For the next eight days my family will be fishing in Canada while I stay home and take care of the house. As you can imagine, while staying home ‘alone’ for more than a week, not doing anything stupid is the primary focus. Although I wasn’t worried about getting hurt or having any problems with Reece finding new things to do with her was a bit of a problem since Hilary is the creative one when it comes to doing new things with Reece, and she would be gone. So, for the first 4 days while I was totally home alone with basically nothing but a phone call every now and then I did my best to get Reece solid in review stuff. I knew that the farrier would be coming on the 11^th to trim all of the horses feet so I decided a good focus would be Reece’s feet and having her really solid in moving away from me instead of running me over so even if she decided to be a boog about getting her feet done at least Greg would not turn into a sandwich. In those 5 days I was able to look at her from a little bit of a distance and she would turn her rear away from me and she would pick her front feet right up although she would still jerk her back feet once or twice before holding them still. Although we didn‘t do anything new she got better at what she had already learned and did great.

Day 40: More Trail Equipment

My sister and I were wondering what kind of things Reece would do when it came to trail equipment and other things such as saddle pads and harnesses so we dug through our tack room and got out lots of new toys to play with. We brought out am English saddle pad that I rubbed her down with from head to toe, an old water bottle that made loud crinkling noises when you moved it around, a piece of a harness that I set on her back but did not cinch up, and other such things. Reece did very well with all of them and was very brave when I pulled a pole behind her. She was even curious of it and walked over it while it was moving many times. She is very smart and even though she still dose not like the tarp she is fine with everything else. She is very smart and we learn something new each day.

Day 38: Playing At The Park

Lately we have been thinking about taking Reece on an outing and yesterday was a beautiful day so we brought her to Taylor landing (a boat launch).  We were right next to a highway with cars going 55 and even though this boat launch is normally empty there were a surprising amount of people there. On our little adventure we saw a few curious dogs, cars coming and going, and a few boats going in and out but she did amazing. While we were swimming (and actually swimming not just wading) there was a man testing out his 'thingy-ma-bopper' to see if it would float and Reece barely even noticed him, she was far to busy following Lewis around as we swam.  She LOVES to swim!  It was so cute, we would go out and all you could see was her head as I guided her back to the shallower areas! She did terrific and never got pushy or panicky while in the water. We even played some on the playground, weaving between swings and I sent her around the slide while I was at the top of it way above her. And we even practiced jumping with a handy split tree that I sent and lead her through. She was so calm and remained responsive throughout the entire time at the park! At the end, she loaded right back up and quietly stood in the trailer for the ride home!

Days 33-37 more review

For a few days we decided to do some review again to work on things like picking up all four feet, trotting, round penning (moving forward, giving and coming to pressure, etc.), and working with the obstacles we have around the arena.  I can now pick up all four of her feet  and pound on them, even though she is not always consistent about her hind legs. We can also trot consistently at both a fast and slower trots, transitioning smoothly to and from a stop or walk.  She is also getting really good with the tarp and is walking over it with confidence although she dose not like it being put over her back. She also comes running up to the gate when I call her, even thought she is an a larger area and sometimes in with all five of our horses and three of our bull calves. Also, she is now  dropping her head when I put my hand on the bridge of her nose and I can get her to drop her head all the way to the ground so I know that if a kid were to halter her they can just touch her nose and they would have no problem reaching her. She is doing amazing and is tackling things with much more confidence then she used to as our mutual trust and understanding grows. I am very proud of her and I am continuing to have a lot of fun with her!

day 32 trail equipment

I have been planning to bring some trail equipment down to the arena for a while so I decided that today was as good a day as any. My sister and I brought down cones, a plywood board, and a white pipe then got to work. We set up the cones next to the fence and, about three feet away from them, we laid down the pipe. For that obstacle you have to send your horse around the cones while staying on the far side of the pipe so it works on sending and drawing your horse. After that we laid out the board as a bridge and had her walk over it, pause on it, back over it, and do pivots around it with her front feet staying on the board. She is also getting much better with the tarp and even though she is a bit hesitant I can usually get her to walk over it fine. She is doing well, improving quickly and we are both learning a lot.

day 30 playing in the creek

Today I decided to take Reece out to the creek to cool off and play some with Spud. It was her first time being in the ‘big pasture’ that covers a whole 63 acres. She stayed really calm even with the cows also near the creek and she had a lot of fun splashing around and dunking her head. Although the water isn’t very deep, barely up to her belly, she had a blast and by the time we were done she had herself totally, utterly, and completely soaked.

