Mustang Challenge 2012 Albany Oregon competition

So here we are signed up for another mustang competition.  The beauty of this one is that we have good weather for the next three months and I have been randomly paired up with a mustang filly from the warm springs unit south of Vale, OR.  My two girls that are 8 and 6 decided to pray for a good mustang and we all followed through with it.  Sometimes a person gets an answered prayer or as I have heard it "Even a Blind Squirrel gets an Acorn once in a while."  I guess you can say I got an answered prayer.  She is a 4 year old sorrel with a star strip, snip and no other white as it explains on the paperwork that is about 14.2 hands.  So far she has proved to work a lot off of her hind end and has shown some athletic ability in the round pen. 
     The key for me is to get my hands on the mustang and have them trust a person.  Most of the time, they are more frightened than anything and it is touch and go when a person first steps into the round pen, because their flight pattern has been a half mile or so and now it is shrunk  down to a 60 foot round pen and the trainer is literally the lion in the pen. 
     I picked her up from Hines, Oregon on March 31, 2012 and have had her a little over a week and have made some descent progress.  The first night, I just turned her out into the indoor round pen and let her settle.  Then the next day, I stepped into the round pen and asked for some control of her feet as long as she didn't move off too energetic.  What we managed to get accomplished was to get her to face up and change direction by turning to the center of the round pen.  She didn't want to come up and have a personal meet and greet,  so I decided it would be plenty for the day with her looking straight at me as I walked out of the pen. 
     The second day I was able to throw the rope over her back and wrap it a few times around her neck and taught her to give to pressure via the rope and was able to actually tough her nose at the end of the session.  It took a while and she kept backing up to get away from me.  Always cautious to watch the front feet at this point and stay at a 45 degree off the front shoulder, but since I had taught her to face up and let her rest, she wanted me directly in front of her.   I had to settle with a touch on the nose.
     Over the course of the last week I was able to get her to the point where I can walk up to her and catch her, throw lead rope over her back, rub her with a stick and string, eventually move up to get my hands on her neck and work my way back to touch her all over.  Also I can pick up all four feet, lunge both directions and yield her hind quarter.  She will walk over tarp, dog food sack, swimming pool noodles, and has had barrels and caution tape randomly throughout her pen that blows in the wind.  I guess you could say she is ready for her first yard sale of the season.  Also I have taught her to get used to a girth, and give to a halter and disengage her hindquarters.  I have loaded her once into a trailer and things seem to be going well.  The only snag is that she doesn't want anything to do with me putting a bit into her mouth until tonight where I used a unique technique to overcome that hurtle, because every time I would approach the corner of her mouth, she would push me away and face me and once she thought about using her front left to protest me just a little.  I couldn't let her win that little battle and tonight I am pleased to say the has had a snaffle bit in her mouth.
     We will be blogging the progress and allowing all to track as we do our best to make this little filly great!