Gaining Trust

The last two days have been fairly successful.  Last night I was able to lunge the mustang filly each direction and get her toughed pretty much everywhere.  I worked myself close enough to her that I was able to hop up onto her wither area, and work my way to the point where I could lay on her back and eventually slide off her hind end and I accomplished this on each side.  Also, I gave her bit pressure until she yielded her hind quarters and also began to give to the bit and flex a bit.  I was pleased with the progress that we made.

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!

Some Snapshots of Sara

"Oh scratch a little more to the left."

Checkin' for thinner air.

The start into a slow spin.

No really, we were sidepassing.

Bridge work.

Another Serendipitious Moment

Collected Jog Trot

  At the Lope

Making New Friends

Learning to Spin to the Left

Now to the Right

I finally got my building finished so I can ride in it.  It took longer than expected but it has been nice on these wet, windy days. I wish I could have got it done earlier, but I'm extrememly glad I have it now. Now my life is a lot easier since weather doesn't dictate what I can and can't do.

Serendipity is starting to gain confidence and starting to do thing correctly. She stops well and has a really nice jog trot. Today we learned to side pass and open gates. Her transistions seem to be getting smoother. She is very trusting.  Today it was raining.  By the time I got "Sara" over to the tack shed to saddle her, it was pouring down rain. So I just led her inside the tack shed, took off her blanket and saddled her up with cats and objects blowing all around her.  She just took it in stride.

To The hills and Beyond!

Today I decided to experiment and take Serendipity to the BLM hills right behind my place.  We trailered for about five miles then started our ride.  For the first while she thought she was headed home in rapid fashion and so we decided that she needed to be one rein stopped a few times.  On our little excursion, we encountered deer, brush, weeds (piled up in a corner of a field), birds, another rider on horseback, my distracting cowdog who has a great way of making these colts dog-proof.   One thing that we had to get over is that when she lopes, if anything touched her hind quarters, she would kick out, so she needed me to touch her until she finally thought it wasn't a big deal.  We worked on a little reining and giving at the ribcage while we were on the ride.  Also I had two long scarfs hanging from my belt to give her the added distraction and not to mention the aussie stockwhip that she is getting used to. 
     On the way home, she travelled slow in a collected jog as we worked on her headset.  Several times we would stop and remember how to take a few steps in the backward motion.  Serendipity did pretty well for today.

new distractions

Today I trailered Serendipity a mile down the road to a sandy round pen where I rode with two other riders in the pen for a distraction.  It was great for her to see other horses with riders close by.  She is starting to give to the bit and get her head and neck into the correct position.  I asked her to back today and she if really starting to pick things up.  When I went to put her away, I decided to ride her in the round pen for a little while so that she could stay at the walk and remain calm.  As time progressed, I desensitized her from the saddle with a scarf and also she took to the stock whip pretty well.  At the end of the day, I lead her to the tack shed, where there was a stereo playing and the dogs running behind her.  This didn't seem to bother her a bit.  She is going to be a trusting horse.

Spring is on the way

well spring is on the way and the mud is starting to slowly disappear.   This means that the riding is going to get easier from here.  The first ride consisted of one muddy round pen and irrigation boots.  Serendipity is doing well and fairly easy to catch.  I have ridden her for the past week and had have had her giving to the bit and responding to some leg pressure.  She is taking to the one rein stops and doesn't seem to be bothered by too many objects.  I am finding out that she is a quick learner and should progress pretty fast until the competition.  She loads really well into the trailer and I was able to pick up her feet today.  Now that the weather conditions are cooperating, I should be posting regularly.  It has just been the wettest winter around here for quite some time.