Day 29- First Official Bath

Day 29- First Official Bath Today was a nice day so I decided to cool Reece off by doing something new, a bath. You may remember that we have sprayed her with a hose before but I have never actually gotten soap on her. Reece is not very fond of the water from the hose but she is getting much better then she was. My sister brought her pony, Spud, up as well to be hosed off some and maybe also get a full bath.
          I started from the basics again since it had been a few days since I had sprayed her with the hose. First I sprayed her feet and when she stopped moving, or if she didn’t move at all, I would take the pressure off by taking away the water. She only moved a few times before she would consistently stand still while being sprayed with the hose. Once I had both sides of her all wet me and my sister got to work scrubbing her down. She loved the giant massage! We got both sides of her all clean without a problem all up her neck, in her main, and down her legs, and in her tail, then we got back to her least favorite part of the bath, the water. She did fairly well and for the most part did not move away from the water although she was clearly annoyed by it.
           After we got done with the bath we needed to waste time while the horses dried off so we decided to take them for a walk up the road. She did really well at first but after a few min. she realized she wasn’t in Kansas anymore, and Toto (Spud) was walking to slow. We got about half way up the road and decided to turn around because Spud’s feet did not like the gravel road to much. Over all I think that today was a pretty successful day and although she wasn’t too excited about the hose she did very well.

Day 27: trailer loading

Today we had just come home from putting on a petting zoo and had the trailer hooked up so I decided to take this chance to practice loading into the trailer. I didn’t think it would really be a problem because the first day when we brought her home she did not want to get out but I still expected it to take a day of work or so to have her load easily and willingly.
I lead her up to the back of the trailer to have her smell it since it had just had a variety of different animals in it. She smelled it and looked up at spud, who we had already loaded in as an example for her, then she got right in. my sister had been looking for the camera and when she came back was shocked to see Reece standing in the trailer totally relaxed. I had Reece come back out then we also took Spud out to see if she would still load. She smelled the trailer again then hopped right in again. I did that five more times then loaded her twice from the other eye and every time she barely hesitated to jump in. She did great and I am really excited to see how she surprises us in the future as well.

day 23: continued

I ended up going out again today after I realized that I never did anything with the water like I had originally planed to do. I brought Reece back up to the barn so I could hose her off. I have done a little bit with this before but not much. I have only ever sprayed her feet some and ‘made it rain’ in her paddock a bit. Now that I have been working with her longer I was confident she would be more willing to deal with the water. I started by spraying her legs and kept the pressure on till the stopped then I would immediately release the pressure. It only took once on both sides till she would not move when I sprayed her legs. I then moved up her body repeating the stop and release until I could spray her on both sides and she would not move. She did not like being wet at all but she loved the rub down she got when we were done. She is now happily drying off in the sun till it is time to go in her stall for the night.

day 23: tarp

today after a bit of round penning we went up to the barn so I could put spray Reece some with a hose. I was almost to the hose when I noticed an old tarp a little ways away and thought it was a good chance. I drug it out and put in on the ground in the middle of a small clearing then led Reece towards it. Needless to say it she spotted it right away and wanted nothing to do with it. I let her back away from it then set her up so she was facing it. She looked at it for a moment then decided it was far enough away so she could relax and ignore it. I figured trying to lead her up to it hadn’t worked so I would try sending her towards it (by ‘lounging’ her, or having her walk in circles around me and periodically switching directions). She was fine at first but eventually she caught on to the fact that for every circle she did I took a step towards the tarp which in turn made her go closed to it. She soon would try to change directions on her own and as soon as she found out I wouldn’t let her she began trotting past it then walking as slow as she could when she was far from it. After a while she would stop and look at it before trying to move away. Soon after that she was touching it with her nose and not moving away from it as much.

