Cash the Mustang

Day 74--Jessica has been a bad, bad blogger!

2010-05-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Where did the last month go? All the sudden, a whole month has gone by and I haven't updated my blog. I know, I know--shame on me. Well, we have a little less than one month to go before the competition in June, so I'll try to keep you updated better between now and then. If you guys want to know more about the competition schedule and buying tickets for the exciting events, please visit www.extrememustangmakeover.com

Well, Cash and I have done a lot in the past month, that's for sure! We've done an all day cow working clinic, where we learned a bit about stopping and turning a cow. We've visited CSU during their Spring Fling horse show, on the english day--we were a bit out of place in a western saddle, but it was great to be in the CSU arena (where the comp. will be in June) with a bunch of other horses. We've been hitting the trails (alone so far) around the ranch here. And we've been on our first official "away" trail ride to Mount Margaret. We even have done a bit of english riding and have started playing over jumps.

Cash is really starting to mature in his riding. His right lead canter (previously a pain to get) now comes very easily. We "mostly" have a walk to canter transition, as long as he's awake and ready for it. We've got pretty smooth simple lead changes. And we've started doing our bridleless work. In fact, when I rode him on Sunday, I had the bridle on but completely dropped the reins and hardly touched them for the last half hour of our ride, which included canter circles, simple lead changes, stops from the canter, and backing up with no hands. It was pretty cool. I was so happy and proud at the and of that ride. He's really coming along.

We've found a bit that works great for him and fits well in his little mouth with his big tongue. Finding a bit that works certainly has been a challenge, but the PeeWee bit has won the prize. Theresa at Happy Horse suggested it, and Cash really likes it. It's gentle and comfortable for his mouth and really minimizes lip pressure. I'm sure you can google it to find out about it if you're interested.

He has been an absolute star out on the trails! We go out alone from the house here in Bonner Peak and he has no hesitation about leaving home alone. He's yet to spook at anything, although one bright shiny red car that passed us on the road did cause him to do a double-take. Maybe he saw his handsome reflection. He was amazing amazing amazing on our Mount Margaret trail ride. We rode for about 4 1/2 hours, wore saddlebags, crossed a river and lots of smaller water, opened and closed gates, and rode up a short section of steep rocky stuff. It was such a pleasant ride because he was nonplussed by everything. In fact, a little too nonplussed. Even going home back towards the trailer, he "had his mosey on." He was happy to be out trail riding, but not in a hurry to get anywhere. We had to do lots of trot to catch up with the other horses walking--and they were walking at a normal speed, certainly not power-walking.

I've liked Cash from the beginning, but I am really starting to fall for him now. It was that ride without reins and the big trail ride that really sealed the deal. He was like some 20yo deadbroke horse that had been trail riding his whole life. Hard to find that in a 4yo--especially one that was "wild" only two and a half months ago. So if anyone knows of someone who wants to adopt a mustang and donate him back to his trainer so that the trainer can use him to promote the American mustang, feel free to pass my info along! At one of the EMM events this year, that exact thing happened when the mom of some country singer star won a mustang for $25k and is having the trainer keep him so he can travel and promote the breed. But alas, I know no country singers nor their mothers...

Day 74 pictures

2010-05-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Where's Cash?

2010-04-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Bob and I were working on the telephone pole wall in the arena (we're 4 poles away from being completely finished!) when we heard the hay shed door in Cash's paddock close. We looked up to the paddock, and Cash was missing. His paddock gate was closed, so the only possibility was that he was in the hay shed. Sure enough, there he was, happy as a clam, eating away in this dark, narrow little hay storage area, completely closed in. The hay storage part of the shed is barely big enough for a horse to get in there, but he's a pretty small horse, so somehow he manages to get in there and turn around. I figure I must've left the latch undone, the wind blew the door open, Cash seized his opportunity, and then the wind blew the door shut again. He sure is a nut! A cute nut, but a nut nonetheless.

