Welcome to the Wild Side...

More About Me...

I started riding seriously at around 12, thanks to a 28 year old ex-polo horse named Bayou (R.I.P). He was my best friend and made me realize I actually had a talent with horses. I felt I was the only one who understood him and vise versa. He built my confidence to an all time high.
About a year after Bayou past we bought a 12 year old hot-tempered appy named Classy, who pretty much knew nothing. I was the first person to ride her in a long time; some might guess the reason was our personalities were quite alike. I should correct myself from before she did know some things but they needed to be refreshing, so I got her to a point where she was very manageable. After I turned 13 we were invited to a Drill Team called the Sheriffs Posse Drill Team by friends, and of course I brought Miss Classy along. Though we only stayed for a year it was a great chance to meet new horse people and experience new and different things. During my time with the Sheriffs Posse Classy had been injured. She had gotten herself aught on a t-post… nasty right? … Yea. It was horrible, but luckily she didn’t puncture a lung and the wound healed over time. I was still in the Drill Team so I thought it would be a perfect time to start riding our new 16.2 hand QH Ronny who hadn’t been ridden in over 4 years. So while my mom was at work and my stepdad still asleep I took him out and worked with him. It took a while because he was scared of literally everything but I got on this huge horse by myself and rode around our arena. I think back on it now and realize that was probably the stupidest thing I could’ve ever done, my mom thought so also, hehe. He was my new drill horse. But as luck would have it he was scared to death of flags and oh might I mention he bucked… bad; so I brought my 3 year old Bronson who I trained myself. He was neck rained, leg rained, and also taught all of the necessary things. So I figured he was perfect. Though I liked Drill Team my mom and I thought it best to quit, it was too expensive and wasn’t really for us.
While on the Drill Team we learned about the EMM, and that they were doing a Yearling Edition for a Youth class, so my mom asked if I wanted to do and I jumped all over it. But she said we’d have to give the mustang up for adoption after it was over it! I got accepted so we went and picked up my little girl Mina Caliente. She was a pistol coming out of the shoot but then she walked calmly into the trailer. I loved her instantly. When we got her home, for two weeks she wanted nothing to do with anyone stepping toward her or even thinking about touching her. But my mom said that because she always faces us when we come outside and when we are in the pen with her she is going to be super easy once we can get our hands on her. She was so right, we used feed and reverse thinking and once we got to touch past her withers she was mine! She was like butter in my hands. O yea, by the end of the 1st week my mom caved and said she's ours!!! Hee Hee
I don't claim to be a professional horse trainer by any means, but that is my goal and I have a life time to learn. Right now my mentors in all things horses are Kim Klossner , Parelli Natural Horsemanship and of course my Mom.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

This is Calee, the friend I mentioned before, She is going to be sharing the blog with me. Like me she loves horses and she just got her first mustang! So now she is also a mustang lover. She's only had her yearling for a week and already he's come up to her and now leads.

He is a sweety and will most definatley be a looker when he grows into his long legs. She isn't with him in this picture, this is actually Bronson my big quarter horse, but there will be pictures of Mac (her new mustang) soon.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

No Halter

Mina's chewing the rope...

Ok, so last september of 2008 I competed in the Mustang makeover with Mina. Well if you read at the bottom you know we had a hard time, with her getting hurt and not going in the trailer in the actual competition, but since that she has been doing so well. If anyone remembers her she was one of the older mustangs she was a little under the age of 2 when we competed so now she is 3 so I thought it would be a great time to start riding her. Nothing big but I did teach her the basics of turning, backing, walking, and stopping. We started her about a month ago and she is learning so quickly. So far I am the only one that has gotten on her and I am doing most of it on my own with the occasional help of my mom and friend Calee. I've gotten her into a trot once for about 10 seconds, she did great for a horse who has no idea what she's doing. I've been doing everything with her completely bareback. The first time I got on her I did have a saddle only because I wasn't sure how she'd react, she literally fell asleep. So my mom took some pics today and some videos. I even got a chance to get on her and direct her with nothing on her at all not even a halter!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Apollo's Reveille is His Name

Apollo is our new little mustang we adopted a year ago. He's about 3 years old now and still has a long way to go and grow. He is definately not Mina, but he is teaching me a lot about all of the different horsenalities. He is very smart and learns quickly but he is afraid of his own shadow. I can now let him out in the pasture and bring him back in, I can pet him on his face with feed in my hand and I can walk up about 4 feet away from his face without feed or anything without him running away. This training process is taking a while, and much longer than it did with Mina, but I am now realizing it is a matter of learning how he works and what he's comfortable with. I'm not proud to admit I did want to give up at first and even asked a fellow Mustang Trainer to take him and get him started. But I am so glad now she didn't because I am fully ready to take on this big challenge. He is coming along nice and slow but thats ok because each day I get closer to him. His is my new Mustang challenge for this year...