I then changed my position so I was almost on top of the tarp and Reece had to go in circles around it. Once she accepted that I had her stop and face it then I shorted the lead some before sending her forward and hopefully over the tarp. It took a few tries but she soon started to step on it fairly willingly going both ways. We are now to the point that I can send her over the tarp and get an immediate response. She is improving quickly and I am really proud of her.

day 19: Turn Out

I had not yet let Reece stay out in the pasture and decided that we now trust each other enough to let her have her own little section to play in. Right next to the arena is a large turn out/ small pasture on a hill and right in the middle is an old tree that my brothers built a tree house in when they were younger (I must have been 5 or 6). Since we mostly let our animals out to do as they please on our 63 acres it has not been put to use for a while and has lots of yummy grass for her to munch on and a few natural windfalls that we decided to leave because she is a super klutz it can help her be more aware of where she puts her feet. After some work in the round pen I lead her in to the turn out and walked her around most of the perimeter and over a few of the windfalls then let her go. As expected she immediately began eating so I let her be so she could settle in.

Day 18: Lots of Company

Today we had some company over from Idaho to visit and meat Reece. Although it had not been the original plan we could not resist bringing Reece some visitors. I brought her out to the round pen to do some normal work then had one of my cousins come in and pet her. We had people come in one at a time as to not overwhelm her to much and eventually we had five people loving on her. She really liked the attention although a few times somebody would jump of a fence or do something spooky that she wasn’t to fond of. After a few min. of love she soon got used to the noise and was no longer bothered by all the people moving around. There were quite a few people outside the pen as well as inside. We had a fun experience and I think that it was good for her to see some new faces. In my opinion it almost mimicked a show setting with all of the people around her although we were in a familiar place and there were not quite as many people as there would be at a show. Over all I think it was a good day with a new thing that will most likely work onto the future as well.

day 15: out to the arena/ round penning

Today was a nice day so it was anonymously decided that Reece should get to go out and play some in our arena. To get to the arena we need to go threw part of the field so we had been avoiding it until we were certain that she would be confident in her new surroundings and not be to overwhelmed. When we first brought her out we lead Spud in front of her so that she would still be with a friend. She was a bit excited while we were leading her down. Doing things like trotting around me and lifting her head up to listen to the cats playing in the grass but there was no real trouble. Once we got her into the arena that had not been used in a while since we would normally go on trail rides she settled right into eating the grass that had grown in there and leisurely letting me lead her around. The moment I got the halter off of her to let her play some she went to trotting and galloping around with spud letting out all of that pent up energy she had collected from being in a 30’x25’ paddock. At one point she began studding a fence and acting like she would try to jump it, so I went over caught her and brought her into the round pen that we had set up at one end of the arena. I had been wanting to do some round pen work with her for a while and figured now was a good time.
We have already been doing some ‘lounging’ in her paddock on her 14 foot line but that was only walking, halting and reversing, now in a larger area we could do more. We started with the familiar. Walking, stopping and reversing on the 14 foot line. Then after probably 10 min. I took off her halter and started some free lounging. She got the hang of it quickly and soon began walking or jogging with either a lift of my arm or a few swings of the lead rope I was holding. On a few occasions, some being my fault because I either was not being aware of my body position or was not paying attention at all, she would stop and eat grass or get a sudden energy burst and go loping around jumping and kicking and playing around to release all of her energy. She did very well and is learning quickly.

days 10-14: review days

I decided that since I had been teaching Reece so many new things in a small amount of time, we should take a few days to just lay back and get solid in the basics, Not only for her but for me as well. I decided that if I could focus on trust with things like giving to pressure, then her leading, backing and other maneuvers that would lead up to things like pivots and haunch turns would be more successful. She is already pretty solid in leading but her backing is not always consistent and her ‘pivots’ are sometimes more like trying to walk a circle around me. I think that these days spent on basic review will really help us in the future when we work on things like backing an L and ground driving.