Day 45--a 6hour clinic and bareback beginnings

2010-04-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

Cash and I spent the bulk of last week working on getting our basics better and better--stopping soft and straight, leg yielding at the walk and trot, more energetic upward transitions, etc. And, of course, getting rid of his gate magnetism. Each ride he improves with that, but we really had to work on him not pushing his shoulder out towards the gate in the arena, and therefore drifting towards the gate whenever we do a circle or such. I think the equine motivational device (aka dressage whip) may come into play soon if he doesn't give up the gate drift. Seems like even if I make him work-work-work at the gate and then go rest elsewhere he still gets drawn towards it, so I think the E.M.D. may provide some extra incentive to not even give the gate drift thing a try.

We did an all day (6 hours with a lunch break in the middle) clinic on Saturday with Amy Lesatz, our cowhorse trainer. This wasn't a cow clinic, but we worked on stuff that will help us be better on the cattle. The clinic was in Longmont, so Cash got to see a new place--the outdoor arena in the morning and then the indoor arena when the drizzle turned to real rain in the afternoon. Cash was excellent until he got tired of cantering, especially to the right. He started out great to the left and then decided he was done and really, really wanted to come into the group of horses standing in the middle of the arena. So I let him go to the middle, but made him work-work-work in the middle until he made the decision on his own to leave the middle, then he got to rest. Near the horses in the middle = hard work, choosing to leave the horses in the middle that once seemed so appealing = rest. He eventually "got it" each time we worked on it, but boy did he ever make me work hard that day. But that made two things really clear to me--we need to get our right lead better, and I super-duper really need to make those areas of "draw" less appealing to Cash. After 6 hours of work that day, I think both Cash and I slept well that night.

Since we worked so hard Saturday, and since he had a chiropractic adjustment afterwards, we took it easy Sunday and Monday and started playing around bareback. I've never had an issue with a horse when they're being ridden bareback for the first time, and Cash was no exception. He definitely had to get used to the different feel, but he took it all in stride. By the end of our second bareback ride, he was steering completely off of my leg at the walk--even over our obstacles. You can see in the pictures that I'm riding around with my hands on my hips. The last few pictures are of us backing up and doing a turn on the haunches off of his neckrope only. We both still need to get comfortable trotting bareback together before I start steering him off of my leg bareback in the trot, but we're getting there...bareback and bridleless, here we come!

His back, however, is not exactly a wide and comfortable back to ride on. All I have to say is I may be investing in some padded bicycling shorts or something soon!

And we also played around with some more groundwork stuff--I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Day 45--almost halfway there on our 100 day journey!

Day 45 pictures

2010-04-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

Day 37--Cash's first show experience

2010-04-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Cash went to his very first horse show to hang out and soak in the atmosphere. We went to the Rocky Mountain Saddle Club show in Wellington, which was nice since it's so close to us. Cash did great when we first got there and settled at the trailer right away with his hay bag to munch from. He stood there nicely while we groomed and tacked and stayed quiet even though there were anxious horses all around whinnying and calling. He got to lose the socks and show off his locks again--I'm sure he was appreciative that he didn't have to be seen in pubic with those silly things on.

We got to meet another fellow Mustang Makeover mustang at the show, being trained by Levi. If you look at the pictures, he's the bay horse being ridden by the cowboy in the light tan chaps. His mustang ("Remington", I think?) seemed to do great in the busy show environment. It was interesting to see our two mustangs interact a bit--it almost seemed like they knew each other.

When I first got on Cash in the warm-up area, he did well while we walked around a bit. Then another horse came into the warm-up area and was cantering around us, and Cash felt like this little ball of yahoo! that wanted to get out, so I got off and we did some ground work to get his mind back in the right place. He didn't do anything naughty under saddle, but he was letting me know that he felt like it. After our groundwork, he was much more settled, and we were able to ride in the big arena while people were warming up for the gymkhana events.

When we first got into the big arena, Cash's gate magnet was working in overdrive--that's the built-in device that automatically draws him towards the gate in any arena. So we went to the gate and did countless itty-bitty trot circles at the gate. Trot trot trot at the gate, then to somewhere else in the arena to rest. Pretty soon, he realized that the gate meant work and away from the gate was a better place to be.

