Tons of fun in Bowling Green!

Well the show went great last weekend up in Bowling Green, KY! One of the 4-H kids rode with me (MacKennzie) and did an awesome job as helper/co-pilot (lol)! We just took the one horse, Dually, and my 4.5 month old great dane puppy, Diesel. I actually got a lot of my classes on video from Sunday but I need to upload them to youtube still. We ended up the weekend with the high point Amateur title and put over 75 points on Dually. Wahoo! It was a new judge that made one pretty big error (he forgot to set the lap timer in the sorting, which bumped my team down a placing because he made us do a re-ride [which we lost] even though we had obviously beaten the other team since they got their fourth cow across the line right AT the buzzer, and ours was across about 10 seconds prior). Other than that he seemed to do a pretty good job and was overall fair. Here's how Diesel felt on the way home:

This weekend we have the 4-H horse judging event in Athens, GA. I've only got 4 kids participating but I think they will all do well. Tonight (Friday) they're all spending the night at the house, camping out in the living room so we can practice before the competition! We've got to leave at 5am tomorrow... wish us luck!

Heidi :)

Repeat... "I will update my blog more often, I will update..."

So I know I've gotten really bad about my scarce updates to this, but hey - a little is better than nothing at all right?! Things have been so hectic recently with horse show season gearing up into full swing, and the 4-H show being held last weekend on the 18th (the show was a HUGE success btw!).

Tomorrow I head out to Bowling Green, KY to show at an American Ranch Horse Association show. We'll be there through Monday morning... I learned my lesson at this show last year that it will probably run LATE on Sunday and I can't stand driving home tired so I went ahead and took Monday off of work so I can just stroll leisurely home.

Pony, my 6 month old great dane, got spayed last week and is bound and determined to make me pay as much as posisble for it, since she ripped her stitches out on Monday and had to go to the ER. I'm sure little brother Diesel had NOTHING to do with it (yeah right... lol)! I'm actually taking Diesel to the horse show with me this weekend, so Pony can have some brother-free time alone to just heal. The irony though is that Diesel goes in for the big snip, snip on Tuesday himself! Mom and I have started taking obedience classes with both of the pups on Tuesday nights and they have definitely been learning/progressing!

Rosie, my 3yo red roan mare, has been doing great under saddle recently as well. She's still for sale/trade if anyone is looking. Pretty cool little mare... I cantered her over some cross rails last night and she LOVED it! I think her future is going to be as a hunter pony!

Well that's all for now... wish us luck this weekend!

Heidi :)

OOPS! Time flies when you're having fun!

I can't believe it's been over month since I've updated this! Things have been going quite well at the farm. LOTS of horse shows and even more to come! I'll do a pretty brief catch-up and then hopefully resume my blogging as normal from this point forward.

Last weekend I took Itty Bitty (Skipping to the Bar) to a horse show in Bowdon, GA at Red Horse Stables. This is such a wonderful group of people! We had a blast and I think did quite well for our first three-phase. I've fallen in love with the cross country portion but to be quite honest I could care less about the dressage (we scored a 43% which I'm told is pretty good for my second try)! Here are a few pictures of the event, and some video!:

Dressage:


Stadium Jumping:



Rosie, the adorable little red roan mare that I posted a picture of in my post from last month, has been exceling at.... english! I think her forte is going to be as a hunter pony! I've even been riding her over some small crossrails and she seems to really enjoy it.

Ziggy, my 2yo, is well on his way to being ready for the World Show in June for the 2yo ranch riding class. We've been working on head carriage and not kicking up at the canter... when I rode him on Monday he actually only kicked up once the whole night!

All of the rest of the crew have been going along as usual... we've hopefully got a horse show this weekend with Zelda, Itty, and Blondie at Rolling Hills up in Alpharetta but I'm worried that we're going to get rained out. They've upped the percentage to 70% on Saturday! This would be two shows in a row to be cancelled if we get rain!

I'll end my short update with a couple pictures of the "puppies", who aren't looking so much like puppies any more!

Heidi :)

Ding dong, the Mustangs GONE!