Day9: sleepy girl

this morning I stuck to more review work because I was the only one home and I try to reframe from doing anything to crazy when there is no one there to spot me and it is also a safety measure since we must keep in mind that Reece had never been touched willingly before about a week ago. Even though there is really not much to report on the gentling process, when I first went down to feed this morning Reece and Spud were both lying down all sleepy. So I walked in and started mucking out the paddock minding my distance since sometimes when a horse gets up they take off at first especially if they are startled. After a few min. I approached her and started scratching her neck and back, she really liked it and stretched out with her neck to the point that she almost fell over while lying down (weird right, how dose that work?). Finally I went and grabbed a few leafs of hay and that got her to her feet right away. I guess lying down is hard work, she ate like she had just ran a marathon. :)

Day8: 4th of July

Yay! Today is the 4th of July! you know what that means? Fireworks! There is nothing better than a bunch of bombs making loud noises and bright colors. For humans anyway, but what about our horses. Basically today we are in a light work mode. Since there has been fireworks going off since yesterday all I’m doing is leading, backing and haunch turns. Tonight we are going to be gone so we are just hoping that she does not freak out to bad.

Day7: let it rain

Today was a fairly warm day so we decided that a little bit of bathing practice would be good. As discovered earlier in the gentling process, Reece dose not particularly like the water being sprayed or even dribbled on her at all so we decided that an indirect hit of water would be good. She drinks a large amount of water and if we hold the hose in front of her she will drink out of it and she will also paw at the water in her trough to splash herself. Me and my sister stood outside of the pen with the hose on full blast and sprayed it up over the paddock so that it reached almost everywhere. We hoped that it would be enough like rain that she would not mind but it was obvious she was not tricked. She would always find the one or two places that water did not hit and hide in it unlike spud, the pony we have in with her, who loved it and stood quietly as content as a bug in a rug. If Reece stopped moving while the water was on (I think she only did once while she was in the water) we would release the pressure. We did this for about ten min. then I turned off the hose and did some quick ground work review before feeding for the night.

Day 6 : wormer and injury care

When we got the mustangs on the first day, we also received a bag full of all sorts of goodies, one of those things was a wormer. We were told to give it to our horses as soon as we could comfortably handle there head. My sister and I agreed that today would be a good day. We were a little concerned that she may try to chew on it like and young animal would. Think about a puppy or even a human baby, they chew on everything and horses are no acceptation. Because I hadn’t given any wormers in a while I caught our POA pony Spud and refreshed my memory by giving him one. After success with Spud I went to take on the challenge of trying to worm Reece. I fully expected a fight, just about every horse I had ever wormed did not like to be willing when they saw the syringe in hand. Much to my surprise she took it willingly, obviously did not like the taste and went to take a big gulp of water right afterwards but she did well.
I praised her and then did some leading practice (which she is now amazing at and tomorrow we will work on haunch/forehand turns.) as well as some other review before my sister handed ma a wet paper towel to dab Recess injured knee with. You may remember that Reece jumped a panel on the first day, obliterated it and got herself a few scrapes. None of the scrapes were very bad, just a little bit of blood on her face but nothing to worry about, once we got her out of the mess of panels and could get a good look at her we saw her right front knee that was very bloody but because we could not touch her at the time we could not tell how bad it was. Once she was comfortable with me touching her I could tell that it was very swollen. First I used the wet paper towel to dab her knee and try to loosen up the dirt around it, then I scratched and inched Reece while Hilary put some antibiotic ointment on it. Now she is doing well and we will continue to keep it as clean as possible.

Day 5: backing and dropping head

Today I worked with Reece on backing in the morning then in the evening we worked on having her drop her head to make haltering easier. After doing a bit of review, turning and facing me then did a bit of leading practice. To begin backing I grabbed the rope a little bit under Reece’s chin then applied backwards pressure. She caught on quickly and after five or six times she responded quickly and consistently.
Later today we decided to start training her to drop her head when we touch her pole. At first I tried putting one hand on top of her pole and put some pressure on her halter by lightly pulled down. We decided that we should try a different method when she just started getting annoyed at me and trying to get away, so I decided to move the hand from under her head to on the bridge of her nose. When I applied pressure she would drop her head to get away from my pressure. When she dropped even slightly I would remove my hands. She did well and is making great progress!

day4: hose intro

On day four we decided to introduce Reece to a hose. When she got out on the first day she scraped up her right foreleg pretty bad and we have been watching it closely. We found that the swelling had not gone down from day1 and we are worried about it so we decided cleaning it off with water would kill two birds with one stone, help the swelling and get her used to baths. I had her walk over the hose twice and both times she ignored it like it wasn’t there so I rubbed her with it and she didn’t mind that either. I had my sister turn the hose on low pressure and I sprayed her foot then removed it. She was fine at first but quickly decided she did not like being sprayed. She walked around me and I kept the pressure on her till she stopped when I removed the pressure. We both started getting annoyed each other so I put down the hose and did some turn and face practice, something we already know, so we could end on a good note. Tomorrow we are going to try a different approach to hose intro.