Once we got over that, we rode around and trotted and cantered in the group of about 25 horses that were in the arena with us. It was a crazy arena! Having horses gallop past us and such took a little getting used to, but by the end of our time, Cash felt VERY settled and calm and relaxed. He really felt great.

On Sunday, we were going to go to the team penning event at Spicer Arena in Eaton, but it was cancelled. So instead, we stayed home and learned to lay down. Yep, Cash is now laying down. Not exactly on command, but I did get him to lay down three times with only a little bit of fuss. We'll keep working on that till it becomes easier and more automatic for him. I'll get pictures of that soon!

By the way, in case you don't already know, you can click on the pictures posted on this blog to view a larger, more detailed picture--that might help you find us in some of the busy arena pictures from the show.

Day 37 Pictures

2010-04-12T10:34:00.001-07:00

Day 32

2010-04-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we have a few exciting updates for this past week. Cash got his teeth floated on Monday, and that went really well. I was unsure how Cash was going to be with needles/shots and with tools being shoved down his mouth and such, but he did great. He was sedated of course, but he did better than some ol' broke horses with the whole deal.

Since his teeth were floated, I've started riding him with a bit. The bit isn't exactly his favorite thing yet, but he's quickly getting used to it. Lots of chewing and getting his tongue under the bit and then back over, and lots of funny faces. I think he looks quite handsome in his bridle--makes him look all grown up.

We've been continuing with our desensitizing, as you can see from the pictures below. I've been trying to think of silly things to do, and a towel seemed like something fun to play with. You can see that he was more interested in chewing on his bit than he was about the big white thing covering his face.

We've started with our cowhorse lessons with Amy LeSatz in Eaton. We haven't worked a cow yet, but she's been teaching me the correct way to drive, stop, turn, and fade away from a cow. It's a lot of fun, and I think we'll get to work some cows next week. Cash did see a few cows through the fence, and he's VERY interested in them. Ears perked forward, all eyes on the cow.

Stay tuned for our next adventures--we'll be going to the RMSC show in Wellington on Saturday and then to the team penning event at Spicer Arena in Eaton on Sunday. Should be fun!

Day 32 Pictures

2010-04-08T21:48:00.001-07:00

Day 28--a trip to Ft Collins Equestrian

2010-04-08T21:35:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I had hoped to take Cash to a little hunter/jumper schooling show at Fort Collins Equestrian. Well, we were the second horse out of a total of two horses to show up that day. So, unfortunately, we didn't get to get the whole show experience, but Lisa (the owner of Ft Collins Equestrian) was nice enough to let us school in the indoor arena around all the jumps that were set up. So Cash and I had fun checking out the jumps, and we worked hard on some cantering. His cantering is definitely better and better all the time, but it's still a bit of work to keep him going. And he got to show off his gorgeous locks since I took his mane out of its' socks. I had forgotten how long and beautiful it is--it's been up in those socks so long now! Show or no show, it was nice to get out workout for the day in the indoor arena out of the wind!

Day 28 Trip Pictures

2010-04-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

Day 22--Cash takes a field trip

2010-03-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

This week was a study in typical Colorado weather--a blizzard on Tuesday, lot of mud through Friday, hurricane-like winds on Saturday, and a great ending of calm 60 degree sunshine on Sunday. So our riding was a little hit and miss this week, but we did take our first field trip to Elizabeth's indoor arena in Wellington on Tuesday, amidst the blizzard. Cash did great and stole Elizabeth's and Analia's hearts with his calm sweetness. We rode around a bit, checked out the mirrors, and spent some good time hanging out away from the miserable blowing snow.

Under saddle, Cash is starting to feel a lot more comfortable and confident. He's got a super smooth and slow western pleasure type jog when you let him go slow. And his canter is getting easier and easier. We've started doing some turn on the forehand and haunches. Stopping and turning is getting better and better, and he's starting to stop with a very soft neck.