I know I shouldn't be as gleeful as I am, but I am incredibly thankful to Bear John Hollow (www.bearjohnhollow.net) for taking in Merry! I hated to have to quit the competition, but I truly feel that this move will be the best thing in the world for the horse, as well as mine and my families sanity! Thank you as well to Mark Lyon (http://marklyonhorsetraining.com) who took time out his busy schedule to help me trouble shoot with him over the phone, as well as Michelle Stemerick ((http://www.ourextremedream.com/apps/blog/) for her kind email and offer of help.

After we got Merry settled in her stall on Saturday over in Steele, Alabama, my friend Debbie (who I also owe a huge THANK YOU to for letting me use her trailer to return Merry!) and I took our two broke horses, Playgirl and Joe, on a trail ride at Bear John Hollow. WOW was I impressed! The terrain was beautiful and we rode with the best family of regulars who offered to show us the sights! I wish I had brought my camera to show you the "Devil's Den", which had tons of natural rocks on a cliffside. There was also a bunch of old houses built in the woods from who knows how long ago! I'll definitely have to plan a return trip to this place when I can have more time to explore!

Sunday morning I woke up, hitched up the trailer, grabbed Mom, and went to go look at a prospect at the Double Lazy B in Locust Grove, GA (http://www.doublelazyb.webs.com). Those of you who know me know that I love a good resale project, so I thought with Merry gone and a stall opened up I wouldn't waste any time trying to find another one... one with a brain this time preferably!

Ended up bringing home a CUTE 3 year old red roan mare that I have named Rosie. She's already got a good foundation on her and is starting to work the flag. I can't wait to ride her tonight!

Well that's all for now. I'll leave you with one 2 year old picture of Rosie... more to follow as soon as I can get her shed out a bit!

Heidi :)

Wahoo!

I feel like a weight has been lifted ever since I made the decision to let Merry go on her merry way. Pending the paperwork, she is going to live in Steele, AL at Bear John Hollow. These folks have TONS of experience working with mustangs, and I have no doubt that they will be able to turn Merry into a respectible equine citizen in no time! The plan is for myself, my friend Debbie, Merry, and two of our broke saddle horses to drive to Bear John Hollow on Saturday morning. They also have miles of trails so we're just going to make a day of it and go on a nice trail ride while we're dropping Merry off! I'm really looking forward to it!

Last night the kids came over to ride, and I opted to just use my 2yo, Pepto Ziggy, to get him used to riding in a bunch as I usually just ride him by myself. My other motive to not riding one of the broker horses is that I am still SORE from this weekends horse show and so really didn't feel like jumping anything! Speaking of this weekend, I showed at Rolling Hills up in Alpharetta (www.rollinghillssc.org) and had a GREAT show! Blondie and I won the Low Jumpers and Itty and I won the Chris Elliott Medal Class! Zelda and I got a 2nd in equitation on the flat, but more importantly we survived our first show going over the scary jumps! I also want to give a shout out to my helpers, Madisson and MacKennzie Grimes... don't know what I would have done without them on Saturday!

Last night Zelda wasn't in the mood either apparently to ride... she did ok until I pulled out the triple bounce. She was NOT happy about it! Luckily when Zelda gets mad she just shuts down and doesn't want to move (I call it the mule gene) rather than takes off bucking or anything like that. The funny this is she went over it fine the first time! In the end we just backed the jump back down to just two jumps and will work our way back up next time. Madisson did a great job handling her through it though and keeping her temper and nerves in check! Jonathan rode Itty and MacKennzie rode Playgirl and both did a great job as well! And of course Ziggy was a prince! Last night was his first time in a running martingale, which he wasn't sure about at first but soon got used to after a few laps. I think I've pulled a thigh muscle also, so I was really glad I decided to take it easy last night! I'm definitely going to take at least today off from riding, maybe Thursday as well, to give everything a chance to mend before our trail ride on Saturday.

More later! And I know I still owe everyone the "destruction story" mentioned on Monday!

