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.