And today I shot the .22 from his back. He did take one step forward, but it was because he wanted to go say hello to the people on the other side of the fence in front of him. Otherwise, he was a calm statue. And you can see (from the pictures below) that we've been playing around over the obstacles some more. He really has fun with those.

Cash is bowing pretty nicely now (that's the "secret" trick we started working on last week--I guess it doesn't have to be too secret). I still have to help him hold his foot up as he leans back and down to bow, but I think pretty soon he'll have it down from voice command.

I'll hopefully have Cash's teeth floated this upcoming week and then he'll learn to wear a bit. After having his feet finished by Blaine, he seems to be moving a lot more comfortably--before, he had a very clubby right hind foot. It looks better now, even after just one trim.

Weather's supposed to be great next week, so I look forward to lots of wet saddle pads. Pretty soon, we'll need to find some cows to go play around with. Part of the competition in June is a cowhorse phase, and I have a distinct lack of cow experience, so I'll be seeking out someone with cows and cow expertise to get me going.

Hard to believe he was untouched 22 days ago. I've probably said it enough, but Cash is such a sweet, calm horse--he's really something special.

Day 22 Pictures

2010-03-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Day Fifteen

2010-03-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

So, first of all, I have to say--I know, I know, his mane looks incredibly silly. You all have my complete permission to laugh. All the other horses around here already have been. But I want to protect Cash's oh-so-lovely long locks, and Bob graciously donated the use of some of his old dress socks. At least they match.

It was a beautiful day today, albeit a bit muddy from all the melting snow from our not-so-beautiful days last week. Cash and I are now riding completely outside the roundpen at all three gaits. Usually, the first canter on a colt outside of the roundpen is a bit of a yahoo moment, but not so with Cash. I was surprised by how easily he transitioned into the canter and how relatively relaxed he felt. See the last two pictures of the post below to see some canter shots from today. Cash has also started learning direct flexion /softening at the halt, and he feels pretty soft in your hand, so I'm excited to start doing some while moving. He's gonna be a heck of a pretty little thing when he moves when he's all "finished."

We didn't get any pictures of it today, but we're riding over the tarps and the plywood sheet now. Now I just need to build a bridge obstacle. And, as you can see below, we've progressed to the .22 black powder blanks with no problem. I'm not sure if I'm going to use guns in my freestyle (if we make it to the freestyle) but I'm sure someone else will, so I figure he should get used to it.

We started learning some tricks on our too-cold-and-snowy to ride Friday. For reasons of creative security, I can't reveal which tricks we're learning, but they're nothing too out of the ordinary. But still fun, of course.

Cash had his first hoof trim and it went pretty well. We got 3 1/2 feet trimmed with no problem. Then he decided that he didn't want to keep his right hind up for trimming and he kept wanting to move his hind end away. My trimmer, Blaine St. Peter (he's great!) opted to wait a few days and come back to finish that hoof. So we've since spent lots of time working on lifting and keeping that hoof up comfortably. We'll see if our work there has paid off tomorrow when Blaine comes back out.

Perhaps the coolest thing is that Cash now nickers to greet me whenever I walk up towards his paddock. He has a very endearing nicker--kind of sounds more like foal than a 4yo horse. He's very sweet.

Stay tuned for our next happenings--I hope to be able to trailer in somewhere this week. I think Cash is ready for a little adventure.

Day Fifteen Pictures

2010-03-21T22:09:00.000-07:00

Day Ten--trailers, guns, and tarps, oh my!

2010-03-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

Oh my, what a non-"event" they all were! So we have been doing lots of fun stuff the past few days. Yesterday, we loaded in the trailer, and it was so not a big deal. We just walked in, stood, walked out, and repeated. About ten times. No biggie. I figured that it wouldn't be a problem when he started to follow me into the little enclosed hay storage part of his shed last week. It's a pretty small space and he just marched right in there to eat some hay.

Yesterday we also did our first session with the cap gun. I pulled the trigger with the gun empty lots of times all around him. No reaction. So I put the caps in. Shot the cap gun off to his side, then closer, then directly above his head. I think he may have possibly put his head up an inch. Once. And that's it. What a quiet guy! So next we move on to the .22 with blanks.