Heidi :)

Day 13 - 16 (Thursday through Sunday)

It is with a heavy heart that I am admitting defeat with Merry. I'm planning on calling the BLM to see return options this morning. Thank you to everyone who has been following our saga, and I will let you know how the return goes.

This weekend Merry did some things that just make me have to deem her dangerous to my family, friends, and fellow animals on the property. Pictures of her destruction will come soon... unfortunately I had the camera at a horse show with me on Saturday so you will only get to see the aftermath. That, combined with her sour attitude towards me and the other animals, make it just impossible to be able to get her where she needs to be with less than 54 days left.

I think if I had about a year with her she might turn around, but I honestly can't ever see her being a people or horse-friendly kind of horse. Her agression issues just seem to be too firmly rooted!

Will update more later...

Heidi

Day Twelve - Wednesday

I had another good day with Merry! When I got home I went out and cleaned 1/2 of the stalls, and then pulled her out during my "break". I tied the longeline onto the lead rope again and just worked on leading her up and down the aisleway again since it was so cold and windy outside. She's getting a lot better with watching my body language and stopping when I say whoa. The only thing that bothers me is that she just looks so hateful the entire time with those ears pinned back!

After a short session I put her back into her stall (she walked in no problem!) and then pulled Itty out for his first showmanship lesson. One of my 4-H kids is going to show him at the State Fair, and Itty has never done showmanship that I know of so I've decided to start working with him now so he'll be perfect by June! I was incredibly pleased with his progress in just one night. My aisleway is too narrow to practice pivots so I just focused on setting the back feet. The first few times he danced back and forth a lot, just not understanding what I wanted, but by the end he was getting it on pretty much the 3rd or 4th try! I then tried to clip him for my show this weekend but quickly realized that my clipper blades just weren't going to work.

Put Itty up and jumped in the car to go to CVS to buy another pair. I don't know if everyone knows this, but I've had great luck just getting the CVS cheap-o's and tossing them when the blades go dull. Much cheaper than horse clippers, and they're the exact same thing! Un-lucky for me though, they were out of the cheaper ones, so I had to pay $34.99 for a pair of Wahls. Nice clippers though that should last a good bit of time!

Went back outside, finished stalls, and pulled Merry out again. This time I worked on her letting me approach her from both sides and just petting her and praising her a lot when her ears were forward. I then pulled out my roughout training saddle and she stood still for the most part while I saddled her up! It did take a few trys to get the girth hooked, as she wanted to move off when I reached under her, but the actual cinching didn't bother her a bit. Her odd one habit she has is to pick her left foot up in the air and just hold it there... I really need to get a picture of that! I do have pictures of her standing here looking cute saddled, although I have to apologize for the photo quality!

After I unsaddled I went to put Merry back into her stall, which she was having no part of this time. She reared straight up one time and I really think would have flipped over if she hadn't hit one of the other horses stalls. This scared her though and I think she thought that I had somehow been the one to make her almost lose her balance. This moment was the first time she tried to pull out of my hands tonight, but lucky for me I had my trusty longeline on so she couldn't get away! I calmed her down by talking to her and then she decided to just walk in her stall again like she did earlier.

I think there is hope for her, but progress is definitely slow!

Heidi :)

Day Eleven - Tuesday

WAHOO!!!! Progress was made today! I called my mom on the way home from work and she said that Merry let her lead her to the roundpen and back today with only one snafu of getting away from her. So I was determined that when I got home after my dentist appointment that I was going to improve on that even more.

Came home, changed clothes, and headed out to the barn. After cleaning stalls I went ahead and fed everyone, including Merry who seems to have now decided that eating sweet feed is a GOOD thing for the most part. Came inside and ate dinner myself, then went back out to have a session with Merry.

One of the biggest challenges I've had with her as I mentioned yesterday was her getting away from me. And when I first start working with her she won't let me near her head to clip a separate line on her aside from the drag rope. So it finally dawned on me.... just tie the longeline to the end of the drag rope! SOOOOO simple - yet so effective! Merry is now learning that she can't get away from the pressure, even if she slings to the side!

