Welcome to the Wild Side...

More About Me...

About a year and a half ago is when I really took off with my riding, thanks to a 28 year old retired Polo horse named Bayou (R.I.P). He truly taught me to be confident and how to ask for what I wanted. After Bayou I joined a drill team in Comal County on my temperamental Appy mare, Classy... Although the drill team was not designed to teach us how to ride or give quality riding time it sure gave us quantity riding time. I learned so much about control and timing and I made a ton of friends. But Classy had a very bad accident with a T-post, which ripped out a good area of her chest muscle and skin. So, she was out of drill team. Yes, she survived that and I was back to riding her regular 3 months after the accident, but she wasn't ready for the drill. Sooo...we had a green broke 16.2 hand QH we were buying that had not been ridden in 4 yrs. I started him again so I could stay in drill. He did so awesome and with him being the biggest scaredy cat I've ever met, he really came through for me...But since I was riding him nearly every day and at drill practices he started getting in tip top shape. He was feeling so good in the practices that he didn't like going slow anymore and would resist by bronking with me. He never tried to throw me off, but it was sure scary. He was actually a barrel horse when he was started as a 3 year old, so I guess when he got back in shape he really liked the speed. So, since his behavior was disrupting the drill practices and performances my mom let get our, just turned, 3 year old and start him...Now talk about awesome. I have to say I started him myself. No one could believe he was 3 and just started. Literally, he had never had a saddle much less a person on him ever. He performed in 4 performances and if you know anything about drill teams the horses have to stay with the routine and he did...o he had a couple of blonde moments, but I would practice with him at home everyday and my mom would help with helping me teach him how to turn and stop.

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.

While on the drill team we learned about the EMM and the Mustang Heritage Foundation, and that they were doing a Yearling Edition for a youth class, so my mom asked if I wanted to do it and I jumped all over it! But she told me we would have to put the yearling up for adoption at the show. She told me that right up front so I would know that I couldn't keep whatever the lottery would give me. Well we picked up Mina and she was a pistol in the shoot before getting into the trailer. My mom and I looked at each other with huge question marks on our faces. But she actually walked right onto the trailer calm as could be...

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

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Dot & Jesse

Jesse, me & Dot
That's my poster behind us that I won 3rd place with!

Extreme Mustang Makeover Yearling Edition 2008

Wow, have I been busy or what??!! So Mina and I went to the EMM, what blast we had. Probably because we were going to keep Mina, my mom and I were able to relax and take in the whole event. Mina was such a champ. She wasn't even gonna go as she sprained a nerve in her right shoulder 3 weeks before the competition. She had to be stall bound the entire 3 weeks.

The day before we were to leave to go to the EMM we took her out, trailered her 30 minutes down the road and let her go in a round pen. She didn't limp once! So we knew she was going!!! The problem was I didn't get to practice her routine and basic skills, so she was a little rusty at loading and staying focused. During the competition she saw that big arena and really wanted to run and play, but I had to keep her controlled so she wouldn't over do it.
I was so proud of her, she scored 119 out of 120 on the body condition portion. That was higher than the winner of the competition, who scored a 118. She paraded around the grounds without a flinch or scared bone in her body! People were literally turning heads at her as she would walk by. Needless to say she was feeling quite spunky and lost points in the actual class and she wouldn't load in the trailer. I was disappointed that she wouldn't but never the less proud she made it at all and showed everyone how controlled, even in her spunkiness, she was. Even when the crowd clapped at the end of her class, Mina just kept her cool and walked out of the arena like she'd been doing it all her life.

The head BLM Wrangler, Cary Frost, who is in charge of the Justin Arena where the adult horses were to compete, was so nice and encouraging the night before the competition. He saw that Mina didn't want to take those last two steps into the trailer and he tried to help me and when she started getting a little sore in her shoulder he stopped pushing her, saw that I was upset and gave me a big hug and really told me some encouraging words about what a great job I did with her.

I will never forget my experience there and the pride I felt showing her off and people wanting to know if she was available and I could say, no way-she's mine! I also won 3rd place in the poster contest and I won a cash drawing with one of the venders there. We helped one of my new friends I met there, Dot, she won 7th in the finals competition. I met other friends there like Jesse and shared the experience with other friends I already knew from the Comal County Sheriff's Posse Drill Team like Shane, Daniella, and Kirstin. I also experienced how ugly some people made the event. I really learned a lot about the plight of the mustangs and what organizations like the Mustang Heritage Foundation is doing to find a legitimate place for them.

Here are some pics from the event