We saw our first tarp today. I just put it on the ground and led him up to it to see what he thought. Well, he took a sniff pawed at it and pawed it right underneath him and onto his back legs. Then he stood there with this really proud look like he had just done something great. Very cute. After playing with it, biting it, pawing it, etc. we walked over it. He acted like he walks over tarps every day. So then he wore the tarp and carried it around a bit. Again, he acted like he has loud crunchy sounding things hanging off of his back every day. No biggie.

And we finally cantered today. I tried cantering him on my own yesterday, but I ended up basically just desensitizing him to my legs kicking. I didn't have the right reins to use to slap his hiney, and I didn't have my dressage whip. So he decided that tolerating my strongly kicking legs was not that bad and all we got was trot-trot-trot. So today I brought back my equine motivational device a.k.a. Stacy in the middle of the roundpen, and we cantered with no problem. I will definitely be carrying some sort of whacking device with me in the saddle next time we canter on our own--with calm comes a little lazy, I guess. DEFINITELY not complaining about that though--I'll take a little lazy any day!

We also rode out of the roundpen today. No problems, even with four dogs running around and about five different people doing all sorts of stuff in and around the arena. We had to work a bit on our steering, but we got it figured out and walked and trotted around the arena.

And we're now going for walks (leading walks) all over the place and down the road a bit. He's learned that going away from "home" means great things like a bit of grazing time and getting to sniff all sorts of cool stuff.

And perhaps my biggest victory today was finding something other than hay that he likes to eat. I hope to teach him some tricks, but that's hard to do if I don't have any treats to reward him with. I've tried sweet feed, senior feed, anise flavored horse cookies, apples, carrots, and some other cookies. No takers. He'd sniff them and then make a face. But today I tried some soaked alfalfa cubes and bingo! So from there, I can hopefully introduce some grain and hopefully introduce something I can use as a treat/reward.

Trailers, guns, tarps, cantering, riding outside the roundpen, leading all over the place, and learning about goodies. Pretty big couple of days. I will have more pictures posted hopefully on Saturday when my photographer for hire (aka my hubby) is back in town.

Yeehaw!

2010-03-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

Well, we had our first ride yesterday (Friday). This little horse is such a find--I never thought I'd be on my mustang within a week, but he was ready for it, so we did it! I had a helper in the roundpen to help get him moving if need be, but we really didn't need too much help with that. I was surprised at how not sticky his feet were. I figured with him being so calm that getting him to move out would be troublesome, but that wasn't the case. But thanks Stacy for being there and helping to get us going!

And thanks to Jen from Happy Horse Tack in Ft Collins. She's great. She came out in the morning to do a saddle fitting on Cash and we found that he needs a saddle with semi-quarter horse bars. So I'll be doing some looking for a saddle to use on him that fits better than my big full quarter horse saddle. Thankfully, we had Bridget's saddle around and that fit him quite well, so we did our first ride in Bridget's saddle. (by the way, Bridget--I borrowed your saddle--thanks!)

The pictures you see in the post below are of stuff that we've been working on in the last week. Longeing on a line, desensitizing, Jeffries method stuff, stirrup driving, and flexing. And of course, our first ride.

He did great for the ride--we walked and trotted and worked on flexing and one rein stops so that he has a foundation for understanding stopping and turning. It took him a little while to figure out his feet and his balance with a rider when flexing, but he got it--and thankfully got it without falling over! He moved out nicely and it didn't take any work at all to get him trotting. The stirrup driving from the ground really helps with that. We only had one minor yeehaw moment when Stacy said the wind blew his tail up his butt and he did a butt-tuck scooch thing. But he didn't panic or explode and got his composure right back. I wouldn't like my tail between my butt cheeks if I didn't put it there either.

Again, a special thanks to Jen for coming out and doing a saddle fitting for us. I have Jen out to check the saddle fit on every horse I train, as I've learned the hard way that saddle fit matters. A lot.

