Tuesday June 16

worked with my guy again, round pens really well, still nervous about touching. As soon as we have this behind us, we'll be able to progress. I think he is textbook as far as round pen, which is honing my skills as a trainer!

New Challenge

Well, we made it back home around 7:00 pm Saturday and put the horses into the pens. Sunday afternoon I took mine and let him go into the round pen. He is so beautiful to watch as he lopes. I'm still trying to think of a name for him. It will come, I'm sure of it! We all took our turns working with our horses in the round pen and taking pictures. Every day, I can hardly wait to get home and "play" with him!

EXCITEMENT!

I'm so excited, my family has been accepted to train mustangs for Ft. Worth competition this Sept.! My husband and I will train saddle horses and our two daughters will train yearlings! I'm also glad to know that there will be some familiar faces there again this year. Good luck to all, and may we all "showcase" the wonderful Mustang Horses!

UPDATE ON APACHE

Just a brief update on Apache......of course we have regular visits but no "work" involved. So the other day, because of Hurricane Ike and saltwater, it was time to rotate pastures and let the one they had been in "catch up". Well, all I had on me was a lead rope-no halters, but hey all the "gang" was up "talking" to me, so what better time than to make the switch....they all seemed to want to "be" with me! ha ha Well, we have 4 colts to go into that pasture and 2 are mustangs! 3 of them have had some "dealings with halter and leading". So I decided to start with my mustang Apache, I just put the lead rope around his neck (now he is not even 2 years old yet and hasn't been worked with since the competition in Sept of last year), he stood perfectly still and upon command, followed just like we had worked yesterday! Same with Sadie Mae the other mustang! I was so amazed at how much they both had remembered!! I can hardly wait now that the days are longer to get back to training him for all that he'll need to know! (and yes, the domestic horses followed as well into the other pasture!) So my real moral to this story is MUSTANGS ARE FANTASTIC HORSES!! AND VERY LOYAL!! Everyone should adopt at least ONE!!

WINTER

I know I haven't posted in a while, but things are pretty much at a standstill in the winter. No daylight to work in and weekends packed with things that have to be done! The usual plight everyone faces......Apache is blended in with the herd really well (and so is Sadie Mae). He enjoys when I pick clover for them all and he pushes right up to get "his" share. When the weather warms up, I'll pull him out to begin working on all the other things he needs, desensitizing to scary monsters, listening to my direction, and just general training. He probably won't be big enough to ride until next year, but we should have all the basics down by then! He is such a sweet horse and I know he'll make a great companion. I think I'd like to train him for children to ride him. I have so many mustangs, I hardly have time to ride the ones we can ride! I'll try to get some pictures to post in the next few days.

NOV 16 2008

Time has come to put Sadie and Apache in the pasture with all the other horses, 8 horses and 1 burro.....So Caitlyn and I put their halters on them and led them to the pasture. Once inside the gate, we took off their halters and let them go........what followed was the most beautiful sight I have seen in a long time! The two of them took off running with tails in air all around the pasture (about 15 acres) bolting here and bolting there! Of course, Red Cloud and his "brother" General Buck (we adopted those two as yearlings 3 1/2 years ago) decided the "babies" couldn't have all the fun, after all, they're still young too! So they took off jumping and bucking tails in the air....just too gorgeous for words! They had a grand time playing and exploring their new home. They settled in very quickly and began to graze with the others. Feeding time came and we fed the "big boys" first, then Horse and Bufford the burro at the gate (their usual spot), and now to call Sadie and Apache to their designated area, we put their trough next to the fence line near Horse and Bufford. (Let me explain about Horse, he and Bufford were abused and BLM asked us to rescue them, so they've been living with us since August of this year, trying to put weight on them, very, very sweet, both of them, if anyone is interested in adopting them let me know!)Well, we called Sadie and Apache so they came right away to their area and seems as though Red Cloud thought where he was supposed to eat was just a little too crowded and came over and joined Sadie and Apache! They welcomed him (never picked their heads up!) and they all ate peacefully!

LETS' GET UPDATED NOV 1ST

Well, like everyone else, life gets in the way of blogging! But we have since put Pardon in the round pen to keep him isolated and dependant on us for everything. He still snorts when approaced but loves to eat moss from the trees! My husband says it has some type of penicillin in it??? I don't know but he sure does love it and it has to be fresh moss, nothing that's been on the ground for too long! Almost seems to be a treat for him, go figure? We put the two "babies" up in a pen in the front of the house and brought in my 4 yr old mustang Chief Red Cloud and another colt, Duke, that I have raised since he was 2 months old (he's 23 months old now). Their job is to "buddy" up with the two, Apache and Sadie so we can turn them out into the pasture to join the rest of the herd. The first week and 1/2 Red Cloud didn't want to let them join him and Duke to eat. Then they would let them join but Sadie and Apache had to stay together on "their" end of the trough! Same way with the hay rack, the yearlings had to eat on "their" side! After about 10 days, they were allowed to "join-up" and now they eat side by side and all at the same time....too amazing to watch how all that works!