I really wanted to try to put a rope halter on her today too, but could never get it hooked onto her. I got as far as slipping it over her nose before she would snort and back away. Going to keep working on that tomorrow as it will be good practice for bridling!

It was so windy last night that I decided to stay in the barn instead of head to the roundpen. Merry and I worked on leading up and down the aisle, and for the most part I was thrilled! There was only a few moments where she tried to bite me, and she never did offer to kick! Progress is good! She's getting better about me being by her shoulder when she's walking.

The big news of the night though, and I wish that I had gotten pictures but it was too COLD to go back in the house to get the camera, is that she let me saddle her up for the first time! Like a big girl, she was wearing my barrel saddle and a big Diamond Wool fleece pad! Outside of some pawing, she was a very good girl for it all too.

All in all, this was a great night! I'm definitely feeling better about her... maybe there's hope for my little mustang yet! Go Amerrycana!!

Heidi :)

Day Ten - Monday

Today was the first day I officially had to go back to work instead of staying home with Merry. I admit too that I was not too enthused to go back to working with her when I got home too! My mom did tell me that she spent a little bit of time with her during the day, which I very much appreciate! She said she set a barrel up in the roundpen with her and just sat with her for a while. Merry also apparently was much more agreeable to coming into the barn, and mom was able to move her back and forth on her own!

When I got home I grabbed mom and went to the tack store for some last minute items for my show this weekend. I'll be leaving on Friday afternoon and be back Saturday night. Sunday is going to be declared "Merry day" and I'm planning to just work with her all day if I have to.

After getting back, I went out to visit with Merry, clean stalls, and feed. Working with Merry in the roundpen is kind of like pulling teeth. She HATES it when you walk next to her shoulders and pins her ears and makes all kinds of faces. Occasionally she'll try to snake her head around and act like she's going to bite.

Her worst habit though is that she's learned that if she pulls away to the outside really hard that I can't hold onto her and will drop her drag rope. I'm not quite sure how to fix this! If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to share. I think she definitely knows that she is stronger than me. She's also in RAGING HEAT which does not help!

I fed another one of my horses outside of her pen today, and thus our accomplishment was that I was actually able to get her to eat a little bit of sweet feed! She kept looking at Playgirl eating and then sniffing her bowl, finally getting brave enough to take a few bites. I'm dying to get these supplements that I bought into her to help with her awful coat and hair, but I can't get them into her if she won't eat! She of course still loves her hay, but powder and hay just doesn't go well together!

It really didn't take much to get Merry back into her stall, and I even halfway led her in. It really consisted of her dragging out behind me and following me in, but I was thrilled that it only took two tries!

I started reading some of the other Gatorland blogs today and now I'm determined to get a saddle on her by this weekend. Tonight I have a dentists apointment so won't be home until later, but her pen is lighted so I know I just need to suck it up and cut out on a few hours of sleep, although that's easier said than done!

Heidi

Day Nine (Sunday)

Sunday morning was spent travling back home from Augusta. I got to my friend Debbie's house around 11:15 and then helped her hook up her trailer as she brought her two boys over to ride in the ring and also help with Merry.

Got home a little after noon and showed my parents all my pretty new stuff, ate a quick lunch of mac and cheese, and headed back out to the barn. Over the weekend my parents made the roundpen a little smaller (awesome!) so I could hopefully gain some ground back with Merry. It again was NOT a good day. She still didn't want me to touch her, and would just run around and around.

My working cowhorse trainer told me that he'll actually work some wild horses on horseback himself (aka out of harms way) so I decided to take his advice and give it a go. I saddled good old Itty Bitty, my 16.2hh bay gelding that is quiet as can be but doesn't take anything from anyone in the pasture. Entered with Itty and was just met with flying hooves, bared teeth, and pinned ears. Merry even kicked my foot one time! I eventually decided this just wasn't working, as Itty would not fend for himself with me on his back. I exited stage left, and went back to the drawing board.

The only other thing I could think of was to run her back into her stall (which went MUCH more pleasantly this time... got her inside in about 10 minutes!) and put a slightly longer drag rope on. Once accomplished I put her back out and left her be. This new rope was now long enough that I could grab it and still stay out of kicking distance.

