The last two days have been some big days for Destiny. I took her up to the BLM ground behind my place and went for a trail ride. We saw all sorts of terrain as we rode along the canal bank. I must have travelled about 7 miles on her round trip. We encountered a coyote, tons of sagebrush rubbing up against her sides, and my neurotic dog, Banjo(who strums to a different beat-- mainly because he runs circles around any horse that I am working with). On the ride Banjo would disappear down in the canal and also behind small hills before popping out in a different location. (This feature desensitizes any horse!) I also worked on Destiny's consistency at the trot, lope, and walk with some collection mixed in.
Today, I decided to take Destiny to encounter more scary things. She always gets nervous around the tack shed because there is a radio playing so we did some small circles until she calmed down. After that we headed toward Hwy 201 where I thought I'd let traffic have a go at her. Several cars passed and some large noiser vehicles went by and I was actually impressed at the calmness as the cars passed by. I was imagining that we would be doing some phenomenal sidepassing but it was not the case. Then we headed down to the neighbors where there is several horses in corrals and this made her nervous but she calmed down after some small circles. When we arrived home my wife was feeding the horses with my two girls so I decided to take Destiny up to get a rub from all of them. People are Destiny's biggest hurtle that we are going to have to encounter, but we are working on it daily.

Stoppin'

Learning to sidepass

At a collected lope

Cruisin' along at a collected lope. Banjo, my dog, runs around the arena and round pen like that all day. He's fun because I can track on him and he thinks that is a pretty fun game.

Today just happened to be fairly windy around here and I took the opportunity to use this session as a desensitization one. I had several things hanging from the fence and Mother Nature did the rest of the work. The buoys hanging near the gate were mistaken for predators on occasion and a lot of objects in the arena were on the move also. It probably took her about forty minutes to settle down.

Also, I tied a buoy to a 35 foot rope and let it drag at a distance initially in the round pen and then gradually worked it up to the point where it was touching her hind feet. Once we mastered this, I brought it up to where I could bring the buoy up on the saddle and swing the rope around with the buoy attached. Eventually there was not an issue with any of that.

I also worked with picking up the right leads in the arena and Destiny was able to pick that up fairly well by the end of the session. Toward the end of the session, I brought her back into the round pen where we polished up on our sidepassing a little bit more. We will get there!!!

To end the day we worked on trailer loading again and then I let her hang out in the trailer for a few hours. I will have company for the weekend so maybe I can get someone convinced to video for the blog. Hopefully I can enjoy some nice days where the wind isn't howling. Or I might have to buy a kite and maybe just fly it.

Arena riding and nice stops

Today before the snow storms hit I rode Dynamites Destiny in the arena and made some great headway. She would shy from some things on the fence so I brought her in tight circles until the objects just were not a bother to her. Also I brought her up to a lope and she really calmed down and leveled off.
I have started her sidepassing and she is grasping the concept so we should have a good polish on it in March. Also, I asked her to stop with her hind quarter under her today and she really stopped well. For the first time really getting under herself, it was a neat feel.
I am going to try to have my junior high basketball team come out to the arena and make as much noise as they can until she thinks they are no longer frightening. Junior high boys should do the trick. After coaching them in the mornings they desensitize me a fair bit so Dynamites destiny will have a really eye opening experience.
Another great day and hopefully the sun comes out and warms up the rest of the week so we can enjoy some spring weather.

Finally an Update

I haven't blogged in awhile. It's basketball season and between coaching & playing, riding colts, being a dad & husband, it leaves little time to sit and reflect on the days.

I had the coolest thing happen with the mustang. My daughter's best friend's family came over the other night for dinner. Brian and I were outside finishing up chores and I hadn't put the mustang up for the night yet. We were discussing how mustangs in general have a lot more flight in them than any domestic horse and that it takes a lot more work for them to gain your trust. Two seconds later as I stepped into the pen, the mustang began nickering in a low friendly style nicker. (Similar to two horses coming back together.) As I approached her with the halter, she continued to nicker. It was a pretty awesome moment because she had finally put her guard down and made the first move toward me. It was ironic that it happened moments after we had just discussed the trust topic.

I think we finally have a name thanks to Diana Clark and my wife, Kelsey: "Dynamite's Destiny." Kelsey mentioned Dynamite because she's athletic and had a little fire when I first got her. And Destiny because Diana commented, "She wasn't first in line for your 2009 horse, but maybe it was just destiny for her -- to be lucky enough to have you as her trainer & to have the chance to go to a really great home in her future. Also, she just might be some lucky person's "destiny." It's a name full of promise." Thanks, Diana!

I've trailered her over a different arena to ride on occassion. She's done really well and nothing that I do on her back seems to phase her. I can move my legs all over and touch her anywhere. I've had ropes touch her front and back legs while she's in motion and I got no excitement out of her. She loads in trailers just fine. I've trimmed her bridle path to make her look like a lady. I can pick up all her feet easily. My biggest hurdle will be overcoming people.

She turns, stops, backs, flexes, moves off the leg pretty well. She's starting to ride pretty collected and calm. From here on out we'll be working on shoulder and hind-quarter control.

Now that the ground is thawing out I think spring might be here. I don't care what that groundhog has to say. Actually, they are calling for some snow this week so I'm crossing my fingers. With the ground thawed out hopefully we'll progress a lot faster since she'll have a better footing. The competition is coming up faster than I know but hopefully we'll be prepared.