Day3: training begins

On the morning of day 3 my sister, Hilary, sat outside the pen while I sat inside where she always paces to try and discourage the bad habit. I was reading a book on training called Bringing up Baby by John Lyons (highly recommended if your training a young horse or any horse at all, it has some great tips.) and had a ‘carrot stick’ of sorts. All it is was an old medium length whip that you have to have for driving in 4-H (my sister used to have a driving pony) with some bailing twine on the end; you can use it for desensitizing and using it as an extension of your arm while working with horses. If Reece began her pacing routine I would stand and wave the whip if I had to so she would go in a circle, instead of pacing back in forth, which would bring her around to her hay and she would stop to eat. It worked very well. After lunch, I went back into her paddock with her and closed the door to her stall to minimize her ways of ignoring me, just something to say ‘hay look at me’. Then I used the carrot stick to pick up her lead rope and get it into my hand. She looked at me but then began ignoring me once again so I ran the rope through my hands steadily applying pressure and if she looked at me I would slack the rope and take a step back. We continued this routine until she was turning and facing me with the tension. I began to reach out with the carrot stick, if she tensed up, before she moved from me I would bring the stick back a few inches and allow her to relax some, and then I would reach out again and brush her shoulder with the stick. Soon she was allowing me to scratch her with the stick on both sides and I could also reach out and scratch her shoulder with my hand some.
By the end of the day I could walk to her side, pick up the lead rope, look at her hind quarters and she would turn and face me. I could also scratch her under her belly, down all four legs and around her tail no problem. If only people knew that the places horses don’t like to be touched, they love to be scratched.
We also worked on haltering some. The halter she had on had some metal on it and was rubbing really bad so it took a few min. but I got a new rope halter on her that we made a while ago so it would not rub as bad, we also removed the drag rope because I can now touch her and there is no need for it (although since she is a wild mustang we decided that leaving the halter on at this point is a good idea in case of emergencies we will have some sort of control.)

finish paddock+let Reece back out

Due to our mishap with Reece attempting to jump the fence she was kept in her stall for about 24hrs. At first she was fine eating the hay and allowing me to go into her stall with her so I could get to the calf we are bottle feeding. There are only 2 ways to get to the calf’s stall, through Reece’s and through the outside paddock that was being remolded.  We figured it was good to be around her as much as possible so we went through the stall. Once we got some heavy machinery to dig some holes for posts into the paddock and she heard the noise she began pacing like a crazy animal. By the time we got everything set up it was late afternoon and she had a solid, 8ft tall plywood wall to greet her. to open her stall door we had a rope system set up, so I pulled it the door swung a foot then the string broke and the door was stuck a foot open. So my sister, Hilary, who had the best access to the door jumped in and opened it fully expecting to see a blur of bay filly mustang go shooting out. But that did not happen. Reece stopped pacing, looked out the door and walked out with her head down so she could nibble on some grass as she meandered through her new paddock. She took a sip of water from her trough then heard the next door horses again so she started pacing…again. Hilary and I sat outside of her pen and read books while watching her be a freak pacing back and forth, taking a bight of hay, a sip of water then starting again. It drove Hilary crazy since she hates pacing. Eventually she settled down and stopped pacing so she could eat her hay and that was all we did.