Debbie and I went ahead and rode the other horses and left Merry to her own discoveries. I'm proud that I even got Debbie into an english saddle and over a few crossrails! Woohoo! Debbie went home after that and I went to cleaning stalls and bringing the other horses in for dinner.

Merry still won't eat any grain, so I got the idea to feed Blondie (my princess) directly in front of Merry out of a bucket. I think I got her interest up, and she was definitely watching me scrub and pet all over Blondie. Put Blondie up and said goodnight to everyone, and thought I would try one more time with Merry.

She let me brush her in the roundpen again! I was thrilled with the small victory. I was able to get my hands on the longer drag rope and led her around a bit and just brushed and scratched and walked away. Now lets hope tomorrow she remembers again and doesn't revert one more time!

Heidi :)

Day Seven & Eight (Friday and Saturday)

Nothing much to post on these two as I went out of town to the Augusta Futurity! Had a royal BLAST... especially with no killer mustangs to think about (lol). Spent lots of money and watched a lot of good horses. For those of you who don't know, I spent several years traveling every weekend to NCHA cutting shows. Rode an awesome gelding done of Handle Bar Doc named Red Hot Handle. Here's a few pictures of us!:

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My major purchase this weekend was an awesome pair of bright blue boots. They go quite well with my usual orange!

Heidi :)

Day Five - Rainy Wednesday

This day was all about one thing - regression. It didn't help that it rained all day today so I couldn't sit outside with my work computer as I didn't want it to get waterlogged. Merry would NOT go back into the barn when it started raining. All of the other horses were tucked in nice and dry and she refused to leave the round pen. I guess running wild in Nevada made her used to a little drizzle, but I still felt bad for her. She also did not want me to come near her in the pen today for some reason. Yesterday she was all about being brushed and loved on, and today I could barely get my hands on her for a few seconds/brush swipes before she would walk or trot away. She's also discovered that if she pulls away really quickly that the drag rope will go sliding through my hands, especially when it's caked in mud! I didn't push her too much at lunch today, and just decided to fix everything after I got off work at 4pm.

At 4:30 I went outside and was determined to at least catch up to yesterdays progress, but Merry had other ideas. I wish I could have gotten into her head to hear what she was thinking, but she just wasn't having any of anything to do with me. At 5pm I decided to try to wear her out a bit and longed her on a timer for 30 minutes. When I asked her to whoa, she definitely parked it, but as soon as I would try to catch her to rub or brush on her, she would move away. I then asked her to stop every five minutes (again, timed) for another thirty minutes, and she STILL wouldn't let me mess with her!

By this point I was completely frustrated so decided that I should put her back into her stall to be able to have her in closer quarters where I could catch and hold onto that drag rope. Again though, Merry had other ideas. Even with the gate wide open, she would NOT leave the round pen. I tried shooing her through the gate, shaking bags, hanging a tarp, having my mom hold the other end of a rope and pushing her through the gate... nothing would work. In frustration I finally walked away and was just sitting at the opening to the barn, talking on the phone. Maria and the girls said they would come over and help, even though it's an almost 30 minute drive! They are so sweet!

While I was waiting, I put a big pile of hay in the aisleway of the barn, and then proceeded to ignore Merry and clean stalls. About 10 minutes before Maria and the girls got there, Merry just up and decided to walk on in and eat some hay! My mom was still outside so she snuck behind her and closed the barn door so she couldn't regress into the round pen. Then came challenge number two... getting her into the stall. In the barn aisle, I was able to grab her drag rope and hang on, and even got her head and neck sticking inside the stall. But that was the extent of it. No pulling, pushing, or dragging was going to convince this mustang to go back into her house! Maria and the girls got there and we decided to improvise a new strategy.

Introduce Mr. Tarp. Now - don't feel bad for Merry. I had already determined earlier that this horse is scared of NOTHING. Including tarps. We used it as a wall and then just surrounded her until she ran right in! WAHOO! At this point it was about 8pm, and I was hungry and exhausted!