Well, whew! The first ride is done and out of the way. Now to put some miles under his feet...

pictures from our first ride

2010-03-12T23:27:00.000-08:00

Day Four--we have a name and a saddle

2010-03-09T23:36:00.000-08:00

We have a name! Cash. Everybody likes cash, everybody wants cash, cash is good pretty much everywhere, and Johnny Cash was a pretty talented guy who overcame a lot in his life. And it sounds pretty catchy--Cash. Hopefully, Cash will help me win some cash at the competition in June!

I would call Cash about 75% halter broke at this point. He still gets confused sometimes and needs pressure from behind to move forward with energy when being led, but is mostly great with leading. He still needs to learn to give better to halter pressure from directly in front of him, but he's getting it. He backs up really nicely in the halter and wants to be soft in his face, so I think he'll turn out to be a heck of a soft horse in the bridle.

So, today, on day four, we did a lot more desensitizing and continued with lots of "longeing for respect" and getting him to move his front end and hindquarters. He's getting pretty good at that. We also did some more loose roundpenning and he joined up great today--totally followed me around. That's such a cool feeling! When I first put him in the roundpen loose today, I walked out to take care of a few things, and within about five seconds he took a saddle pad that was on the fence into his mouth and started flipping it up and down. Not scared of it so much, I guess!

Our big accomplishment of the day was wearing the saddle. He did fantastic with it and didn't buck at all. Just did a bit of a butt-tucked-under trot and canter as the saddle strings flapped on his hiney. Also did some flexing and some Jeffries method laying on top of his back sort of stuff--we'll do a bit more of that tomorrow and maybe ride tomorrow or the next day. I can't wait.

He's such a quiet horse. If you go by the "whorl" theory, he's born to be a quiet horse since his whorl is about half way down his nose. In fact, it's the lowest whorl I think I've ever seen on a horse. More pictures coming soon--I will definitely have someone to take pictures of our first ride.

Sunday, March7, Day Two

2010-03-09T23:24:00.000-08:00

Well, we now have a roundpen--yay! Thanks Elizabeth for letting us borrow your roundpen! Today we did some more work on giving to halter pressure in preparation for leading him out of his pen and down to the roundpen. He did great with that and picked up on the idea very quickly. He is now completely approachable and you can pretty much pet him all over. He still shies away sometimes when you reach towards his eyes, but he doesn't leave you, he just moves his head. So we're doing lots of desensitizing with that.

We made it down to the roundpen without much fuss, although I will admit that I made a bit of a funnel effect with my truck blocking one potential escape route, my gator blocking another, and Bob behind us to give him some pressure from behind if need be. So we did some roundpenning and I'm pretty sure that he hasn't gone faster than a slow walk for the three years he's been in BLM holding facilities. He eventually got some energy in his feet, but he is hardly what I would call "flighy"! He didn't fully join up with me, but he did end facing up to me, so that's something. We did some desensitizing with the stick and with the plastic bag and we worked on leading in the bigger space of the roundpen. With how good he's been, I think the BLM may have mistakenly given me somebody's ol' broke kids pony. Okay, so he's not quite a kids pony yet, but boy is he quiet! All in all, a lot of progress for day two.

Pictures from Day One

2010-03-09T23:01:00.000-08:00

Saturday, March 6 2010, Day One

2010-03-09T22:26:00.000-08:00

Well, after getting in to Canyon City around 2am on Friday night and getting almost no sleep (who can sleep when you're picking up a new mustang the next morning), Bob and I successfully made it both in and out of the Canyon City prison and came home plus one mustang. And all I can say about this guy so far is wow! He's going to be a great horse. We will be competing in the June 2010 Extreme Mustang Makeover competition in June at CSU, and I have big plans for this little guy. He seems like just the horse for the job! He's incredibly calm, kind-eyed, and good-minded.

After getting home and letting him settle in, I decided to go ahead and work him with the bamboo pole. He did great with that and by the end of the day, he was accepting petting all over, accepting ropes on his body, and learning the basics of giving to halter pressure (a halter was put on him in the chute at the holding facility before he was loaded in our trailer). Not bad for day one!