day1: home at last

I stood outside the makeshift pen of panels we had set up so I could get some good shots with the camera my dad had handed me a few min. earlier. We were about to let her out, the mustang I would train over the summer she was fairly calm now but still stomped as my brother jumped down from the side of the trailer, “she let me touch her!” he exclaimed excitedly. He positioned himself at the back door of the trailer ready to get out of the way if she flipped out.
“Austin, I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t terrorize my horse she is still wild you realize and I don’t want you messing with her too much” I said annoyed. She had not been very happy on the way home and I wanted her out as soon as possible so she didn’t get too spooked.
He shot me an annoyed glare then looked at my sister “you ready?”
She nodded, “ready as I’ll ever be”. She wedged herself further in between the barn and the trailer to block the filly’s only escape.
Austin swung the gate open and got out of the way as quick as he could hiding behind the solid trailer, “Is she out?” he asked trying to crane his neck around to see.
I laughed lightly and lifted the camera, “No but she is thinking about it”.
The filly stepped out then turned around and jumped back in. my dad let out a hardy laugh, “Maybe we should let her stay in there”. The filly turned and sniffed at the ground then hesitantly stepped out talking a few steps then turned to load up again.
“Well at least we know we don’t have to teach her how to load” my sister smiled and I giggled a little at that. My job just got easier.
The filly stepped out again, this time continuing into the pen and looking around. My brother, Austin, closed the trailer gate as my other brother, Zack, closed the gate to the pen.
“Good girl Reece” I whispered while snapping a picture.
Zack looked at me with curiosity in his eyes “What?”
I smiled ”Well me and Hilary were thinking Pnuma Freesia was a good name, Pnuma is Greek for wind and Freesia is a type of flower and since we couldn’t decide between the two we decided to name her both. Then when we were playing with the name trying to get a nickname for her somehow we came up with Reece, doesn’t it fit her in a way? She just looks like a Reece.”
He smirked, ”Weirdo”.
My sister stood up from where she had been leaning and sighed, “We better leave her alone and let her settle in”.
We all agreed and my brothers left as me and Hilary headed up to the house. Before we got in the door we heard some banging but when we looked we saw that my dad was still out working so we ignored it. The banging happened again and this time my dad yelled. Oh shoot I thought as I sprinted down to the barn to see Reece in between the Panels we had set up and the original pen’s chain link fence.
“Oh my gosh!” my sister gasped as she came around the corner, “Reece what have you done?”
Hilary and my dad went into the pen and began disconnecting panels from the one she had tried to jump and destroyed. As I stood in front of where Reece had pinned herself with my hand stretched out to keep her from escaping further. When there was room for her to get back into the pen we backed off and let her go back in.
 My dad herded her into the stall that was connected to the paddock and shut the door, “looks like we need an extreme makeover”

catch&load

On June 25^th 2011 me and my sister set out hauling our trailer for the 2hr and 3min trek to eastern Washington to pick up a wild mustang. Hilary had been tired and agitated at the setbacks of the morning as we were leaving 40 min later than expected. The ride there was quiet and there was few words spoken until we pulled up to the corral where the mustangs were running in a confused panic, shoving one another and tripping over 14ft drag ropes but somehow respecting one another’s space.
One mustang, a black bay filly, was cut from the herd, pacing back and forth finding a way to get around the two person block that kept her from the safety of her herd. She darted. The horse wrangler moved into her path to cut her off but she pushed past him ignoring his presence.  
After 15 min of struggling to get a hold of her rope the wrangler went for the other filly we were hauling home, he got a hold of her lead quickly but she put up quite a fight flipping herself on her back and rearing violently. Finally he got little chestnut into a shoot that lead straight to the trailer where she loaded easily.
Again he went for the bays lead got it then it got pulled out of his hand. He went for it again this time gripping it tight against his tan chaps and bracing against the bay filly’s pull. The struggles backwards with all four feet planted on the ground then with a great swing of her head pulled the rope out of his grip. The wrangler looked at his female assistant and they both began walking forward. The herd ran around the pen but the bay was easily cut off. They cornered her and she went into a small shoot made just for fighters like her. The girl slammed the small gate closed and the man reached threw the panel and grabbed the lead bringing it over the fence and allowing the girl to open the pen door. The filly shot through the door dragging the wrangler behind her. The wrangler finally gained his footing and pulled back on the filly. He allowed her to go forward as he fallowed behind her bracing against her pull and placing himself where there was no escape. The assistant opened the gate and the filly took off threw into the shoot to the trailer where the other filly was. She jumped in and the gate was slammed behind her.
The wrangler rubbed his back, “Wow, I like that on