The frustrating thing is that as soon as Merry was in her stall, she let me walk right up to her and pet, brush, and love on her like usual. I really think she was just having a "mare day" and feeling stubborn. Now I just hope tomorrow is better!

Day Four - Tuesday

Today when I ran her outside I had my fingers, toes, and anything else I could think of crossed that last night wouldn't turn out to be just a fluke. I worked her in the round pen before approaching her to take the edge off, and to my amazement she stood quietly while I pet her in the larger area! YES! It seems like I have gotten through to her! I even busted out the brush today which it turns out she LOVES! She was very shy and hesitant when I approached her right side, but by the end of the day she
was standing quietly for that too! She even allowed me to cinch her up with the bareback riding pad! A monumental day! I no longer think that she is scared of me as she doesn't even flinch when I touch her!

The only bad thing that she did today is she has decided that she would rather live in the round pen than her stall. It took me about 20 minutes running up and down the aisle to get her back into the stall last night. She eventually did go in, and I petted and praised her and gave her fresh hay. Merry still wants nothing to do with grain!

And now for pictures galore!

Heidi :)

Day Three - Monday

Today would be a day of frustration and joy. Luckily my job approved that I could work from home this week, so I set up shop via a table directly outside of the round pen. I put a big pole of fresh hay directly in front of my desk, which Merry was definitely not about to touch at first. Since I didn't accomplish my goal yesterday, today I was determined that Merry was going to allow me to touch her! Inside the round pen, I worked her on and off all day. When we worked, I would only allow her to rest if I was standing in a close proximity. She had her drag rope on, so she would get the feeling of pressure whenever she happened to step on it. It was today that I discovered that Merry is one stubborn beast! She just would NOT let me in to her world!

At 5pm, the 4-H kids that I teach free riding lessons to two days a week came over to ride. I needed a break from this mare who just would not cave! We had our jumping lesson, the whole time which Merry was watching from her pen, following each of the horses. I know she had to be thinking, "why do they allow her to do that?" as the kids and I sailed over jump after jump in the lighted arena.

After the broke horses were cooled out and put away, and Merry back in her stall, the kids mother (Maria - who lent me the trailer to pick up the horse) said that they could stay while I tried to grab her rope in the stall and see if I could get close. At this point I was feeling very pessimistic, and with only 70 days to train this horse was starting to think that I had a dud who just could not be gentled! But to my amazement, when I got ahold of the rope, it was like a switch flicked to the on position, and she stood there quietly while I stroked her neck and shoulder! Utter SHOCK would best explain my reaction to this behavior! I quickly dropped the rope and left the stall, singing her praises. Maria gave me a BIG hug and a high five!

I then decided to push the envelope and re-enter to see if it was a fluke or if my horse would let me approach her again. Once again (and a third time after that), Merry stood quietly while I pet her! I was thrilled! We decided to end on a good note and call it a night. Maybe there is hope for this wild mustang after all?

Heidi :)

Day Two - Sunday

I approached day two with a zeal that only one who has no clue what to expect would. I just knew that Merry would break down and allow me into her pack today. It was a Sunday, so with no work, I dedicated to the whole day to my wild mustang. Unfortunately, Merry had other ideas! It seems like every time I could even get halfway close to her, she would pin her ears and try to bite at me. Luckily it was never anything overly agressive, but still she insisted on acting ugly towards me. My reaction to this was to just shush at her and make a few steps toward her which seemed to make her back off. I didn't want to do anything over the top which would make her frightened of me, but I also didn't want her thinking that biting was in any way shape or form the correct behavior.

Since yesterdays work in the round pen didn't bode very well, I decided to park it at the door of her stall with a book. Here I sat all day, with a pile of hay laying at my feet. By the end of the day, Merry would come over, grab a bite, and leave. While I never did get much more than a very fleeting touch on her this day, I feel like it was worthwhile as she discovered on her own terms that I was not going to to hurt her. I did somehow manage to hook a drag rope on her halter though, which she did not appreciate at first (aka she leaped so high I thought she would touch the very high ceilings - lol), but soon got used to it and discovered that it would not eat her.

Heidi :)